Inside Education and Health Sciences

Children tend to follow what they see, and for UD student Ayyoub Muhammed growing up in the inner-city, he believed being a professional athlete was the path to success. It certainly wasn't going to be as a teacher, or so he thought.

Then he met Novea McIntosh, a UD assistant professor teaching an introduction to the teaching profession college credit course at Thurgood Marshall High School where Muhammed was a student.

"Had she not been in that class, then I probably would not be an education major and in the teacher role that I am right now," Muhammed said. "She was the most honest person. She supported whatever decisions we chose. She shared words of wisdom. She was respectful. She demanded us to learn something new. It was just who she was as a person, and everyone instantly clicked with her as a class."

According to Muhammed, the number of students with an interest in education went from a few to seven by the end of the class. At least three of those students are seniors in college studying education today, including Muhammed, a middle childhood education major in UD's Urban Teacher Academy.

The academy has given Muhammed additional opportunities to be inspired by other teaching models.

Kurt Russell, a history teacher at Oberlin (Ohio) High School named 2022 National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief State School Officers, spoke at an academy-sponsored event in February 2023. Muhammed was selected to introduce Russell to the room full of aspiring teachers from across the state.

"Being able to attend and introduce the national teacher of the year meant a lot to me," Muhammed said. "Taking in everything he said, I've already been practicing some of what he shared. That's telling me I'm doing something right and I'm on the right track. I'm ready to get home and prepare for tomorrow and see what differences I can make in one day."

Russell spoke of addressing barriers to success in the classroom by viewing his curriculum as stories of his students, which means acknowledging disparities in their lived experiences.

Nationally more than 50% of students in public school are students of color, while only 21% of teachers are people of color and 2% are Black men, so a teacher's cultural awareness is key to improve student outcomes.

"I don't believe anyone was born to be a teacher, you had a model," Russell said.

Muhammed's teaching models are still molding him, including his father, who was his high school teacher and host of McIntosh's course. At the time, Muhammed brushed off following his father's career path because he needed to find his own way to teaching. Now he's grateful for his father's enduring support and showed it by inviting him to the speaking event as his guest.

As Muhammed prepares for being a model for all of his students, he already is experiencing the weight of those responsibilities in his West Carrollton Middle School math class. When he hears his students' dreams and interests or they ask him why he wants to be a teacher, he responds from a place of empathy and understanding.

"I got letters from students that wrote to me, 'I really appreciate you, you're the best student teacher,' just because I give them words of encouragement, telling them they would be great at their personal dreams and I talk to them about it," Muhammed said. "Of course I throw out, 'you would be a great teacher in the future,' and they shut it down, but I still keep going. I try to put out another route for them to consider.

"And what better thing to do than mold a younger generation coming up."