My Journey into a Career in Education

I didn't set out to be a teacher.

As a high school junior, new to yet another school (my tenth in 13 years), a high school counselor told me I would never make it to college. Maybe he said this because my parents did not graduate from college. Maybe he said this because my family worked hard but received assistance. Maybe it was because I had moved so many times and barely had the right credits to graduate in a new state. Most likely he said this because I took the most basic courses, not college preparatory courses. 

Determined, driven, and intent on being the first college graduate in our family, I set out for college and majored in political science/international relations because of a long time interest in worldwide Human Rights. I didn't stay at the first college I attended. No. I continued the familiar pattern of moving. It was only when I finally landed at Piedmont that I began to settle and make peace with my former transient life style. At Piedmont I selected psychology as my major with hopes of working with disadvantaged youth. During an internship where I taught relationship courses at a learning center for teens, I discovered my true interest in not just working with teens but in teaching. After graduation, I got married and began a two year Masters program which also led to a Georgia teaching certificate.


Foxfire & Rabun County High School, Rabun County, GA.
My experiences in the classroom began during my year-long internship at the rural Rabun County High School in Tiger, Georgia. Two full semesters of teaching and observations under Foxfire facilitator, Angela Cheek, provided me a solid foundation for establishing my own classroom in 1998.  If you don’t know much about the Foxfire approach to teaching and learning, you should check it out. The heart of Foxfire’s success is student choice.  The approach to teaching and learning is experiential based and student-centered. 

Following my student teaching experience in Georgia and the completion of my Master’s degree, my husband and I moved to Sylva, North Carolina so he could work on a Master’s degree. I certainly was not prepared for the shift to a small community of public schools interested only in hiring local folks. I spent that first semester in the fall of 1998 teaching English and science at a small private school and teaching adjunct English courses at a local community college.

Cherokee Indian Reservation, Cherokee, NC.
An outsider like me was welcome though at Cherokee High School on the Indian Reservation of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. When they offered me a position teaching high school English in January of 1999 I jumped at the chance and launched head first into an amazing experience for my first five years of teaching. Grounded in the idea that students should have choice in learning, I ran my classroom as a facilitator of learning and became a master at differentiation. 99% of my students were Cherokee, and they all had different learning needs. Again, I equate any success experienced at Cherokee to student choice in learning. They appreciated it, and I fine-tuned how to provide student choice and meet the state required objectives and curriculum through Project-Based Learning experiences.

The highlight of our project-based learning experiences together was no doubt the Renaissance Festival the students selected to create as a way to learn the required British literature curriculum.  Student centered and community involved, we even had the Asheville television station run a segment on our event as part of their Never Stop Learning series in October of 2002. Leaving Cherokee after five years of teaching was tough for me because I felt successful as a teacher and had even earned an award for 2002-2003 Cherokee High School Teacher of the Year.

Fayette County Public Schools,   Lexington, KY.

Alas, we had to move again because it was time for my husband to pursue a PhD at the University of Kentucky. So, two weeks after giving birth to my second child, we moved to Kentucky where I obtained a teaching position at the county’s most inner city school. 

This brought new challenges in part because I thought I had figured out how to teach and was comfortable in the profession. Maybe a shake up was exactly what I needed to become an even stronger teacher. In Lexington, the school where I taught had a very diverse student population. The experience of dealing with diversity brought new challenges and caused me to question what I thought I knew about being a teacher. But I was determined to meet my students' needs. New state. New school. New colleagues. New parents. New community. New students. New standards which were skill based. New content area, too, because in addition to teaching English, I taught arts and humanities. It was at this new school when I decided to pursue National Board certification. Earning my NBCT status was a highlight in my career because the process brought professional learning. Analyzing student work, writing and reflecting on my teaching practices, and producing evidence of my practice and my students' work were fantastic ways to help me improve as a teacher which ultimately led to me being recognized in the district teacher spotlight segment in 2008-2009.

The NBCT process also taught me more about being a leader because it required me to show evidence of how I was a teacher leader, not something I had given much thought previously. When you take the time to think intentionally about what you are doing, it improves your outcome. The year after earning NBCT status, I became department chair for our 13 member English department of young teachers. My leadership experience and demonstration of effective teaching were important and relevant factors for my position, which still required me to teach a full 6 courses. I taught everything from arts and humanities to AP Language, AP Literature to elective courses such as Shakespeare and Women's Studies to general 10th grade English. There was no release time for building capacity of other teachers. We really caught our groove though and created a cross disciplinary literacy team and started on a literacy plan based on meeting the needs of students in our school. Two years after achieving NBCT status, I decided I needed a change of pace.  Leaving the classroom was not an easy decision as you might have noticed if you've been following my blog. If you haven't been following, you can read more about that decision here, here, and here. 

State Department of Education In the winter of 2009, I accepted a position as literacy consultant at our state's education agency. Three months into this new position, a key piece of legislation (commonly known as Senate Bill 1) was passed into law. This sent our entire state into an era of new reform. I went to this position very naive about politics in education. I paid close attention and spent time learning, reading, researching, and listening.  Needless to say, it was a very interesting experience. 

It's About Kids Support Services (District Office). After weeks of soul searching and even conversations about returning to the classroom full time, I accepted a position in late August 2012 in my home district in Lexington, Kentucky. Returning to Fayette County Public Schools was a rewarding learning experience. I served as Secondary English Language Arts Specialist for the district and spent my time working with teachers. I visited classrooms, facilitated professional development sessions, provided Literacy Design Collaborative Training to English, Social Studies, and Science teachers in collaboration with teachers in those disciplines, planned for Response to Intervention work in the district, planned for literacy teams and writing program reviews, started a new blog, and contributed to the district Innovation Team. 

A Nonprofit Organization.  In the spring of 2013 I was recruited for a new position with a brand new organization designed to promote change and innovation in Kentucky's schools.  After more soul searching and a realization that I should walk the talk about taking leaps, I accepted a position leading an initiative for a curriculum project and research study with schools in Kentucky and Colorado collaborating to create units of study to meet the needs of their students and the demands of the Common Core State Standards.  Because we are a brand new organization with only a few employees, I also contribute the blog and initially helped run some of the social media accounts.  (I love this!)  I remain steadfastly committed to raising the voice of teachers and students in public education in my new position.  We need changes in our system, and my new position is offering me additional opportunities to promote changes and to encourage teachers along the way.
_______________

NOTE: This post used to appear on my About page, but when I decided to update that page today, I wanted to preserve my longer bio, so I updated this a bit and added information about my decision to get into education in the first place.

~~~Please tell me about your journey in the comments area below~~~

Professional Learning Journey

My days have been especially full since my last post, and though I thought often about posting a new blog entry, I have been deep in thought and in work, and haven't taken the time to write.  One of the opportunities I had last week was to participate in a state wide conversation about professional learning in Kentucky.  As preparation for that event, we were asked to prepare a timeline to represent our professional journey.  At the meeting, we shared our timelines, and my friend and colleague shared her creative professional learning timeline.  Not surprisingly, I was impressed and asked Cindy if she would share her timeline in a guest blog post to inspire others.  I know she inspired me, and I hope to re-think my professional journey using a similar format.  If you decide to do the same, I hope you will share.

Enjoy & never stop learning, creating, and leading!

Guest Post by Cindy Parker

“A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;

How could I answer the child...I do not know what it is any

   more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff

   woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,

A scented gift and remembrance designedly dropped,

Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see

   And remark, and say Whose?” Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

When I started high school, my brother, who is 17 years older than me and a poet, introduced me to Walt Whitman’s poetry.  I remember pondering the strange, wonderful words and form contained in Leaves of Grass.  He has remained one of, if not my favorite poet. So recently, when assigned a task at work to create a professional learning timeline of my journey and experiences with teaching and education, I knew what best represented my journey—Whitman’s words.

I created my timeline using the preface in an old college-student edition purchased at Half-Price Books. My timeline began with my student teaching, then first year of teaching in 1988, both at Harrodsburg High School.  I circled the word “literature” because like all secondary English teachers, I thought that’s what I would be doing as a teacher—teaching the literature I loved. 

Throughout my timeline, I added the names of those who most influenced me as a professional.  In those first years, that was one of my college professors, who served as my university supervisor during student teaching, Jan Isenhour, who would later serve as my instructor in the Bluegrass Writing Project, and who I admired greatly throughout my teaching career.  The second name at the beginning of the timeline is Don Pelly, a biology teacher who served as my KTIP (internship year) mentor.  He was a great mentor, colleague and is still someone I am honored to call a friend, even after we both left HHS in 1998.

A few other highlights from my timeline are colleagues I’ve mentored, such as Monica. I circled “Past and present and future…” because we have continued to work and learn together as friends and colleagues since her first year at Washington County and now at the Kentucky Department of Education.  NBCT appears on my timeline for 2002, the year I achieved National Board Certification, one of the best professional learning experiences I engaged in as a teacher. Renee Boss is among the names recorded along my timeline because of her influence on my growth as a professional, as a colleague whose vision and enthusiasm encourages me, and as someone I love to learn alongside and call a friend.

Something I noticed about my timeline is that the last few years have been packed—with people, with activities, and with new learning.  I circled “progress” and wrote “coherence” as the bringing together of all of this learning. It’s been an exciting time in the last few years to be in education with so many changes.

The final words of the preface sum up this phase of my career, as I enter my 27^th year in education and continue to learn, grow, and meet new challenges.  Many find Whitman’s focus on the individual boastful and audacious; I find it refreshing and uplifting and what an educator should strive to be:

“An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation. The soul of the largest and wealthiest and proudest nation may well go half-way to meet that of its poets.  The signs are effectual. There is no fear of mistake. If the one is true the other is true.  The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.”

Transforming Teaching and Leading in Kentucky

Kentucky is one of six states and/or districts participating in a new project with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.  We are a network of states and districts leading the transformation of the teaching profession by developing and strengthening systems to make board certification the norm and capitalize on the instructional expertise of board-certified teachers.  As a member of Kentucky's #NT3 team, I had the privilege of traveling with our team to Palo Alto, California recently for a week of planning and networking with the teams from the other states and districts.  Our week was filled with long days of intense conversations and planning, but I'm certain it is all worthwhile because I believe in our two aims.

Our meetings were held on Stanford University's campus

The aims of this project are to:
1) increase the number of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs)
2) capitalize on instructional leadership of NBCTs

By increasing the number of National Board Certified Teachers, we can make national board certification more the norm rather than a group of a few nationwide.  Over 200 research studies have shown the effectiveness of national board certified teachers in classrooms across the country. NBCTs demonstrate they are highly reflective and capable of teaching at high levels for all students to learn. Since the NBCT process is notoriously difficult to complete (50% pass rate), and it's incredibly expensive on a teacher's salary, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards organization is revamping the timing of the process and the payment requirements to make the process more accessible to a wider range of teachers.  The 5 Core Propositions will not be changed, and the standards for each content area will not be lowered.  However, now candidates will have more than one year to complete all the required components, and the cost will be more evenly distributed over the three year time period for completing the process.  In addition to these financial and time supports, external organizations will increase the mentoring and support options for candidates pursuing the NB certification process.

After I achieved NB certification, I distinctly remember a time when I asked my principal if I could serve in other leadership capacities and was told no because my expertise was needed in the classroom.  The second aim of the #NT3 is to capitalize on the instructional expertise of NBC teachers so that NBCTs serve in more leadership roles. This particular aim pushes on the need for system leaders to recognize that teachers are an important improvement resource, and it also requires a shared understanding of the strong connection between board certification and instructional leadership roles.  Not all NBCTs have the same exact leadership strengths, so this second aim also strives to match NBCTs and their instructional expertise with the right teacher leadership roles.  For example, some NBCTs are effective with facilitating adult learning, so they work well with their colleagues in professional development settings or in instructional coaching roles. Other NBCTs have more expertise working with the community and parents, so they might serve in roles as community liaisons for a local school or district.  These two roles represent a tiny fraction of the leadership opportunities NBCTs deserve.  You see, all NBCTs (by virtue of completing the NBCT process) have demonstrated their ability as leaders because Entry 4 of the NBCT portfolio requires us to prove our leadership capacity to impact student achievement.

 NBPTS is looking at the medical profession model when seeking to transform the teaching profession and to make board certification more the norm.  Ron Thorpe, CEO and President of NBPTS, talked to us on the last day of our meeting about Paul Starr's book The Social Transformation of American Medicine.  The book is next on my reading list because according to Thorpe, it provides a model from which the teaching profession can learn.  In the nineteenth century, the medical field professionalized itself by changing the social structure of physicians.

I am hopeful with these two aims of  #NT3 that we will transform teaching and leading in education not only in Kentucky but in our entire country. Our students deserve equitable access to board certified teachers who have demonstrated mastery of content knowledge, the ability to design learning experiences that advance learning, the use of assessments to inform instructional decision making, and a commitment to parent, community, and colleague partnerships.

I believe we will see better teacher preparation and support to meet aim one, and that we will  begin seeing more hybrid roles for teachers and more NBCTs leading the education profession to meet aim two. Since Kentucky decided to participate in this important work with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, I believe we are demonstrating our state's commitment to advancing the work of committed and effective teachers who desire for all students to learn.

he reflective analyses that they submit must demonstrate:
1) A strong command of content;
2) The ability to design appropriate learning experiences that advance student learning;
3) The use of assessments to inform instructional decision making; and
4) Partnerships with colleagues, parents and the community.
- See more at: http://www.nbpts.org/national-board-certification%C2%AE#sthash.X51VlIpa.dpuf

Will all the National Board Certified Teachers in the Room Please Stand?

Sandwiched between big name leaders such as Secretary Arne Duncan and North Carolina's former Governor Hunt were delightful speeches from former National Board Certified physical education teacher--Barbara Kelly, and Susan Hopgood, President of Education International.  Delightful speeches by these women brought inspiration amidst political and controversial conversations that  take much of the stage in the follow up blogs and news articles about the Teaching and Learning Conference last week in Washington, D.C..

With tears rimming my eye lids, I listened intently as Barbara Kelly shared a story about a recent tennis match where her tennis partner asked her to come to net because they were about to lose if she didn't step out of her comfort zone and approach the net. She spoke of the early years of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards where at meetings they regularly asked all NBCTs to stand, and then she asked us all to stand if we were NBCTs.  Hundreds of teachers stood and were then encouraged by Kelly to step forward as teacher leaders and raise our voices to make an impact on education in our country.  Barbara Kelly was honored with the James A. Kelly (no relation to Barbara) Award for demonstrating clear, consistent and convincing evidence of her ability to foster the legacy of accomplished teaching.

Just when I thought my tears would dry up and I could move on to listening to the politicians speak of education reform in our country, Susan Hopgood from Educational International approached the podium to speak.  Her comments about gender equality struck a chord with me given my study and efforts over the past year.  Her call for a global campaign around more just, peaceful, and tolerant societies to set the stage for education goals around the world appealed to my interests as well.  In America, it's easy to get lost in our own world of education reform and to forget about the millions of women and girls around the world who have no access to education.  When we consider the statistics, we realize we must do something at this critical time for the world to make decisions that will affect children for many years to come.

"Together we can make a difference for the education of girls around the world" 

                                                                        ~~Susan Hopgood

Hopgood's organization believes teachers are at the heart of education, so it was fitting that she spoke to thousands of teachers because quality education for all cannot be attained without investment in teachers.

Children from Lexington perform in event planned by Mahika

Because her short speech was so inspiring on day one, I selected to attend another session where Hopgood served on a panel day two.  In this session on Lessons Learned from High Performing Countries, Susan Hopgood, Pasi Sahlberg Mary Cathryn Ricker, and Dan Montgomery talked about the lessons we should learn from other countries.  Sahlberg suggested instead of comparing our PISA test results from country to country like a competition or beauty pageant, we should dig deeper into the patterns and trends of our own systems. 

 One of the biggest differences between America and other countries is that many other countries hold teachers in higher regard than we do here, and if you have been reading my blog since I started it, you will recall that one of the reasons I left the classroom was because I was tired of the lack of respect for the profession.

 A lack of respect was not obvious at the Teaching and Learning Conference.  In fact, quite the opposite.  Over and over there was a celebration of teaching and learning by everyone, and there was special recognition for all National Board Certified Teachers, especially when Barbara Kelly asked us all to stand.

Where Knowledge Meets Inspiration: Learning & Networking at the T & L Conference

Where Knowledge Meets Inspiration-a germane tag line for the 2014 Teaching and Learning Conference in Washington, D.C. last week given the inspiring and informational sessions offered. As a National Board Certified Teacher, it was incredible to be surrounded by two thousand other knowledgeable and inspirational education professionals at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.  

Though my flight was delayed and I missed a pre-conference workshop at the National Geographic Society, I wasted no time connecting with fellow educators via Twitter for a dinner at Pi Pizzeria for a day early celebration of Pi Day.  Our conversations ranged from discussing our own NB

certification process to our own children and families at home holding down the fort while we were off to our Nation's Capital to learn with and from fellow educators.  Before leaving the restaurant, we had each mapped out the next day and shared our plans with one another.

On Friday morning, a friend and I met up with the Director of NBCT from Kentucky's Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) to attend a session about the SEED (Supporting Educator Effectiveness Development) grant of which Kentucky is a part.  In this 8:30 am informational session, we learned about work taking place over the next three years to transform systems of support for encouraging more NBCT candidates in high-needs schools.  We also learned about the redesign of the NBCT process, including a total revamping of the assessment center part of certification and a redesign of the portfolio entries, with the primary change being an opportunity to complete only one or two components per year over two years rather than squeezing the entire NBCT certification process into a single year.  With this, new NBCT candidates will be able to spread out the hefty payments for certification as well.  All told, a very practical session focused on not only logistics and what needs to happen but on why we need to make these changes--a more intense focus on the 5 Core Propositions.  The new process also allows candidates to reflect thoughtfully and maintain high levels of teaching during the certification year.  An additional session on the SEED grant and Instructional Leadership later in the day brought occasion to learn more about how we can encourage and support more NBCTs as teacher leaders in our respective states.

The Plenary Session with Bill Gates was by far the most popular session of the day, with people lining up to gain entrance an hour before the doors to the ballroom opened and security checking tags for everyone who entered.  His speech focused on encouraging us to remain steadfast with the Common Core State Standards.  He mentioned our great state of Kentucky when citing examples of effective CCSS implementation because we all know poor implementation and too much focus on standardized tests are what's causing much of the recent backlash against the Common Core.  Following his speech, Gates was joined on stage by George Stephanopoulos who asked questions previously submitted by teachers, allowing a response from Gates.


A few of my favorite quotes from Bill Gates on 3.14.14

"...I'm not politically sophisticated, so I made the assumption people opposing them would have actually read the standards..."

"...the Common Core State Standards give every child an equal chance..."

"...handing out a worksheet will not be seen as a way to provide homework..."

"...I hope people are willing to read long books..."

Each of these quotes is significant to me because they speak to many of the topics I address in my own blog as well as to philosophies of teaching and learning I appreciate, so I linked each quote to a previous blog post I've written on a similar topic.

Our day ended with another plenary session, this one with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  Again, a Kentucky reference.  Secretary Duncan referenced a Kentucky teacher who divides his time between teaching and providing professional development.

We also learned more information about new initiatives such as Teach to Lead and T3 (teachers leading efforts in turnaround schools!).  This project enticed me given that I've taught in low performing schools and know that the test prep mentality often employed only brings temporary success at most, and it does nothing for real learning and engaging students toward the futures they deserve and desire.

Debriefing the day over Indian food and beverage with a teacher friend included conversations about our experiences with the Common Core, travels with students to foreign countries, and family life, all in the name of keeping ourselves healthy and balanced individuals, something teachers often need reminders to do.

**Stay tuned for another post on the conference because there was too much to say in just one post**