May Your Holidays Be Bright!

The below blog post was originally included in the Superintendent's Bi-weekly Newsletter:
 

            With the holiday season at hand, bright lights illumine much of our state.  Whether the twinkling lights on a Christmas tree, the multicolored candles on a menorah or a kinara, the lights on a mosque or in a home for Malwid al-Nabi, or the bright traditions of other religions and cultures, our state and our world become a shimmering festival of colors and illumination from November to January.  The bright shining lights of our holiday season and the many different ways they are displayed are analogous to my experiences during the first half of the year as North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

Beautiful Lights in Edenton, NC

               When I last wrote a message for the Bi-Weekly Newsletter, I was struggling to define my role as North Carolina Teacher of the Year.  I now understand my role is to continue being a teacher among prospective teachers, current educators, community members, business leaders, and policy makers.  As I have worked with and/or traveled to a little over forty counties during the first half of the year, my perspective on what it means to be a teacher in our state has broadened and deepened to include traits as diverse as the people and the holiday lights they display.  I have been awed to see the different roles that teachers in North Carolina embrace, especially in a year when teacher morale is low.

Decorations at the Madison Inn Bed and Breakfast in Whiteville, NC

 I have seen data team meetings where all teachers were invested in examining benchmarks and improving student achievement.  I have seen teachers captivate a room full of students with their ability to tell stories.   I have seen teachers use one-to-one technology to enhance personalized learning for their students.  I have seen teachers lead pep rallies with enthusiasm.   I have seen teachers sing and dance with their students, and I have seen them cry with empathy for their students.  I have seen teachers coach other teachers and their students to success, and I have seen great innovations in classrooms to address ESL students, EC students, students who are economically disadvantaged, AG students, and every student in-between.   I have met future teachers in colleges of education who inspire me to keep growing and keep reflecting, and I have met experienced teachers who stand strong with years of experience as their foundation.   

               I have also witnessed teachers and educators take on an active role in their communities, sharing their voices with the public about what is best for our public schools and our 1.5 million students.  I am proud of the teacher leaders who are using their voices to educate others beyond the walls of their classrooms and who are advocating for public education in our state.   All that I have seen makes one thing clear: North Carolina teachers are flexible, enlightened, compassionate, passionate, and dedicated.  No one teacher is the exact same, and it is only because of our beautiful differences that we are able to reach out to all of our students. 

As the holiday season continues, I want to sincerely thank you for being a shining beacon in your communities and in North Carolina.   I wish everyone a bright holiday season and a bright second half of the school year.  I am honored to represent you and the education profession in North Carolina. 

At the Greensboro Holiday Parade with Ged O'Donnell, Guilford County Principal of the Year

 

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

October in Review: A Photo Blog!

October is a month of fall foliage, first quarter grades, Friday night lights, and Fright Night Fun!  I've been busy traveling the state, meeting with politicians and business leaders, visiting university education programs, and observing outstanding schools that are meeting the needs of their students.  Below are some highlights:

"Fall Foliage" and the Beautiful Sights of North Carolina:

A Short Stop in Edenton with My Mom (She Traveled
with Me as I visited Three Universities in Three Days)

A Visit to the Battleship while in Wilmington

The Beautiful Education Building at UNC-Wilmington

   

    A Snapshot of the Charming Small Town of Forest City while Stopped in Traffic

 "First Quarter Grades"and Education Programs:

Jo Ann Norris at the EPFP (Education Policy Fellowship Program) Graduation

Academic Incentive Program at Chase High School, Rutherford County 

Character Education at Cherokee Central Schools

AdvancED Accreditation
Conference

A Panel on Education at the Public Schools Forum

With an Outstanding Team at Elizabeth City State University
to Share the Benefits of Study Abroad

Talking with Teacher Cadets at ECU
and UNCW

"Friday Night Lights" and "Fright Night Fun":

The Beautiful Turf Football Field
at Cherokee Central High School

"Dem Bones" Display at Cherokee Central Schools
(First Graders Illustrated Their Skeletal Systems with Q-Tips)

New Friends, New Faces, and Great Educators:

Jill Francis, Region 8 Teacher of the Year, Chase High School

Yona Wade and Deb Forrest at Cherokee Central Schools

As the World Gets Smaller, Our Education Must Get Bigger

Global education.  It seems like everyone is tossing around this phrase today.  You see it in the media, you hear it among educators, and it is a common topic among business leaders who want to see the workforce in America grow and develop to compete internationally.  On many levels, it seems like a no brainer.  We want to educate our students and we want them to compete globally, but a true global education is much, much more than this.         

While speaking with university students over the past couple of weeks, I have focused primarily on the importance of global education for our students.  I shared the benefits of my study abroad experience at the University of Glasgow with students at Elizabeth City State University.  I shared the three P’s that a successful study abroad experience, like mine in Glasgow, should have: new people, cultural places, and a passion for learning.  I also gave speeches on global education at East Carolina University and Western Carolina University.  While on their campuses, I focused on my personal view of a global education as one that not only teaches students more about other cultures, but also includes important twenty-first century skills that promote collaboration and communication across divergent backgrounds, creativity in problem solving, and effectively integrates technology as a means to learn more and not just an intended outcome.  I’ve also had the opportunity to witness some creative technology and collaboration at Chase High School in Rutherford County with their one to one initiative.

Seeing college students who are excited about global education and high school students who are working on developing their global education skills makes me optimistic about the future of education in North Carolina and in the United States.  Yet, evidence shows us that we will still have a long way to go before we are fully preparing our students for a well-rounded global education.  If you look at the most recent reports from the World Savvy Global Competence Survey below, it is clear that many United States citizens ages 18-24 could not correctly identify important information that not only shows an understanding of the world, but also shows a basic understanding of some of the major issues the United States faces today.  Upon first glance, some of these questions may seem challenging, but in reality, if our students are well prepared, they should know the answers.  For instance, shouldn’t US students know the elected leader of our biggest ally, the United Kingdom, and who our biggest trading partner is?  If we want students to be prepared to work in an increasingly global world, shouldn’t they at least know, even if they cannot speak it, that Mandarin Chinese is the most commonly spoken language?  Furthermore, shouldn’t we know where the countries that house many of our troops are located on a map, especially the location of Afghanistan, the only country where 63,000 soldiers are still deployed in a combat zone?

When these same students were polled, they overwhelmingly, 80% of them, believe that the world is becoming more global in nature, yet only 12% of them felt prepared by their education to understand global issues.  Sixty percent of them, more than half, believe that they would be better prepared for the world if they understood global issues better.  Students who discuss world events in their classes are more likely to vote, to volunteer, and to seek information about world events.  I would like to see this impact even higher.  Think about the number of people who vote and do not have a strong understanding of the world and how our actions impact the bigger picture.  You cannot solve the world’s problems if you do not understand the world’s problems.  You cannot help make the world and our country a safer, better, and more sustaining place if you do not understand what needs to change in the world—both outside your front door and across the boundaries that exist between countries.  

 

 

All of this means that we are no longer preparing for a global tomorrow, we are in a global today.  We have to teach our students how to interact compassionately and sympathetically with others, we have to teach them how to collaborate, and we have to teach them how to work toward a common goal to address the major problems that they will face.  As our world becomes smaller, we must make our education focus much bigger.  To do this, we must make our lessons relevant to our students.  Some tangible ways to do this is to have our students write patents, hypothesize, test, and publish findings by speaking to political leaders and addressing businesses.  Many STEM schools are doing just this by focusing their curriculum around the Fourteen World Challenges established by the National Academy of Engineering (see my post on STEM education here).  Students engage in lessons that strive to offer solutions to the major challenges our world faces, including clean water shortages and food sustainability, the energy crisis, urbanization, healthcare, personalized learning, and security issues with cyberspace.  The opportunities for instruction and problem solving are limitless, and by focusing on real issues, students are invested in making the world a better place. 

These opportunities also exist beyond just math and science classes.  We can integrate these same problem solving ideas in our liberal arts classes as well.  We can have students read more international literature and informational documents like the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.  Students can examine issues in other countries and view speeches given by inspiring survivors of tragedy like Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier in Sierra Leone, or Malala, the young girl who stood up to the Taliban in order to protect the educational rights of all, especially women.  We can give students opportunities to debate major world topics (in English or in their second language), to create advertisements and multimedia projects, to write letters to the editor, to blog about world issues, to create podcasts, to design animation, to film videos, and to find ways to engage in global conversation, even with students in another country.  With the advancement of technology, Google Hangout and Skype, opportunities like these are rapidly becoming more available, and we need to take advantage of these opportunities in order to educate the next generation of thinkers and workers, but more importantly, innovators and problem solvers.

Educators, communities, and business leaders must lead the charge as we shift our pedagogy to a more global focus.  We need to keep moving forward, keep progressing, and keep seeking new answers to problems that face our world.  With shared cultural experiences, knowledge of technological innovations, and a desire to help students grow, we can ensure that global education in the United States stops being called “global education” and simply becomes what we expect education to look like, period. 

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

              As I sit in a room away from home for the fifth night in eight days, my mind wanders and starts to reflect on the year so far.  Outside my window on the campus of Western Carolina University, the wind alternates between gently tossing the yellowing leaves on an oak tree and fiercely shaking them.  This is the height of leaf-gazing season, and there are many different colors and different shapes of leaves outside my window.  As they sway back and forth and I await an upcoming phone conference, I cannot help but think of my travels.  Back in August, I examined the strange nature of my new position as North Carolina Teacher of the Year in the blog post Afortunada.  Now that a couple of months have passed, I have experienced a range of emotions in my new position.  Like the changing leaves that are moved by the wind before me, my year has seemed like a state of constant movement and constant changes.  

Some Beautiful Leaves in the NC Mountains

                The past two months have been a whirlwind (like the Whirlies, my school’s mascot!).  I have been busy speaking at universities and school districts, writing my National Teacher of the Year portfolio, chronicling my year on social media sites, and establishing working relationships with businesses and political leaders. 

Teaching Fellows at Western Carolina University

I find myself alternating between exhaustion and excitement as I travel the state and meet with others to share a teacher’s opinion of the state of public education in North Carolina.  I also try to listen to other teachers and to students in order to share their stories with others.  On top of all these responsibilities are the responsibilities that teachers of high school juniors know all too well—writing college recommendation letters. 

                To be completely honest, at times it is difficult to fit in time to write the high number of letters that were requested of me this year.  Yet, when I have the time to stop my travels and other Teacher of the Year responsibilities for a bit, I find that when I start writing letters about my outstanding students that it feels like coming home.  Before writing letters of recommendation, I always look over students’ resumes and spend some time thinking about the ways they stood out in my classroom.  I try to recall the first time they exceeded their own expectations or my expectations, the moment where I saw them develop their writing skills or start to hone their critical lenses, and the ways that they have impacted my life.  I believe that I learn just as much from my students as they learn from me.  In taking the time to reflect on each student as an individual, I am reminded of why I love teaching.  Like the vibrant, varied leaves outside my window, my students are diverse, beautiful, and constantly changing as they grow into young adults who want to make the world a better place. 

With My IB Students Last Year (Photo by Nancy Sidelinger, Special Section, Greensboro News and Record)

                 I am so proud of my students, and it is when I get back to the heart of teaching, my students, that I find encouragement and a desire to work even harder to make public education in North Carolina grow into the national leader that it can be.  Even though teachers in North Carolina are experiencing low morale right now, we need to keep looking to the heart of the matter—all of our students—to keep why we teach in perspective.  We teach for our students and because of our students.  When times get tough, I encourage teachers to take a moment to think about their students as individuals, to think about the stories that shape each student, and to think about what the future has in store for each one of them.  When we do that, we can always find the inspiration to keep teaching, to keep encouraging, and to keep growing as educators.

Students in Jill Francis's AP Environmental Class at Chase High School, Rutherford County