K–8 Digital Literacy Teacher
Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy
J.F. Trey Smith may have graduated from Penn GSE more than 15 years ago, but that doesn’t mean he’s left the School. In fact, he may be more involved than ever. He is a teacher consultant with the Philadelphia Writing Project, a network for teacher-led professional development housed at Penn GSE, where he has led four grant-funded initiatives. He also teaches secondary science education methods to students in the School’s Independent School Teaching Residency program.
But his “day job” finds him working with much younger learners, teaching kindergarten through eighth graders in the multidisciplinary makerspace at Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy in Southwest Center City. As a digital literacy teacher, he uses the technology and tools in the makerspace to involve students in hands-on learning. Smith designed yearlong themes for each grade level to make sure they are developing not just competencies with digital tools but also science and social studies proficiencies. For their “Food Around the World” unit, his first graders make digital cookbooks and solar ovens. For “Plants and Pollinators,” his third graders make robotic models of bees and plants and use a 3D printer to prototype creative planters.
Smith’s innovative pedagogy has won him awards from the Computer Science Teachers Association of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Pennsylvania Society of Engineers, the National Liberty Museum, and even President Biden, who gave him the 2021 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. He’s a researcher, too, studying STEM curriculum and primary source usage in classrooms. That may sound like the work of a PhD, but Smith hasn’t finished his—he completed three years at Northwestern University—and isn’t sure that he will. He is happiest in the classroom and isn’t eager to give that up for the lecture hall.
“I’m trying to be a teacher-leader,” he said. “I think a lot of people think that to be a leader in education you’ve got to be a principal or a researcher or a professor. But I get the best of a lot of worlds by being an adjunct, staying in the classroom, managing grant projects, staying connected to Penn, and running professional development. . . . I can still work on a research project, but it’s based on my classroom and on the work that I do.”
Read the rest of the story on Penn GSE Magazine: Spring/Summer 2025 Issue.
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