Leadership is one of the many great qualities that Coach Tes brings to her job. Over the past five years as a Playworks program coordinator, Tes has successfully run programming at two different schools in Boston, MA, as well as one school in Silicon Valley, CA. In addition, she has helped lead expansion efforts in Albuquerque, Detroit, and Newark. Tes has used the power of play to support the healthy development of thousands of children across the country and she truly believes in the power of play.
Tes is a fifth year Program Coordinator with Playworks and her peers look to her for new ideas, as well as best practices. As one first-year Playworks coach recently mentioned, “If I encounter a difficult behavior at recess and don’t know what to do, I call Tes. She always has a good plan that solves the issue and helps the students.” Tes’ leadership at the Trotter, a Boston Public School that was recently identified as a ‘turnaround school’, has significantly decreased bullying and reduced office referrals.
Her work on the Junior Coach program has also given her the opportunity to develop new leaders to follow in her footsteps. One Junior Coach from this year wrote that she wanted to be a Junior Coach because “where she lives, people swear and fight. So instead of being a follower and doing what they do, she doesn’t and she is a leader." Now this particular Junior Coach is using the same attention getters and signals to ensure her fellow peers are getting along on the playground.
On behalf of the entire Playworks organization, as well as the thousands of students you have helped, THANK YOU!
