The Times They Are A-Changin'

“The Beginning of Speech” by Adonis

The child I was came to me

once,

a strange face

                He said nothing              We walked

each of us glancing at the other in silence, our steps

a strange river running in between

We were brought together by good manners

and these sheets now flying in the wind

then we split,

a forest written by earth

watered by the seasons’ change.

Child who once was, come forth—

What brings us together now,

and what do we have to say?

            Change seems to be resonating across public education classes in North Carolina right now.  Some schools districts just finished their first year with the new adopted Common Core Standards, and other school districts are just getting started with their first administration of Common Exams for students.  Amid hallways, teacher workrooms, online discussion forums, and different forms of media, change echoes loudly and at times can drown out many of the other voices, including the voices of our students. 

            There are two ways to approach change: to resist it, heels firmly dug into the ground and to refuse to give way, or to embrace it as an opportunity for personal and collective growth.  Sometimes it is extremely difficult to determine which response is the most appropriate.

At my school this week, we issued Common Exams for the first time.  We tried a new schedule to accommodate for Common Exams and EOCs separately, and during each of the three days of Common Exams, we kept modifying and changing the new schedule.  Teachers and students were frustrated, weary, and resistant to the changes that occurred in classrooms across our school.  Are Common Exams new?  Yes.  Are they challenging for students?  Yes.  Are they part of high-stakes testing for teachers and students?  Yes.  Are they perfect at this point?  No.  Do they serve a valuable purpose in the education of our students?  Yes.

You see, I believe that the new Common Core Standards and the Common Exams have the potential to be great assets in education.  They encourage students to develop their higher-order thinking skills and encourage reading and writing across the curriculum.  As an English teacher, I can’t help but to rejoice at any educational plan that promotes literacy!  At the same time, I understand that they create an incredibly terrifying moment of change: we are asking more of our students than ever before and are using these higher standards to determine if educators are effective.  We are asking students to jump from point A to point Z in a year without the scaffolding that is part of the Common Core.  That is initially a very scary prospect for all stakeholders in education: students, parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, and state officials.  But, change is often distressing.  We are creatures of habit.  Once we get used to the new exams and standards, we can see that they have outstanding potential.  Who doesn’t want to push students to think critically and to navigate an increasingly complex world?  Who doesn’t want consistency across classes in schools, the school districts, the regions, and the state?  Who doesn’t want to see students achieve more than they ever dreamed?  The answers to these questions are easy for all educators.  In time, the changes will no longer seem terrifying and will only become exciting opportunities. 

However, there are other changes creeping in to education that are tougher to handle.  New Senate budget proposals indicate much change that would only continue a lack of funding for our students and for the educators who work with them on a daily basis.  Eliminating class size caps in schools, reducing funding, eliminating teacher assistants, and stopping master’s degree pay increases will not improve education for our students.  If we talk about education reform, let’s make our reform be about providing more quality teachers, more quality resources, more quality technological access, and more quality opportunities for our students—all of our students in public schools.  Perhaps a major change that we need is in how we view the most important area of our funding: the future of our towns, our counties, our state, and our nation.  If we are going to look to businesses as a model for educational reform, then why not put our most precious goods, our students, and our most precious commodity, education, back at the forefront of our discussion of change?  Why not listen to the voices of our students as much as our own?

On a more personal note, I also face a moment of great change.  As this school year draws to a close, I grade my last essays until 2014 and start to pack up my classroom in preparation for my journey as North Carolina Teacher of the Year.  While part of me wants to dig down my heels in my amazing classroom (complete with a small stage that is a relic of when it was part of the media center when the current school building was first built in 1929!), I also look eagerly to the opportunities that I will have to advocate for education, to meet with prospective and current educators across the state, and to witness the outstanding teaching that occurs in classrooms in North Carolina daily.  As I start to accept the change that the next year will bring about for me personally, I also acknowledge that educators as a whole sometimes have to be willing to accept some elements of change that might initially frighten us in order to bring about more positive, impactful change for all.  I just hope that we can work together to bring about the right changes for our students and all our voices can unite with “what...we have to say.”

Reflections on the Honor of Teacher of the Year

The end of the school year has been incredibly busy, and I intend to write a new blog post soon.  Until then, I wanted to share my comments from Dr. Atkinson's biweekly message to teachers that was sent out a few days after I won North Carolina's Teacher of the Year.  The emotions and aspirations I expressed in this message are the same ones that I still feel a little over two weeks after receiving this honor.

            Overwhelmed.  One short word can positively summarize the past few days after being selected as the North Carolina Teacher of the Year for 2013-2014.  While other adjectives such as humbled, honored, and touched also describe my emotions, overwhelmed encompasses all of these feelings.  I am overwhelmed with the honor of being chosen to represent the outstanding educators in this state; overwhelmed by the love and support from my school and community; overwhelmed by the incredibly kind e-mail messages I’ve received in the past few days (seventy-eight the afternoon of the announcement!); overwhelmed with hugs, high fives, and fist bumps from students in my classes or in the hallway, some of whom I’ve never actually taught; overwhelmed with media interviews and opportunities to speak about education in North Carolina; and finally, overwhelmed with excitement for the upcoming year.

            Education has always been central to my life.  I have always loved being a student, and as an educator I believe that we never stop learning.  I have also always loved teaching: teaching my stuffed animals, trying to teach my older brother and my parents when I was just a preschooler, tutoring students when I was in high school and college, and, of course, teaching English to high school students at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, NC. 

That is why I am so excited about the upcoming year.  I know the value of an education, and I am also keenly aware of how influential all teachers are in developing the minds of children and guiding them along their educational journeys.  All too often I read articles in the paper or peruse online comments following articles about teachers that belittle, vilify, and underestimate the incredible positive impact that teachers have on students daily. 

As an ambassador for educators in North Carolina over the next year, I hope to provide a strong voice in support of the outstanding advancements in education that are going on all over our state in spite of teachers often having to do more with less in their classrooms. Teachers are constantly encouraging students to develop their higher order thinking skills that will serve them well beyond the walls of public education.  I want to share with others the innovative ways that educators in North Carolina are applying the Common Core curriculum and developing and using twenty-first century skills in their classes, in spite of limited resources in their classrooms.  I want to advocate for our teachers and students by helping put the importance of supporting education both dialogically and fiscally back at the forefront of conversations. 

When a reporter last Thursday asked me, “So are you the best teacher in the state of North Carolina?” I was briefly taken aback.  I do not believe that there is any one best educator in this state; instead, we are blessed to have many outstanding educators, each with his or her own set of skills.  It is only with a collaborative effort from kindergarten to graduation that we can reach out to all of our students.  As a collective whole, the educators in North Carolina are at their best, and I am so honored to be able to serve as an advocate and representative for all of you.

Teacher of the Year Acceptance Speech

I wanted to start my blog by posting my acceptance speech from May 2, 2013, the afternoon when I was named North Carolina Teacher of the Year for 2013-2014.   I was so incredibly honored and moved at that moment, that I remember very little about that day!

           Thank you so much to the Department of Public Instruction and the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation for your support of educators in North Carolina.

            I want to start by acknowledging how amazing all of the other regional teachers of the year are here.  I have been continually impressed in my interactions with them, and after each Teacher of the Year event this year, I’ve returned to my home school, Grimsley High School, feeling rejuvenated, empowered, and incredibly happy to have had the opportunity to get to know each of them, to hear what innovative activities they are doing in their classrooms, and to share in positive dialogue about ways to improve education for all students.  Whether they are getting their students to express themselves through dance, music, English language arts, science, history, ROTC, or a little bit of everything in elementary school, I have found my interactions with each of these outstanding educators to be truly inspirational.  I am genuinely looking forward to working with all of you in the upcoming year.  Thank you so much for all you do for your students.

            In thinking of whom I wanted to thank for this award, I found myself reflecting on my own journey in education, and the wavering path that led me to where I stand today.  I, like many of the other educators here, started out wanting to be a teacher.  I taught my stuffed animals, I tried to teach my older brother, and I even told my mother that “I was the teacher” as she tried to teach me sight words when I was three years old.  You see, my early desire to be a teacher came not only from my love of learning, but from the amazing role model and teacher who shaped my life, my mother.  My mom was a phenomenal Title I teacher and other teachers in our community knew that if anyone could teach a child how to read, it was my mother.  I want to thank her for her guidance, love and support, and for being a role model of excellent teaching throughout my life.

            You see, even though I initially wanted to be a teacher, I was also a fairly stubborn child, or "hard-headed" as my father called it, so when I got older, I swore that I would never be a teacher.  It was at that point that my father calmly patted me on the head, said, “Sure, whatever you say,” but he still insisted to me and everyone he knew that he was sure that I would still end up as a teacher.  I want to thank my father for always seeing my strengths and knowing that I would eventually find myself very happily in front of a classroom.

            Once I finally began my teaching career as a lateral entry teacher, I was immediately embraced and welcomed into my school, Grimsley High School.  I want to thank the whole staff there for their support of me from the moment I first arrived as a very green lateral entry teacher and all through this year as I have gone through the teacher of the year process.  My wonderful coworkers and administrators have sent me notes, bought me flowers and cake, and my incredibly supportive department has shown me so much love that I feel like this honor also reflects back on them just as much as it does me.  I am also indebted to the diverse and dynamic student body at Grimsley High School.  The love and support of students at my school has been truly inspirational and I can’t wait to see them all tomorrow!

           

            I also want to thank my amazing husband, who is a phenomenal Spanish educator at Grimsley High School.  I am so blessed to have a spouse who understands when a whole dinner conversation revolves around how I can get to that one student that is struggling in my class.  I love being able to share ideas with him and help each other grow in our educational practices.  I also want to thank his parents for coming here today and being so supportive of both of us!

            Finally, I want to thank Guilford County Schools and Region 5.  I am so honored and humbled to be selected as a representative of education in North Carolina, and I will do my best to serve my school, my county, my region, the other phenomenal educators assembled here today, and my state as I continue on this journey.  Thank you all so much; I am truly touched.  Thank you.