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.

Carrying the Bicentennial Torch!

Last Saturday, on the day I was to carry Indiana’s Bicentennial torch, it was raining buckets.  I was slated to run for my portion of the relay, taking the torch from a bike rider and handing the torch to a car rider.  I was excited for the day anyway, but when I actually got to see the torch go by downtown a couple of hours before I was to go, I got goosebumps and wet eyes and heart palpitations!  Just seeing it made me feel that way!  My daughter said, “You get to actually carry it, Mom!”  I couldn’t even process!

While I had been excited for the opportunity, I never could have imagined how truly incredible the experience would actually be.  Getting the letter of acceptance as a torchbearer in Allen County was the beginning. After attending the informational meeting to learn about the actual torch and our responsibilities as torch bearers, I talked with our fourth grade teachers about how we could best use the website and this opportunity to increase student engagement in Indiana history and geography.  They were all in, of course!

They started having the students check the progress of the torch each morning when they arrived to see what counties had been covered the day before.  Each county has a bit of historical information that the fourth graders could learn from, along with uploaded pictures and video highlights from each day for them to see.

As I made my way to the Chief Richardsville House off of Bluffton Road, I was nervous but so ready!  About 30 minutes before my slated time, the torch bearer who I would hand off to, Jacob H. Feichter, came to say hello with his delightful daughters.  We took pictures and I learned that he is 99 years old! He sure doesn’t look or act like it!  He was responsible for amassing the land that the Old Fort stands on today.  He also goes into the realty office on Berry Street that his father began 130 years ago every Monday-Friday.  What an inspiration!

Then, the 4^th graders from my school started showing up.  They had made torches and signs, and my heart filled to the brim! Their enthusiasm for the event, and for me, reminded me once again why we do this teaching thing.  Why we use every single opportunity we have to provide our students with chances to engage and learn and feel the excitement that goes with learning.

We took pictures, and when the car of Torch organizers came by to make sure I was ready, I took a picture of the inside of the car that had all of the extra torches and parts.  When I had talked with the kids the day before to show them my uniform and tell them what to expect on Saturday, the biggest question was, “What if something goes wrong?” So the picture was for them. I then found out that the engineering professor who designed the torch was actually in the first car of the entourage.  I asked, like any teacher would, “Can he stop and talk to the kids before I leave?”  Guess what?  He did!   He explained the torch and the process of building it, and the kids hung on every word he said. 

My favorite part was when I was lighting my torch from the bike rider behind me, and one little girl said, “It’s happening!  It’s really happening!” 

I will never, ever forget that day.  Carrying the torch, waving at people as they honked and waved back, cheering me on, was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Honestly, though, the reason that it will hold such a special place in my heart, and my year of being Indiana Teacher of the Year, is because of those fourth graders (and their precious teachers who organized it all).  The picture of them cheering and holding signs and torches made from construction paper and crepe paper, along with the parents who drove them, is an image forever etched in my mind.  Their rapt attention as they heard from the actual designer of the torch, and their true, unbridled excitement for me and for the chance to be a part of it all reminds me why we teach.  That, above all, is what I take with me from this experience.  We really do everything we do for the kids.  All of the accolades and appreciation from grown-ups is wonderful…truly.  But what made that Saturday was the kids.  That’s what makes every day.  Teach! Indiana!!

Small Group Instruction- Moving Learners Forward 20 minutes at a Time

As an instructional coach, I find myself telling teachers, “If you are running low on time and have only enough minutes left for either a whole class lesson or small group instruction, always choose small group.”

This is because so much happens at “the table”.  When we have a homogeneous small group of readers or mathematicians as a captive audience, the purpose of our time together is to literally move learners forward in 20 minutes.  There is a feeling of intensity and purpose when we are working with a small group.  Because we choose texts, skills, or strategies that are purposefully at a student’s “cutting edge” of learning, we actually move learners forward every time we meet!     

To help make our time at the table matter, we have to be intentional as we introduce them.  I love explaining to my students the difference between the independent work that they are doing during our reading block, and the work that happens in small group. Stations, independent reading, and response to reading are awesome opportunities to think about their thinking and to practice what they know.  In contrast, I tell students that they should not know all of the answers during small group time. Kids should be grappling and understand the importance of the work.  This is not a time for practice, but instead a time that is intentionally focused on individual learning.  I explain what it means to be working at the cutting edge of your knowledge and we talk about how that feels.  I always tell them that they should be sweating when they leave!

My work at the table is different too.  I am a facilitator, a pusher, a challenger.  I do not impart much information or even share much of my thinking when I am with a small group.  My job is to question, to rephrase my questions, to give LOTS of wait time, and to create opportunities for students to improve as a reader.  My favorite question at the end of a small group session is, “So, what do you know now that you didn’t know 20 minutes ago?”  Don’t be afraid to ask this.  It brings accountability to the table, both theirs and yours. 

The last way to insure that our time is spent purposefully and intentionally is to take the best anecdotal records possible of the magic happening at the table. How can we possibly let this time just happen without capturing the learning that is taking place?  How will we know the best thing to do tomorrow if we haven’t been intentional in our collection of what happened today?  Let’s face it, we are teaching all day long, dealing with a million things by lunchtime, if we don’t write down what happened, we will not remember what one student did, or what we did to help him/her. 

As our school moved through the process of improving our anecdotal note forms in both math and reading last year, our whole staff worked together to streamline the process and to pack as much information about our check-ins with kiddos as possible.  One great idea that we added to our form is a T  P  R  inside each square.  These letters stand for Teaching, Prompting and Reinforcing.  Each time we write down a student behavior, we circle one of the letters so that we not only capture what our students are doing, we also record how much of us (the teacher) was required for the students to show what they know. 

It's an exciting time of the year in our schools! Teachers and students are settling in to procedures, and schedules, and to each other.  The beginning of the year data has been collected, the individual student conferences have taken place, and we are ready to take on the most exciting work that we do.  It’s small group time!  Teach!  Indiana!!

Top 10 Teachers Know Learning Never Stops!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure and honor of meeting the top 10 finalists for Indiana’s 2017 Teacher of the Year.  Five former TOYs and I got to talk with these incredible teachers for 30 minutes each.  I feel so inspired.  It’s beyond exciting to think about the depth and breadth of great teachers in Indiana!  My favorite part was how each candidate brought such unique gifts and talents, passions and visions to their classrooms.  One of the judges kept saying as each candidate left, “I want my kids to have that teacher for science, for math, for language, etc…”  We decided she would have to move around quite a bit to be able to accomplish that task, because our winners were from all over the state!

The most common thread between all of them was their idea for effective professional development for teachers.  Every single one is a learner first and a teacher second.  Each one talked about how they learn from other teachers in their building and district every day.  While their classroom doors are open to all who wish to enter to learn from them, they make concerted efforts to join PLCs, facilitate meetings with team members, and “talk shop” with other great teachers every chance they get.  

Every. Single. One said, “I learn best from my colleagues.”

Talk about inspiring!  The positive impact that educators can have on students across the state exponentially increases when we share and learn from one other.  Common characteristics among all of the candidates included love, passion, vision, and this unquenchable desire to improve for the sake of their students.  How exciting it is to work down the hallway every day from teachers who can teach us something!  We can all learn from other educators across grade levels and subject areas, from school to school and district to district.  Teach! Indiana is thriving in counties all across our state!

Thank you to these amazing educators for coming to meet with us.  I know how incredibly nerve-wracking the experience can be.  Congratulations and thank you for representing your districts so well, and for inspiring the six of us to be better too.  When we seek to grow and learn and be better tomorrow than we are today for the love of our students and our profession, Indiana wins every time!

Top 10 2017 Indiana Teacher of the Year Finalists

Michelle Burress
Plainfield High School
Plainfield Community School Corporation
Subject:  English, Journalism, Photography

Bobbi Jo Carter
Frankfort High School
Community Schools of Frankfort
Subject:  English, Language Arts, English Learner Program

John Gensic
Penn High School
Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation
Subject:  Biology

Dennis Goins
Ben Davis High School and Area 31 Career Center
MSD of Wayne Township
Subject:  TV Broadcasting

Jarod Hammel
Huntington North High School
Huntington Community School Corporation
Subject:  Math

Chris Hill
Avon High School
Avon Community School Corporation
Subject:  Project Lead the Way, Engineering, Electronics

Mikayla Koharchik
Zionsville Middle School
Zionsville Community Schools
Subject:  Language Arts

Jessica Deckard Mann
Mishawaka High School
School City of Mishawaka
Subject:  English, Futures in Education

Jitka Nelson
Logansport Community High School
Logansport Community School Corporation
Subject:  English, Language Arts

Jennifer Jo Steed
Brownsburg High School
Brownsburg Community School Corporation
Subject:  German

Keep the Torch Burning!

       Last night, I had the opportunity to learn all about the torch that I get to carry for Indiana’s Bicentennial Relay. The relay starts in Harrison County on September 9^th and will continue for 37 days, ending with a “Hoosier Homecoming” in Marion County on October 15^th.  What an honor!  I am so proud to be an educator in Indiana, and completely humbled to be the 2016 Indiana Teacher of the Year.  I wish with all of my heart that every teacher could feel the appreciation and regard that I have experienced since this journey began.

       As I begin a new day of representing our state’s incredible teachers, I can feel the torch in my hands.  This torch is not the high tech, golden version created by Purdue University for a historical relay.  This is the torch of educators…a fire within the bellies of our great state’s teachers that burns day and night.  It is the last thought of our students as we nod off for the night, and the first plan that starts formulating when we open our eyes in the morning. It’s the cheese stick we remove from our lunch to feed the hungry student at snack time, the coat that we buy to warm a student at recess, the extra hours spent on preparing engaging lessons and giving meaningful feedback on student work. 

       Every day, teachers are privileged to get to teach.  The hearts and minds of our students become a part of ours, and even when we pass the torch along as our students move from grade to grade, the fire still burns.  We get new students, but we never stop caring about the ones before. And, every once in a while, when the torch feels too heavy to hold, there is no family like a school family.  We come along side of each other, and hold our own torch along with someone else’s until they can support it all on their own again.  The kids in our schools are “our” kids, not yours or mine, and the torch that we carry never, ever goes out.
       So, on October 1^st, as I carry the torch through Allen county, I will be thinking about all 92 counties of Indiana’s teachers.  I wish I could put a little bottle of the love and appreciation I have felt for the last few months in each of your mailboxes.  I promise that there are people all over our state and our country who want you to feel valued and worthy, supported and even revered.  Keep the torch burning, educators.  What we do is leaving an incredible legacy over every inch of our state.  We must turn up the flame and shine it bright for all to see.  Teach!  Indiana!

Finding My Voice... Just in Time!

       Although I was named the 2016 Teacher of the Year in October of 2015, and have already had more amazing experiences than I can count as the “INTOY”, my actual year of service begins with the new school year on August 15^th, 2016.  The last few months of my life feel as though they are not even mine.  I keep asking myself, “Whose life am I really living?”.  Shortly after a surprise ceremony to announce my new position, I feel like the four walls of my classroom were blown down, and a huge, wide world of education that I had never even considered started revealing itself to me.

Throughout my career, I have felt that I had a handle on the “pulse” of educational trends.  Amidst the constant ebb and flow of changes in curriculum, assessment, staffing, administration, evaluations, etc…, the work of teachers and principals, students and parents was the constant.  I was sure that the magic happening in the classrooms within my hallway were indicative of classrooms all over the country, and all over the world for that matter.

       What I never truly, really considered for more than a fleeting moment, were all of the other stakeholders in education, and the roles that they were playing in the day to day work of the teaching and learning happening in that hallway.  Becoming Indiana’s Teacher of the Year changed that.  The opportunities that I have already been given to meet with teachers and administrators from all over Indiana, officers of the Department of Education, representatives from testing companies, software companies, educational foundations and organizations, college professors and administrators, members of the State Board of Education, state senators, state representatives, the governor of my state, U.S. senators and representatives, and even the President and Vice-President of the United States of America have shown me that there are many more people working to affect what is going on in my hallway than I could have ever imagined.

       Can you wrap your mind around that?  All of this from January to July, in a mere 6 months out of my 48 years on Earth, I am changed forever.  My biggest takeaway is that we all want what is best for kids.  While some may not agree with one another about how best to accomplish that, there are really, really hard working people at every level of education trying really, really hard to get it right.

My other takeaway came as a surprise.  In my insulated world of classroom work, it never truly occurred to me how many of those stakeholders are not getting regular, reliable information from classroom teachers to inform their decisions.  The sheer number of people contributing to a single student’s education in ways that are direct and very indirect is astounding.  It tells me that we need to share our voice…carefully, thoughtfully, with evidence and data, and that the one thing that we have that none of the rest of them do, is our stories.  The beautiful, messy, tear-jerking, jump up and down days that we lead in the classroom need to be shared, often.

       I completely understand that this seems daunting and futile and like too great of a task, but we just have to.  It’s the only way we are ever going to get the educational train moving the same direction down the same track.  Because no matter what we teach or in what teacher’s lounge we stash our lunch, our stories are similar, and if we tell them, our message will be unified and powerful.

       What finally helped me to appreciate the importance of teacher voice happened recently when I was named to Indiana’s ISTEP Alternative Assessment Panel in April. When I walked into the first meeting I felt like a very small child in a room full of very important grown-ups.  My eyes were big, my breath was short, and I had to physically swallow the lump in my throat. I willed my feet to keep walking, found my seat in the actual House of Representatives, inside the actual Indiana Statehouse, and vowed right then and there that I would not say anything.  What could I possibly have to add to this room full of very important grown-ups?

       I admit that I never said a word at the first meeting, or the next.  But, at the third convening of the Panel, I said something…twice.  In both cases, it was information that I knew because I am in the classroom every day.  And you know what?  People listened.  Like, for real.  And I realized that while the room of very important grown-ups is making decisions that will affect Indiana’s students for years to come, I don’t get the luxury of silence.  I feel the hearts and passions of the students in your classes and mine, the ones right in my hallway, and yours, and I know that I will share our stories.  Just in time for my “year of service” to start, I have found my voice, it’s really “our” voice, the voice of teachers and students all over Indiana.

       From August to June, I will serve on committees and panels, work with teachers and instructional coaches, start new initiatives, work with new people and learn more than my brain can even hold, and I will share our stories with all that I meet.  I will use our stories to paint the picture that so many who affect our students’ lives in education must see and feel to make decisions that are best for kids.

       So, I know how incredibly busy you are.  I picture you moving desks around your classroom, shopping for deals, creating nametags and planning first day activities, but I wonder if I could ask a favor.  This year, as you teach, I am representing you.  I have this year to make a difference, to change the narrative and move our state forward, and as busy as you are, I wonder if you could do one thing to help me to do the most with “our” year.  Could you share a story?

       You see, while I have 26 years of stories, I don’t have your stories.  As similar as we all are, our unique, individual stories are what will help me to tell others what they need to hear about students all over our state.  Up here, in Northeast Indiana, I don’t know the story of a student in Southern Indiana or Indianapolis.  In representing all of us, I need to widen my net, and fill my bag of stories to overflowing.  So I need your help.

       If you have a story that I can share, please send it to me at jrussellteach@gmail.com.  Tell me funny ones and sad ones, tales of triumph and challenge.  I promise to use them whenever and however I can to help others understand what it takes to recruit and retain great teachers in our state, so that all of Indiana’s students get a teacher who loves them and loves teaching them.

Follow me on Twitter @HESBookDiva, and @Teach_Indiana  and on Instagram at: Teach! Indiana to share the journey of my year of service as your 2016 Indiana Teacher of the Year. 

Here we go!!!  Your Ambassador in Education, Jean