Kaitlin Junod
Mastbaum 9th Grade Teacher
Ms. Kaitlin Junod is a 9th grade English teacher at Jules E. Mastbaum High School, a vocational technical school within the School District of Philadelphia and a member of the 9th Grade Success Network (9GSN). This is Ms. Junod’s first year as part of 9GSN, and she is already working closely with Mastbaum administration and other facilitators to take on a more active leadership role. By getting more involved with 9GSN, Ms. Junod feels she will have a greater opportunity to help her students get – and stay – on-track with the District’s 9th Grade On-Track (9GOT) strategy.
Even though she is newly part of Mastbaum’s 9GSN team, Ms. Junod shared that she feels well-supported – over the summer, she attended the SDP Summer Summit, jointly hosted by Philadelphia Academies, Inc., where educators and administrators across the District were able to discuss ways to get or keep their students on-track as they enter the 2024-2025 school year. Since the year has started, Ms. Junod also participates in regular Community of Practice meetings, where educators from various SDP schools within 9GSN meet to collaborate, troubleshoot student academic or behavioral challenges, and share 9GOT interventions that were successful for students who may be struggling. “The best resources are the other educators and professionals within the network,” Ms. Junod shared. “Attending events like Community of Practice meetings have been great spaces to hear about the effective systems other schools have implemented.”
As a result of these collaborative workgroup sessions, Ms. Junod is excited about the supportive programs Mastbaum will offer students this year. In the coming weeks, Mastbaum will kick off its academic mentoring program for students who need support in their core classes, as well as a new “catch-up café” – an event for students who may be struggling in their courses to rotate through various stations and receive additional support. A key priority for Mastbaum in the upcoming school year is improving the on-track rates for African-American male students – in an effort to provide tailored, intentional support, Mastbaum surveyed their male students and were able to use the data to create an effective student-staff mentoring program for these students.
When asked about one thing she’d like others to understand about 9GOT, Ms. Junod said it’s about more than grades on a report card. “The initiatives we plan and the things we discuss are about how to support a student as a whole person,” she said. “How can we help meet their social and emotional needs so that they feel safe and able to succeed in school? How can we make sure teachers feel supported and prepared to work with their students? How can we create teacher and student buy-in for these different initiatives? All of this and more is what goes into the work of 9GOT.”