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“I know what it’s like to share a room with my brother and my grandfather and not be able to get any homework done,” says Michael Duque, Middle School Dean of Curriculum and Instruction. “I can tell a student that I totally hear you and, ‘Tip: Do homework in the bathtub.’”
Duque’s parents and grandparents immigrated to the US from Cuba, receiving political asylum. Duque’s parents taught him English before Spanish out of concern he would be designated an English Language Learner. He learned Spanish in order to communicate with his grandparents, and taught his grandmother English on a small chalkboard she kept just for this purpose. “I wish I went to a school like American Dream, where my grandmother could pick me up and speak with everyone,” he says.
Duque excelled academically and earned a full scholarship to Florida State University, becoming the first person in his family to attend a traditional four-year college. He graduated with a double-major in English and Classics, was recruited by Teach For America and was placed in the Bronx.
“This was the first time I was doing something very challenging where there were 100 variables beyond my control,” recalls Duque. He stuck with it, found his identity as an educator and took on increasing responsibility at three schools over the next 11 years. As he learned more about his own teaching philosophy, he found himself searching for a certain balance between a disciplinarian and entirely unstructured approach. Four years ago, he was hired by The American Dream School.
“I think the co-teaching model we have in the Middle School is powerful. As a teacher, it’s extremely helpful to be able to take the work usually done by one person and have someone to thought-partner with,” says Duque. “Teachers here have the freedom to decide how to teach to certain standards. There’s no one lording over them saying, ‘That’s all good and well but you need to be on page 64 of the curriculum by tomorrow.’”
Duque remembers supporting American Dream's sixth grade teachers in creating a final project for a unit on Ancient Greece. They created a Greek god-version of the card game UNO, in which (for example) playing the card of Hades, the god of the dead, allows you to choose from the discard pile. “I think things like that just show how this idea of allowing time and having two adults in the room and the space to be as creative as you want creates these moments,” he says.
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