November in Review: A Photo Blog!

        As stated in my previous blog post, A Season of Thanks, November has been very busy, and I will not be able to meet my goal of four blog posts this month.  However, this edition of my monthly photo blog will serve as two blogs in one: my "On the Road" travel update and my photo blog! 

       November has been a month of inspiring educators, errant doors on the road, exciting educational programs, engaging community leaders, and exceptional North Carolinians.

Inspiring Educators:

     As I travel the state, I continue to be impressed by the outstanding teaching that I see from the mountains to the sea.  I have been so blessed to be able to meet educators--retired, current, and future--who are passionate about teaching and working with students. 

      One of these groups of inspiring educators includes the 2013-2014 North Carolina Regional Teacher of the Year Team.  Meeting these phenomenal teachers and individuals has been one of the highlights of my year as North Carolina Teacher of the Year.  I am so honored to represent each one of them and their regions.  North Carolina is truly in good hands.  Here we are at the NC Awards:

Julian Wilson, Me, Carrie Morris, Pam Mills, Shannon Godfrey, Jill Francis, Thomas McGeachy
(not pictured: Christopher Petree and Jan Adams)

       In addition to speaking at school districts, I have also given some speeches at teacher organizations like Alpha Delta Kappa Teacher Sorority.  When I traveled to Madison, North Carolina, I spoke with an enthusiastic group at Rio Grande.  One of the educators, Frankie Case, is a true teaching rockstar.  Recently diagnosed with breast cancer, she is undergoing treatment.  She told me that after working in education for over fifty years as a teacher and now as a subsitute, as soon as she "beats cancer," she will be back in the classroom as a subsitute teacher.  Thank you, Frankie Case, and all the other inspirational life-long educators in North Carolina!

With Martha Webb, President of the Madison Chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa

The Madison Chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa (Frankie Case is standing up in the back right)

     As a teacher you often establish strong friendships with other teachers at your school.  These friendships serve an important professional function in establishing collaborative groups to meet the needs of students, but they also serve a personal function as your school community becomes a second family.  I have missed seeing my coworkers, students, and their parents this year, but November was a treat because I was able to spend a little time at Grimsley High School and I went on two trips with some of my coworkers.  I traveled to Savannah, Georgia to run the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon with one of my coworkers, and I later spent my birthday weekend in Boone with an awesome group of educators from Grimsley High School.  

With a Great English Teacher and Friend, Athena Mobley, in Savannah, Georgia

Celebrating Post Race Success!

A Chilly Morning in Boone, NC

     I also met inspiring educators across the state and the country when I attended a Common Core Conference in Chicago in November.  I loved learning more about the standards and spending time with educators who are passionate about content and teaching critical thinking skills to our students.

Waiting for the "L" to Get Deep Dish Pizza with Educators from NC and Colorado

Errant Doors on the Road and Other Travel Tales:

     I spent so much time on the road during the month of November, both in the state and out of the state, that I could tell many tales about kind, funny people and trips that had their struggles, but I'm going to limit myself to three tales of the road.

     My first tale is one of the reasons why I am so proud to live in a state where the people are so friendly.  While stopping in restaurants while I travel, I have had some truly hilarious conversations with North Carolinians.  The people I have met have gone out of their way to make me feel at home when I am miles away from my real home.  One of my favorite moments occurred outside of Clinton, NC at a Wendy's.  When I ordered a chicken salad without any chicken, the lady kindly gave me extra apples and pecans to make up for the fact that I was "a poor thing that didn't eat no meat."  She also chatted with me for a while and made me smile in a moment when I was feeling lonely.  I am so thankful for little moments like these as I travel.

     My next tale concerns the reason why I currently do not have a state car to drive.  While waiting at a stoplight to turn into a parking garage at Appalachian State University, my car was hit by an errant door that flew open on a construction vehicle as it approached my car in the oncoming traffic.  Luckily the door was only big enough to break my driver mirror and scratch the side of my car, but it was a slightly nerve-wracking experience right before giving a speech to college students!  Here is a picture of my mirror-less car and the scratch on the door:

My State Car

     My last tale of the road occurred in the Chicago Airport.  I had to leave Chicago on the same day that the tornadoes swept through the town.  After numerous delays and getting on a standby flight, I was able to fly out late Sunday night and arrive in Greensboro very early Monday morning.  While at the Chicago airport, I observed that people deal with stress in two ways: they laugh about it or they get mad.  Sometimes when things are out of your control, it is better just to laugh than to get angry.  I laughed away the hours at the airport with Kelly Hines, a great Guilford County elementary educator.  When we finally got in the air, I was able to see this beautiful sight as we said goodbye to Chicago:

Look Closely in the Center and You Can See Downtown Chicago!

Exciting Educational Programs and Engaging Community Leaders:

     There are some exciting partnerships occurring across our state right now between businesses, community organizations, and schools.  Early in the month, I followed up with the Douglas Byrd 3D-GREES girls in Fayetteville, NC.  They had just received their first 3D printer and were so excited to put their developing engineering skills into practice!

I love the joy on their faces!

     I also spoke to three different groups about establishing and maintaining these partnerships.  While in Wilmington at the first NC Foreign Trade Promotion Conference, I spoke about the importance of business partnerships with education.  While at the conference, I also had the opportunity to get a "sneak peek" of a new technology called URcast that will download online content to devices that students can take home even if they do not have Internet access in their homes.  There are some exciting opportunities for flipped classrooms and 1:1 initiatives with this technology!

A Tour of the Wilmington Port with the NC Foreign Trade Conference

     I later spoke with parents and community members at Grimsley High School on the State of Education in North Carolina.  I was so encouraged by the overwhelming support for education and teachers that I saw from the attendees at my speech.

     Finally, I spoke at the Guilford Education Alliance Moving Forward Summit.  The Education Alliance consists of business and community leaders who support education initiatives in our public schools.  My speech on Moving Forward with our educational practices and business partnerships was well-received and left me optimistic about the ways that we can all work together to make public education a priority in North Carolina.

Speaking at the Summit

Exceptional North Carolinians:

     One of the most exciting events in November was being invited to be recognized along with the Regional Teachers of the Year at the North Carolina Awards.  We were so honored to be recognized at the same event where North Carolina leaders in AIDS research, the arts movement, literature, linguistics, politics, and the NCAE were given the prestigious NC Award.  It was a great evening and a reminder of the impact a strong education had on each of the award recipients.

Governor McCrory on the Stage at the NC Awards

Miss North Carolina (whose platform is literacy)

With the Inspirational John Lucas, an Education Pioneer in NC

A Season of Thanks

               I am sorry for the delay in updating my blog, but November has been the busiest month in my North Carolina Teacher of the Year journey yet.  I have been on the road almost nonstop, averaging only one or two nights at my home per week, including the weekends.  I logged a little under 2000 miles on my state car this month, and I traveled to two different states.  I spoke to high school students, college students, college professors, business owners, community leaders, current teachers, retired teachers, politicians, and parents.  My state car was involved in a minor accident, and I went through the process of getting approval to get it repaired (it is still in the shop as I write this blog post).  To top it all off, I have been battling the common colds going around and have been sick for three out of four weeks during November!       

In spite of what has been incredibly hectic and stressful month, I have also had time while I traveled to reflect a great deal on what I am thankful for and what educators across this state have to be thankful for as it relates to being an educator.  I have seen, listened, and shared in many of the frustrations of the teachers in North Carolina over the past several months, but sometimes we need to take some time to stop and think about what makes education a truly rewarding career path.  Below are my thirty-one reasons to be thankful for being an educator, one reason for each day of November and one extra reason to remember all year.

1.       We work with students and help them find their own paths for their futures.

2.       We teach the content that we love.

3.       We work in a profession where we can always keep learning and keep improving.

4.       We see in others what they can be when they often do not see it.

5.       We are motivators.

6.       We are inspirational leaders.

7.       We give the gift of knowledge.

8.       We help others learn that knowledge is not enough; it is how you apply that knowledge that really matters.

9.       We are tour guides that show our students the world.

10.   We are role models.

11.   We are caregivers.

12.   We get to laugh—a lot—with our students, and that keeps us young.

13.   We get to share in the wonder of a snow day or a two-hour delay, and that also keeps us young.

14.   We work with parents to see their beloved children reach their potential.

15.   We see “light bulb” moments for our students when they “get” something for the first time.

16.   We know that we are the light switches that ignited that moment for our students.

17.   We have an impressive collection of pens, pencils, markers, crayons, paper, etc. that rivals any Office Depot!

18.   We work in a profession where we get to create every day.

19.   We embrace diversity and work with a microcosm of a much larger world.

20.   We collaborate with like-minded colleagues who also want to see students succeed.

21.   We are invaluable members of the community and the economy since we help develop the future leaders of our towns, cities, states, nation, and the world.

22.   We can see the world in terms of possibilities—possibilities for our students, for us, and for the future.

23.   Our workspaces are not limited to the four walls that surround us in our classrooms.  The whole world can become our classroom if we let it.

24.   We feel infinitely connected with the world as our students graduate and move to other states and countries.  Our impact is limitless.

25.   We have strong arm and back muscles from carrying materials home for planning and grading!

26.   We work in a profession that many of us would say is a calling instead of just a job.

27.   We know the different smiles that students have.  We also know that the best smile is the slowly spreading smile of a student who is developing confidence for one of the first times in his or her life.

28.   Sometimes we get the most sincere, touching notes of thanks from our students and/or their parents, and we know that the hard hours we work are worth it.

29.   Even though our eyeglasses prescriptions may get a little stronger every year, we still have eyes in the back of our heads!

30.   We have learned not to take ourselves too seriously, and we can laugh at and learn from our mistakes.

31.   Finally, WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE.  WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE.  WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

As we continue into the holiday season and our classes get busy with assessments, benchmarks, and final pushes to meet our unit planning before the first semester ends, take some time to think about why you are thankful that you are an educator.  Sure, there are many reasons I could list of why teaching is a difficult job or of why teacher morale is at an all-time low, but we hear about those reasons every day.  It is easy to complain and talk about what you are unhappy with, but without conversation about how to change those things, it only makes you more frustrated in the end. 

Take some time during this season of thanks to do what the name implies—be thankful.  And as the holiday season comes to a close, I encourage you to make all of the 2013-2014 school year be a season of thanks.  When we start to think about why we teach, then our reasons to make teaching become a more valued profession, both communally and financially, become a little stronger and a little more united.

 

Politics, Businesses, and Education, Oh My!

        When I was an active "drama geek" in high school, I had the opportunity to play the role of Dorothy in the Rockingham County Theater Guild production of The Wizard of Oz. This role was a dream come true for me since I grew up reading and rereading L. Frank Baum's books and watching and re-watching the classic movie. As Dorothy in those six performances, I was whisked nightly through the worlds she experiences in the story: her routine life, safely surrounded by loved ones in Kansas; the fear of the unknown as she is taken out of her comfort zone; and the wonder and anxiety she inevitably feels when she enters the Land of Oz and declares, "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!"

My ninth-grade self in The Wizard of Oz

       Dorothy's famous words and experiences echo the year I have had so far as North Carolina Teacher of the Year. I've left my comfort zone of Grimsley High School and entered the excitement and unknown of very different worlds--the worlds of politics and businesses--as an advocate with the best interests of North Carolina public education in mind. I believe we are at a critical moment right now, a moment that will decide if the future of education in North Carolina will return to being a national and global leader or if we will continue to fall behind. As I navigate the yellow brick road of advocacy, I cannot help but notice that in comparison to years past, we definitely are not in "Kansas" anymore.

Oh my!

      The first world I have entered, the political world, much like the glittering Emerald City, offers many opportunities for education if the leaders and citizens can remove the curtain that divides them and engage in valuable, two-way conversations about the needs of public education. I have been honored to serve on a couple of committees, including the Governor's Teacher Advisory Council, that are starting critical conversations between politicians and educators. I am optimistic about the potential these conversations have for impacting positive change, and I hope to see continued collaboration between political leaders and educators to meet the needs of our students and schools.

That's the back of my head on the left at the first Governor's Teacher Advisory Council, photo from WNNC

       Many other teachers have joined in this journey with me this year, and they are advocating at a grassroots level with their communities and local politicians. I was so pleased to see educators switch from talks about walking out of their classrooms on November 4 to encouraging community members to walk into schools and show their support of public education instead. I returned to my home, Grimsley High School, that day and greeted parents and community leaders as they brought notes, signs, and tokens of thanks for teachers in our school. Several high school students even got involved by writing thank you notes for their teachers.

A student writing a "thank you" note to a teacher at Grimsley High School on November 4, photo from GCS Schools

       When asked by a reporter if I thought the walk-in lacked the "punch" that the walk out would have had, I disagreed with him. I think that by staying in our schools, doing what we love—teaching—with those we care about the most—our students, we sent the exact message teachers want to communicate to the public and political leaders. We communicated that we love our students and want to place them at the forefront of our conversations. While there are valid concerns about areas like salary that directly impact teachers, these concerns are expressed so vocally because most teachers do not want to leave the profession they view as a calling, and they desperately want to see the profession become sustaining enough that they can teach the next generation while still providing for their families.

      The other world I have entered, the world of business, also resembles many of the exciting opportunities that Dorothy found in the Emerald City. I most recently spoke at the inaugural North Carolina Foreign Trade Promotion Conference about the importance of progress in conjunction with business partnerships. Businesses initially supported public schools to train up more productive, effective workers, and I believe we can partner with businesses in the same way today. If we can exchange resources and ideas in an import/export model, then we can help make sure our students are fully prepared not only for a global tomorrow, but also for a global today.

Touring the Wilmington Port with the North Carolina Foreign Trade Promotion Conference

      In order to make these worlds work together, it will take the combined brains, heart, and courage that led Oz to greatness in the beloved L. Frank Baum story. Education is the foundation for all successful societies, and we need to continue the dialogue across the curtain in order to see our education and future prospects grow. We need the brains, heart, and courage of all stakeholders--politicians, business leaders, community members, parents, educators, and students--to ensure that North Carolina remains the home we will all want to return to and the one about which we can unequivocally say, "There is no place like home."

Brains, Heart, and Courage must come together for educational success in NC