A Gift in my Mailbox

As exciting and humbling and life-changing as the opportunity to serve as Indiana’s 2016 Teacher of the Year has been, a quick run over to my school to drop something off helped me to remember what truly makes my heart sing.  As usual, I ran over in the evening because my days are filled with new and amazing ways to impact education in Indiana, and I don’t often have a minute to drop in while school is in session.  As I organized what needed dropped off and picked up, I gave my mailbox a quick check.

Inside, there was a large envelope and two smaller ones.  The large one contained a commendation for my award as INTOY.  “How wonderful!” I thought.  To be knee deep in my year of service and get a reminder of appreciation and congratulations is so appreciated!  Next, I opened the first small envelope.  In an instant, the certificate from the big envelope was completely forgotten.  In it was a short message, “I hope you remember me from 5^th grade…I am graduating this year and I would love for you to come…You meant so much to me and I will never forget the impact you had on me.”  Mic drop.  Of course I remembered him!  I remember his smile and his perseverance and how lucky I felt to be his teacher. 

In the second small envelope, another note, “You have made such an impact on my education, as well as my sister’s…As I graduate high school, I feel that I do it in honor of you.  You introduced me to the world of reading and writing and creativity.  Just saying that I looked like a clarinet player motivated me to join band which allowed me to grow out of the dense shell that I had kept for years.  It completely changed my life.  Now I have become a leader, a successful student in the top 8% of my class, and cannot go a day without reading…I would be honored to have you as my guest at my high school graduation.” Oh, you sweet, sweet girl. I am the lucky one to have spent time in your presence!

I don’t for one minute take credit for the incredible human beings these former students have become.  But, oh how they have blessed me!  In the noise and busyness of policy meetings, state-wide professional development, and university visits, these two notes mean more to me, go to the very heart of me, more than anything.

Honestly, I am a little tired, my tank is running a little low, and I have been putting my all into finishing strong.  But, today, once again, it is my students that remind me what all of this is about.  I am honored and humbled and blessed beyond measure by the opportunity to spend my days with boys and girls.  I will don a cap and gown and walk with my former students, knowing that the invisible steel cable that is created between teachers and students continues to hold us together.  Thank you, sweet students from 7 years ago, for giving me the chance to stand in the quiet office of my school, with only the emergency lights on, to cry tears of joy for you and for me and for the gift of being a part of the best profession in the world.  Teach! Indiana!!

My Principal Gets It Right

I just finished reading two blog posts (http://www.indy.education/blog/2017/3/13/teachers-quit-principals-not-schools) and (http://misterrad.tumblr.com/post/158564691132/hey-principals-you-are-screwing-up) explaining how often teachers are leaving their classrooms, not because they can’t handle the pressure, not because they don’t want to teach in their school or community, not even because their paychecks are not enough.  They are leaving because of leadership. 

They are leaving with broken hearts, tears streaming down their faces, with a pit in their stomach.  They want to stay.  They feel terrible leaving others behind.  But, they have finally tried to affect change for the better for the last time.  Teachers are going to another district where students’ needs come first, or to a job related to education, or any place where they feel that their heart for teaching will make a lasting impact.  They are leaving to teach where innovation, creativity, and reaching the heart of every child is the vision and mission of the district.  This stuns me.  How can there be schools where leaders do not support their schools?

As the 2016 Indiana Teacher of the Year, I have spent my year working with educators and administrators from pre-K through 12^th grade, university professors and administrators, policy makers and teacher candidates.  Mostly what I do is go around and share all of the amazing things that I have been a part of accomplishing just by being in my school district, my building, working with my colleagues and MY PRINCIPAL! 

I can’t get very far into sharing the instructional practices, innovation, achievement and growth results we experience at my school without mentioning my principal.  She is an instructional leader, a visionary, a cheerleader.  She leads with her heart and her head, and does that lady LEAD.  The culture in my building is one of always moving forward, always meeting student needs.  Sometimes I think that being inside of her head for a day would wear me out.  How can a person look at absolutely anything and see how it should be just a little better, or maybe a whole lot better?

It is exciting and amazing and exhausting in the very best kind of way to teach at my school.  We celebrate and challenge one another.  We come along side of each other to lead and share, and we listen to each other.  No one knows everything, but every single one of us knows something that could help the rest of us to be better tomorrow than we are today.  Our principal is the one who first believed that.  She is a leader who creates leaders.  She never, ever seeks the spotlight, or makes any move with recognition in mind.  Her most fulfilled moments as a leader are when she sees one of her teachers leading.  Her bar is high, for herself and for us, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

She loves kids. Period.  No matter the challenge, her answer is that we will do what is best for the child.  If that means coming up with a plan that we have never used before, we do it.  We make changes and add programs and tweak instruction because it is what our students need.  We are never alone in our journey, because she manages to lead us from alongside of us. Her favorite phrase is “fail forward”.  It gives us permission to try and fail, to hack and learn, to be brave and joyful!

Want to keep great teachers in classrooms? Put great principals in schools.  Put great superintendents in district offices.  Put kids first. 

Everything We Do and Everything We Say Matters So, So Much

The idea that, as educators, we have this opportunity for profound and lasting influence is often the reason that we are led to the profession.  The reality of that influence, and the legacy-leaving work that we do can remind us, especially on the hard days, that as we cross the threshold of our school building, today may be the day that a student remembers for the rest of his life.

From the little encouragement we give, to the hilarious, engaging memories we create, we must assume that our students will not only remember us and how we made them feel, but that they will have specific memories of things that we said and things that we did.  It is likely that we will not even remember most of those things.

Think about it.  Who was your favorite teacher?  Now recall a memory of a day in class with that teacher.  Realistically, it is pretty unlikely that your teacher remembers that exact thing.  Which is why we MUST remember that Everything we do and Everything we say matters so, so much.  Because the thing that your students remember could literally be anything. 

As I think about one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Oliver, the thing that I can distinctly picture in my mind was entering that third grade classroom every day.  I can see her face, every detail.  From her bright and inviting smile to her dark hair and big brown eyes, I remember.  As she greeted me each morning, I could feel the complete joy that she felt in getting to see me.  I knew, in my third grade heart, that I was, without question, her favorite student.  That smile and her friendly greeting remains etched into my memory forever.  Forever.

After 26 years of teaching, I now know that the magic of Mrs. Oliver was that every single student in her classroom felt the exact same way.  Ask any one of us in her class, and we would have quietly admitted to knowing that we were her favorite student.  She did that.  She did that because she realized that from the very first moment she saw her students, they were recording.  Everything she did and everything she said mattered.

My mom, a teacher for 35 years who is now retired, had a little boy in her kindergarten class ask her the question that all teachers dread, “When are you going to get those papers checked and back to us?”  

“Well,” she answered, “They are in my car and I have been very busy, but I promise tonight I will get to them.  I am a little concerned though because there are so many papers that I may need a truck to get them all to school tomorrow!”

So, sure enough, that evening, she was going through those papers, adding smiley faces and stickers to each one, when the phone rang. 

“Mrs. Herr?” 

“Yes?”

“Johnny is telling me that you need us to bring the truck to school tomorrow, but we don’t quite understand why.” 

The precious part is that they were perfectly willing to figure out a way to bring their truck to school, they just needed some clarification. J Everything we say.  Everything.

Thank you to Mrs. Oliver, Mom, and to so many other teachers, for helping me to understand the power and influence of teaching.  The memories of you and the things that you said and the things that you did remind me to treat the honor and privilege of teaching with the reverence my students deserve.

Teach! Indiana!!

The Future is BRIGHT!!

Last week, I got to go to dinner at a local joint right off the campus of Ball State with four education majors who are also officers in their university’s Kappa Delta Pi academic fraternity.  I am telling you that I have seen the future, and my friends, it is bright!  The eyes of each of these students light up with a fire for the best profession in the world.  They are already talking about “their kids” from their practicum experiences.  They are intelligent and passionate.  They have a heart for learning, and are hungry to be better tomorrow than they are today.  One teacher candidate has committed to an urban student teaching experience, even though she is from a town of a few thousand.  One has been to the United Kingdom, and already has a global approach to her teaching, and another admitted to me on the way back to campus that he plans to be a principal and then a superintendent for his educational journey. 

These four are just a few of hundreds of teacher candidates that I have had the honor of meeting over the last few months.  We MUST keep them!  They are the teachers that will be next door to us soon, inspiring us to do better, to think differently, to engage more deeply.  Encouraging them and supporting them is the most important thing we can do for Indiana’s students.  As an instructional coach, I feel strongly that effective coaching for teachers can play a very important role in getting and keeping great teachers.  We can help to lead and support our newest teachers as they create an engaging learning environment and “learn the ropes” of student-centered, responsive teaching.  We can come alongside our seasoned educators to help them try new things, stretch their thinking pedagogically and philosophically, increase student engagement and achievement and, most importantly, reignite their passion for the best profession in the world.  In addition, teachers in the trenches must have open classrooms and steady dialogue with teacher preparatory programs.  Working with colleges and universities to help bridge the gap between college prep and the expectations of an educator’s job in the classroom is the responsibility of every current teacher in a classroom.

Indiana University has an honor and one-year fellowship for educators called the Armstrong Teacher Award.  Eight educators from around Indiana are chosen to participate in Panel Discussions for education majors, and are matched up with professors teaching classes in their area of expertise.  This was the game changer for me.  As I started having conversations with the two professors of elementary education literacy classes, we really got to the nuts and bolts of what they were teaching, and worked to find any missing components that incoming teachers to the field would be expected to understand, but were not a part of the syllabus.  It started with an opportunity to talk with college students about the teaching profession, and evolved into me getting to teach classes about small group instruction, formative assessment using anecdotal notes, and meaningful integration of technology in elementary classrooms.  Now, I have had the opportunity to do this at several Indiana universities.  Never, in my wildest dreams, did I picture myself doing this!  What surprises me most is how much I enjoy the classroom time with college students!  I now know that I am happy teaching ANY kids in ANY classroom.

So what is my biggest takeaway from these experiences?? The students!  People! I have seen the future, and it is bright!  I mean, put on your sunglasses, watch out for a sunburn, knock your socks off… BRIGHT!  Making sure that our teacher candidates are well prepared for the classrooms they can’t wait to teach in is essential for us to get and keep Indiana’s best!  Teach! Indiana!

1MT: One More Thing

1MT: One More Thing

Many times, when learning about a new initiative, or idea, a teacher’s first reaction can be, “Not ONE MORE THING!”  This phrase, “one more thing” can be heard in conference rooms, teacher’s lounges, and school parking lots across our great land.  And let’s be honest, teacher’s plates are not just full; they are OVERFLOWING!  It is the nature of the profession.  But, there is always a couple of teachers who see these as opportunities, even from the minute they are presented.  Wheels start turning about how we can be better tomorrow that we are today.

Which makes me think about a Paralympian that I had the honor of hearing speak last month at the annual Hasbrook Awards in Indianapolis.  Josh Sundquist, a Paralympian skier and US Amputee Soccer team player, has a life motto.  His actual life motto, the one he says to himself multiple times per day is: 1MT.  Yup, it stands for “One More Thing”. When he was struggling the most with the loss of his leg, and the hope of being an Olympic level downhill skier, his coach helped him to realize that if he really, really wanted to be better tomorrow than he was today, he would have to do…you guessed it…One More Thing.  One more practice, one more run, one more hill, one more second shaved off his time.  He explained to us that there is always, always 1MT we can do to improve.

We know this is true, right?  Cognitively, we understand that to keep growing and improving, we can’t just keep doing what we have always done.  So what about our full plates?   I wonder if adopting Josh’s mindset that 1MT is not a BAD thing, but the very thing we need to KEEP GOING, might change that feeling that teachers get when introduced to 1MT. 

In my travels around Indiana, every time I have the privilege of sharing professional development with instructional coaches and teachers, I know that I represent 1MT.  I am bringing new ideas and frameworks and facilitating discussions about how things could be better wherever I go.  It is my fervent hope that those I work with see our time together as worthwhile and helpful in moving them forward in their journey, even though it may be “one more thing”.

Actually, isn’t it the “one more thing” that helps us as we agonize over a student who isn’t engaged or learning? How many times do we stand on our head trying to be sure that we reach every learner every day?  It is in our nature to try 1MT.  A teacher’s work is never done.  Even when we turn off the lights in the classroom for the day, the wheels are still turning.  And they are still turning when we turn the lights on the next day.

The hardest thing about 1MT is when it isn’t our idea, when we don’t see its relevance to our class, our students, our subject.  But consider the 1MT that WE can add to our department, our school, our school district.  If the 1MT being presented isn’t something we find valuable, then what can we contribute? All of us have a 1MT that improves our instruction, student engagement and achievement.  So we must share! 

Thank you, Josh Sundquist, for helping me to think about One More Thing in a new way: 1MT.  Never again will I use those words in vain.  When they cross my mind, which they surely will, I will think of you, flying down that mountain or wearing that long awaited soccer uniform, and I will translate those words into code: 1MT.  It is a mindset, an openness to change for the better, and the willingness to try and fail and try again.  To grow, to learn, to improve, we can always do 1MT.

Growing Up As A Teacher's Kid

When your mom is a teacher, from a very early age, you know school in a different way than most of the students that come shortly before the first bell rings and rush to their “other life” as soon as the school day ends.  Teacher’s kids know what school is like before it starts, after it ends, and even on weekends.

Only a teacher’s kid knows the eerie haze of light over a school library at night or the hum of the lights in the gym on a Sunday afternoon as they take ten minutes to finally turn all the way on.  Teacher’s kids know all of the nooks and crannies of a school for hide and seek, and what it feels like to be the only kids on the playground, never waiting in line for a swing or a turn on the slide. They have gotten a soda from the teacher’s lounge and used the Ellison machine to cut out letters.  They can probably even unjam the copy machine all by themselves!

They also know the precise way to pull math worksheets out of a workbook so the perforated edge is clean.  They know how to sharpen pencils by the gazillion, and sort everything from books to construction paper.  They can prepare a math station or phonics station and check to be sure that all of the markers work and the glue sticks aren’t too hard.

They know that as soon as they outgrow something, mom will always have a kid who can use it.  Winter coats are a very highly valued commodity in the Midwest, so all of our friends knew to give them to mom too.  She always found a home for them.  Long before recycle bins, we knew to keep plastic containers, shoe boxes, and all sorts of odds and ends … because they could all be used in “the classroom”.

The rhythm of the school year becomes the rhythm of the whole family.  I did my homework while Mom did hers.  Parent-Teacher conferences and report cards were like Proper Nouns in our house.  We ate sandwiches for dinner a little more and knew Mom was busy.  Her first year of teaching, she had 75 kindergartners a day!  Thirty-five came in the morning and forty came in the PM class.  That was A LOT of parent-teacher conferences…twice a year!

Sometimes it means helping to create a Christmas for a family.  Rallying together to fill the wishes of a stranger and understanding how much more they need to know that there is a Santa than you do.  It means that no matter where you go, even on a vacation to Disney, you will run into students or former students who want to say hello.

But, sometimes this familiarity also creates an unglamorous glow.  When teacher’s kids start thinking about what they would like to be when they grow up, teaching is the thing they know the most about.  Other careers seem more mysterious and exciting, known only through television and maybe someone’s mom or dad.

So even though I had tutored younger children during high school, participated in a cadet teaching program and actually enjoyed helping mom for all those years, when the idea that I become a teacher was suggested, I didn’t even consider it.

When I left for college, being a teacher was the furthest thing from my mind.  But, as my classes became more and more like the job I thought I wanted, I got worried. I didn’t like it.  During a Christmas break full of angst and decision-making, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, my mom had just moved from kindergarten to first grade and invited me to help her with assessments.  As I met with each child in her room, delighting in each conversation, it occurred to me that teaching truly is a calling.  And it doesn’t give up.  If you are called, it will keep calling…and calling and calling and calling…until you finally say, “OK!  I’ll be a teacher”!

I’ll never forget how freeing it felt, back at the University of Illinois, to go to classes that were interesting.  I was happy to stay up until 3:00 am working on a project.  Seriously…happy!  I had found my “home”.  Even when my student teaching experience was really difficult, giving up never once occurred to me.  I just knew I had to get better, be better.  All of those years of living with an incredible teacher had shown me what a reflective profession teaching is.  I understood instinctively that thinking about my students every evening and on weekends was how I would become more effective and student-centered.

From my first day in the classroom, I have never, ever stopped loving the opportunity to walk through my school’s doors each day.  And now, I have two girls of my own who have been brought up as “Teacher’s Kids”.  They know the ebb and flow of a real school day, one that starts long before the first bell and ends sometimes right before I turn out my light.  They have played and helped, supported and encouraged me throughout their whole lives.  They were the first faces I saw, along with my husband’s, in our cafeteria, when I was announced as Indiana’s 2016 Teacher of the Year.

They are both in high school now, and starting to think about what they might like to be when they grow up.  We’ll see.  I just know that if either of them are meant to be a teacher, they will be.  The calling is something that can’t be ignored.  Teaching is one of the greatest joys of my life and I do not take a single day for granted. My hope is that no matter what profession my girls decide to pursue, that they love it as much as I love mine.   

Recruitment and Retention? A Solution!

Our country has a problem with recruiting and retaining great teachers for our children. While several reasons have led us to this point, thinking about solving the problem is the productive way to move forward.  Instructional Coaching is one solution to the problem.  Coaches help to retain teachers because they create individualized, personalized opportunities for them to be supported in their work.   Every teacher wants to be better every day, and coaching provides that chance! 

Coaching re-ignites a teacher’s passion, and supports them in improving their practice.  Serving as an instructional coach in reading and writing for the last five years has shown me that. In the same way that average athletes become great ones from coaching, coaches and teachers working together create innumerable opportunities to improve student achievement.  By nature, teaching is not always conducive to the kind of collaboration that can truly move teachers forward in their craft.  Swapping ideas is common, but truly reflecting, changing course, and doing whatever is necessary to reach a particular group of students doesn’t often come up in conversation.  Instructional coaches are what make that kind of teacher progress possible.  Teachers can choose how they would like to improve their planning, instruction, management, use of multiple intelligences, or assessment, and with a coach, improve instruction and student growth. 

All over the country, teachers are begging for individualized professional development that provides them with personalized growth opportunities instead of a “one size fits all” approach.

Coaching provides this.  In my current position, I spend 6 weeks at a time in classrooms during the reading or writing block.  I work with teachers of all levels of experience, from beginning to veteran, in grades kindergarten through fifth grade.  First, I meet with the teacher to set goals for our time together.  I challenge teachers to choose a standard they do not enjoy teaching, an area on the rubric, or a goal that feels overwhelming.  With two of us working together, I know we can do just about anything!  For the first few days of our time together, I completely take over the literacy block, including planning, teaching and assessment.  This helps classroom teachers to understand that I am completely vested in serving them and their students.  During this time, the teachers observe student learning, ask lots of questions, and we have conversations about what he/she is wondering, noticing, liking or disliking. 

During the next part of our time together, we take turns teaching and observing on alternate days.  This requires us to plan everything together, thinking about pacing, variety of methods used for teaching, and meaningful formative assessment.  The most growth happens during this time because we are working together to improve “our” student’s learning.  We are in the same boat, paddling the same way, and our relationship has moved to the point of open sharing, brainstorming and the willingness to fail forward together!

The last couple of days, I "coach out".  Slowly, the teacher takes back over, as I observe and take notes for the teacher about what is happening during lessons.  Conversations continue as the teacher gets final questions answered, tweaks instruction, and celebrates!  Once we have this experience, future collaboration is a natural follow-up to discuss planning, assessment, students and management.  Since coaching is not evaluative, the teacher and I have a true team approach. 

Coaching is helpful for all teachers.  New teachers are supported as they become consistent in excellent practice, while veteran teachers who are already effective have the chance to reflect on how to become highly effective.  It is a gift to have the time and opportunity to focus on how to turn good into better, and better into best.  As trends bubble up within a grade level or team of teachers, coaches can also lead meaningful, valuable collaboration to support multiple teachers in training.

When teachers feel supported in their goals to increase capacity, to engage learners, and to provide differentiated, meaningful instruction, they want to stay in the classroom. Coaches help great teachers to stay in the profession.