From attending Malden Public Schools to retiring this past year as an administrator in Malden, Judi Allen has come a long way in her impact on the Malden community. After graduating from Malden High School, Allen attended Salem State College and majored in Business. There, she also received her Masters in Education from the Salem State College in Guidance.
Allen was very excited to come back to Malden Public Schools as a teacher after graduating. She began teaching at the former Lincoln Jr. High School and then transferred to Malden High School soon after. She described how “many of [her] former teachers became [her] mentors and took on the daunting task of developing [her] teaching skills” as well as teach her “the importance of teaching the “whole child,” long before it was an educational trend.”
As her teaching career progressed, Allen had the opportunity to work with many student teachers and interns, one of which was Gregory Hurley, a current MHS history teacher. He was a student teacher at MHS about ten years ago, and worked closely with Allen. Even after their time as student teacher and teacher was up, Allen and Hurley stayed close throughout both of their careers.
As the director of social studies, Allen made important changes and impacting alterations to what is taught in History classes today. Hurley claims “everything you like about your social studies class, it is because of what Ms. Allen did.” These developments include Generation Citizen, National History Day, Model United Nations, and many more.
Through her ideas and planning, the students became better writers, speakers, and learners. Her passion for history is apparent, along with her goal to demonstrate the importance of studying history to students.
Allen has worked with other history teachers and supported a shift from “a teacher centered classroom to one that is driven by inquiry and students are at the center of their learning.” She outlines some of these changes such as “integrated project-based learning, and the continually use of technology to captivate and involve all students in their learning.”
Her influence on the education system in Massachusetts, however, is not limited to Malden Public Schools. As an administrator, she has “changed the way and importance of social studies teaching across the state and is way too modest to admit it, but she has” according to Hurley.
However, Hurley also emphasized how above all, she was as a teacher. She “still loves hearing and talking to students” and truly loves teaching. As for MHS, she will most miss the people. She speaks of how she has worked with students, teachers, and administrators alike and has developed many close friendships through these interactions.
She will also miss how “as soon as you step in the door at MHS there is a buzz of excitement about what you hope to accomplish for the day, week, or even the year”.”There was always a sense of “accomplishment, and very often exhaustion!” at the end of the day.
In terms of her work in the history department, she claims that they “have made some strides in achieving [their] goal, but [they] are not there yet” and passes “the touch and the challenge to the rest of the outstanding educators at MHS!” Allen also described how she will miss working with the MHS community -and the MHS community will surely miss working with her as well.
