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