Hiking Upper Fish Creek Falls in Steamboat Springs Colorado

Fish Creek Falls

Amazing sites and a steep hike topped our day yesterday as we hiked Upper Fish Creek Falls in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Our hike started off easy with a 1/4 mile hike to an overlook for viewing the beautiful Fish Creek Falls where we snapped photos and stood in awe of the 300 foot waterfall. Refreshed, happy, and at ease with the start of our hike, five of us continued on with the next section of the hike to the first bridge about a 1/2 mile in on a gravel trail. We stopped to look at signs about the various trails and determined that we would hike above the falls, taking us slightly closer to the Continental Divide Trail (since reading about people thru-hiking the trail last year, I've been curious about how close we could get when we ventured to Colorado).

This also provided an opportune learning time for my sons to ask about the Continental Divide. What better way to learn this aspect of geography than hiking within miles of the Great Divide of North America?

From there we began our hike upward on a moderate to difficult hike slowly and steadily gaining elevation. After another 1/2 mile, two members of our group of five decided to turn back because the incline takes a toll on unacclimated lungs. My sons, however, were determined to move forward, and I, too, wanted to challenge myself with a more rigorous heart pumping hike, so we pressed onward with the climb. After approximately 2 more miles of hiking up, we came to another bridge with more incredible views of the water and forest.

Rocky path near the top

From the second bridge we had about another 1/2 mile traverse of rocks to make it to the top of Upper Fish Creek Falls. At times, we climbed using our hands to keep us steady. Making it to the top with my sons was exhilarating (and exhausting). We spent only 10 minutes at the top before climbing back down the rocks and heading the path to the bridge and foot path to the bottom of the falls.

Climbing with our hands

The hike down took us much less time, and my oldest son, a cross-country runner, enjoyed taking the lead and hiking solo to the bottom to meet my husband and his brother who awaited us. Ever the runner and lover of outdoors, he made it to the bottom and came back up to find my younger son and me carefully working our way down the rocky pathway. Seeing him made us smile, knowing we were that much closer to the finish.

The cross-country runner taking a break to wait for us

We experienced feelings of joy, happiness, and accomplishment upon making it back to the first bridge and the bottom of the falls. Elated for the heart pumping and view inspiring experience with my sons, we walked the 1/2 mile back up hill to the parking lot. 3 1/2 hours start to finish. Total elevation 8,770 feet.

Three of us at the top

At the top

Re-Imagining Public Education: Thoughts on Creative Schools

Nearly three and a half years ago I began this blog with an intense passion about re-imagining public education. During this time, I have continued to learn, encourage, advocate, and speak out about ideas for making school a more enjoyable place for students to learn.

Early posts included Stop Squashing Creativity in Education, written after I saw Sir Ken Robinson speak at NCTE and after I viewed his TED Talk. I offered five ideas for intentional teaching and many of my other posts elaborated on these ideas.

After finishing Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education, Sir Ken Robinson's newest book, I find myself hopeful and eager to continue the conversations about schooling and transforming the system. While many would say the whole system needs an overhaul, I am interested in Robinson's statement that "it's also essential to make changes within the system as it is." An idea like this means we can begin now, wherever we are.

We can begin changing the conversations, practices, and emphasis we place on test-preparation as a primary means of teaching. We can begin (or continue) listening to students and empowering them to own their learning by providing them choices in what and how they learn. We can involve families and communities in making decisions in our schools to ensure the goals in the schools represent the goals of the larger community. We can redesign school schedules to allow teachers time to collaborate, plan, and create learning experiences for students.

Three of my favorite quotes from the book 

"The fundamental work of schools is not to increase test results but to facilitate learning."

"To transform any situation you need three forms of understanding: a critique of the way things are, a vision of how they should be, and a theory of change for how to move from one to the other."

"Making education personal has implications for the curriculum, for teaching, and for assessment. It involves a transformation in the culture of schools. What does that look like in practice?"

I selected these three quotes to share here because they are the three ideas I've been exploring through blogging for the past several years. 

Since I prefer to be solutions oriented, I suggested that we read up, team up, and speak up. In another post, I suggested that we change the conversation and work toward making schools intellectually engaging and curiosity promoting places where students want to be. Most heart-wrenching in my posts about testing was this post written when my youngest son finished his first year of required state testing and asked me if he could chicken out of testing.

My promise is threefold. I will continue offering a critique of the parts of the public education system not working well for all children. I will continue sharing my vision for change, and I will think more throughly about my theory of change. 

     Whether you've read Creative Schools or not, how do you imagine public education changing? What critique do you offer? What is your vision for change? Your theory of change?

____________________________________________________________________________

My friend, Gwyn, also writes and speaks about creativity in schools. After she read my Stop Squashing Creativity post, we exchanged emails and determined that we share many ideas about the education all students deserve, so I asked Gwyn to guest blog. Her two part post continues to be one of the most read posts at Learning to Muse. Read her two part post here and here. 

  

Sunday Salon: What I Read Online May 2015

Another busy month, but I've also been taking more weekend time to relax and enjoy my family, so my blogging has fallen slightly behind. Anyway, here's some of what I read online in May.


Women

Margaret Hamilton, The Engineer Who Took Apollo to the Moon serves as a reminder of women in STEM.

With so much of the tech world focused on men, a fun and important post to read is Women of Silicon Valley is an Even Cooler 'Humans of New York'

Women in Leadership: Gender Bias and the Confidence Gap by Jennifer Abrams on Peter DeWitt's blog featuring 18 women all K-12 educators should know.

50 Motivational Quotes from Disruptive, Trailblazing, Inspiring Women Leaders

Working with people most interested in preserving the status quo? If so, check out this article titled Thinking Big from Cake & Whiskey's Sip & Slice blog.


Parenting

Jessica Lahey continues to be one of my favorite authors writing about parenting issues. Check out her post titled: For a Child With Learning Differences, Making Home a Safe Harbor.

Shared with me by my 14-year old son, this video argues video games improve your reaction time.

Reading is Fundamental Combats Summer Slide, another article by Jessica Lahey. This one is relevant to me as a mom and an educator. Plus, I have two friends from the eastern part of our state who both maintain the Book Mobile turned them into readers.

School's Out Forever, a father writes about his views on public education. Worth reading, for sure.

A totally relatable article 40 Things You Should Never Ever Say to Your Teen.

What's Your Teenager Doing This Summer? In Defense of Doing Nothing.


Books and Reading

My book review at Cake & Whiskey. A review of Becoming Odyssa by Jennifer Pharr Davis.

Top Favorites by progressive educator, Nicolas Meier, offers suggestions of professional books to read and includes a few of my own favorites.

47 Books Every College Grad Should Read on Buzzfeed Books offers a few titles you may or may not have on your won reading list.

Ali Smith wins Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction for the book titled How to Be Both. Sounds like an interesting read worth adding to my book a week reading list.

Re-imagining school

When magazines such as Wired begin featuring articles about education, you know we've reached a new era in public education. Check out the article Inside the School Silicon Valley Thinks Will Save  Education.

Common Assignment: An Opportunity to Learn From Collaboration and Researched Practice by Brison Harvey explores what happens when teachers are provided time and resources needed to collaborate in designing lessons for students.

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you won't be surprised that this article made my list. Prioritizing the Arts Over Test Prep.

How Not to Get Fired Implementing Next Gen Learning by Tom Vander Ark is well worth your time if you are interested in new ways of teaching and learning.

Students Need Social Studies Now More Than Ever  by Brison Harvey is one of a few social studies posts I read this month, and I'm still working to curate a few since one of the recent #kyedchat conversations focused on social studies.

The CEO of the organization where I work wrote a blog post in honor and appreciation of teachers during teacher appreciation week. Working with someone who values effective teachers is a bonus in my world.

The Kentucky state education commissioner wrote a letter warning my district of state action if they don't improve assistance to low-performing schools, including the school where I used to teach. I'm still working on a blog post on this article because I'm fearful of the actions the district will take as a reaction to the letter.

177 Days encapsulates the reflection and thinking of a thoughtful mathematics teacher, Brooke Powers.

In Big New Idea: Next Generation Instructional Design, Susan Weston shares her thoughts on the newest project I'm leading.

Politicizing AP US History by Daisy Martin argues in favor of comprehensive social studies instruction to continue the importance of helping students know and understand why we should be involved citizens and why we should learn from the past.

Hiking

Kindergarten Can Wait. Meet Buddy Backpacker the five-year old Appalachian Trail thru-hiker.

Dean Potter Lived Life on the Edge was a never before published article about the late hiker and climber who inspired many before losing his life this spring.

What to do if you see a bear (not really).

Scott Jurek is attempting to beat the current record for the fastest thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Really?

NC Bill Could Send Teachers to Jail for Wearing a Red Shirt.

Chinese Billionaire takes 6,400 staff on holiday to Paris.

The Top 25 Hedge Fund Managers Earn More than All the Kindergarten Teachers in the United States.

An Eleven Year Old Graduated from College with Three Different Degrees.

Authorities File Charges Against Family Members Over Loud Cheering at Mississippi Graduation.

My Favorite Books of All Time

What's your favorite book? Often a dreaded question because, as an avid reader, I think it's difficult to narrow it to just one. Narrowing it to ten isn't much easier. However, in the spirit of The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, I'm sharing my favorite books of all time.

Don't think I've taken this list lightly. In fact, I've been creating the list, refining it, revisiting it, and starting all over again for the past seven years. Seven years ago, a student and her mom gave me a book edited by J. Peder Zane The Top Ten. Zane continues working to curate top tens lists and to interview authors, so visit the site to learn more from some of your favorite authors.

At the end of last year, I shared my top 14 reads from 2014, and I suspect I'll share my 2015 list from my book a week reading in late December or January. Until then, my top ten of all time goes back many years. When I finally selected my favorites, I made my decision based on books I return to, books I recommend to others, and books that for one reason or another I haven't been able to get out of my mind.

My top ten (in no particular order)

1. Othello by William Shakespeare

2. The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

5. The poems of Pablo Neruda

6. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

7. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

8. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

9. The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

10. Night by Elie Wisel

What's on your top ten list?  Please share below.

Sunday Salon: What I Read Online April 2015

It's been a while since I've shared a Sunday Salon post and that's because I've been reading, writing, traveling, parenting and enjoying life in general. Here are links to some of my favorite online readings in the past month.

Musical Instruments at EMP in Seattle!

Creativity 
April is National Poetry Month, and since I'm a long time Shakespeare fan, I loved this article, Shakespeare's Sonnets, All 154 Reimagined Through a New York Lens

Why Creative Writing is the Better Way to Study English on a blog by my thoughtful friend, Gwyn is worth your time because it's a good reminder about why we need creativity in learning experiences.

Innovation for improving life. This Guy Invented Shoes That Grow Five Sizes in Five Years for Kids in Developing Countries.

Creative Picture Books for Young Hearts is a fun read for parents and their children or for anyone who enjoys music and art.

As a long time believer of the importance of liberal arts, and as a liberal arts graduate myself, I loved this article Why We Need the Liberal Arts More Than Ever in Today's Digital World.

Yet another great article read earlier today about liberal arts.

Another amazing article about the work of Sir Ken Robinson.  "The real driver for creativity is an appetite for discovery and a passion for the work itself"

Literacy

Vocabulary, Wonderous Words or Busy Work? by Todd Marshall on the Literacy Learning Exchange speaks to the ever important topic of vocabulary which I, too, have previously blogged about.

Literacy Coaching in the Classroom on the LDC.org Blog. Read results here.

Don't miss this free article from NCTE on math and rhetoric working together.

I'm a long time fan of Nabokov's Lectures on Literature, Maria Popova at Brain Pickings shared the article What Makes a Good Reader.

Not to be missed--What Books Do For The Human Soul by Maria Popova at Brain Pickings.

Learning and Teaching

When Students Become Entrepreneurs, Real Learning Happens. Yes!

As a National Board Certified Teacher, I'm always interested in reading research that shows NBCTs are more effective. This article explains policy implications from a new study.

Read My Teacher Leader Manifesto by Sandy Merz to hear her vision of the profession and ask yourself what your vision is too.

Testing isn't going to cure what's wrong in education from this blog Our Top Priority is a blog that should be shared widely because the author, Tricia Ebner, clearly captures what so many of us feel right now about over testing and insane test prep that's ruining our children's education.

I found the article What Undocumented Students Bring to the Classroom to be extremely interesting and meaningful to me because I have a fourteen year old niece exploring immigration issues and expanding her own values and thoughts. Sharing this article with her was meaningful for us both.

From the Atlanta judge trying the case of the educators convicted of cheating in one of the biggest cheating scandals in America, "We have messed up schools so much. Well, tests and grades do not make you educated."

Five Reasons Why Math Worksheets Don't Work! It's always nice when to know I'm not the only one who does not prefer worksheet driven learning.

We can't let testing companies control how we run our classrooms or how we interpret the standards.


Kentucky

It's always interesting to read about up and coming advancements where I live right here in Lexington, Kentucky. This article is especially interesting to me because of the focus on improving our community.

We knew our Kentucky Education Commissioner planned to retire, but something about seeing it in national news makes it more official. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Dr. Holliday.

Dr. Holliday awards me KDE Employee of the Month Feb.2011
(Trophy rotates each month)

International

Cake and Whiskey launched the Sip and Slice blog recently, and not only have I enjoyed contributing to the blog, it's also been fun to read many of the posts, including this post about celebrating birthdays in Germany.

Eleven Lesser-Known Cities for Street Art explores cities from around the world that value art in their communities.

I enjoyed this inspiring article about a woman running in Saudi Arabia and hoping to send a powerful message.

Parenting

I enjoyed this article by Jessica Lahey because she writes about the way we are solving math problems, and she challenges parents to consider the way they learned mathematics and whether or not that's really the best way for our children to learn.

Certainly I can relate to this mother's thoughts on Proving Parental Love, on Snowshoes and Roller Coasters.

A Teenage Speaker's Mom On How She Encourages Her Sons to Innovate. Loved the TED Blog, and since I had the great fortune of meeting Jack Andraka and hearing him speak earlier this year, this post was even better for me as a mom of two sons.

Visiting Piedmont College for Alumni Weekend

Piedmont College

Nestled beautifully in the mountains of Northeast Georgia, Piedmont College offers a top-notch liberal arts education. Read about what it did for me.  On a recent Saturday we returned to our Alma Mater for Alumni Weekend. My husband and sons as well as my parents and in-laws all met in Demorest where we stayed in an amazing house my in-laws found and rented for the weekend.

View from bedroom window at house we rented in Demorest

Though we hadn't been back to Piedmont in fourteen years, my husband and I were warmly welcomed back by professors who reminisced with us about the days when we were students. They also dreamed with us about the future of education (higher ed & K-12). Our conversations focused on the importance of education being

• thoughtful
• purposeful
• creative

English Professor Lisa Hodgens thoughtfully nominated me for the 2015 Excellence in Education award which I accepted at a ceremony on Saturday night for my contributions to education on the local, state, and national level. Knowing the nomination came from Lisa made it meaningful, and when asked to give a few words at the ceremony, I became choked up from gratitude for my experiences at Piedmont. Without a doubt, Piedmont provided the understandings I needed to develop a thoughtful, purposeful, and creative approach to teaching and learning.

At the awards ceremony, the Alumni Office (some of the friendliest staff) played a video of snapshots from my time at Piedmont with photographs of some of my favorite people and experiences. My opportunities at Piedmont included traveling each spring to the Southern Literary Festival where we would hear great authors read their works of literature. In 1995 we visited Ole' Miss in Oxford and toured Rowan Oak where we saw William Faulkner's penciled handwriting on the wall.

We also traveled with Dr. Hodgens abroad to England the summer after graduation. There we studied Shakespeare with the Royal Shakespeare Company, attended numerous plays, and explored the historical cities of Oxford and London. Experiences such as these can't be traded for book work, and I'm grateful for the thoughtfully and creatively designed programs Piedmont offered.

Not all of our experiences involved travel; we also engaged in meaningful discussions in our classes. My entire Master's program provided a purposeful look at education, and especially worth noting was a graduate school course titled American High School taught by Dr. Hilton Smith. We read books by John Goodlad and George Wood and discussed numerous critical studies by Ted Sizer and Debra Meier. Our open-ended discussions of these texts encouraged us to develop our own philosophy of education and mine certainly included an emphasis on student choice and interest.

Piedmont College

During Alumni Weekend, we enjoyed touring the campus, seeing all the renovations, attending a reception at President Mellichamp's house, celebrating at the awards banquet and attending a play afterwards in the new Swanson Center Black Box Theatre. Fortunately, we made it back to campus for brunch on Sunday with Hilton Smith and his wife Sara Tucker. Our conversation went straight to catching up on education trends, policies, and practices as we exchanged ideas, perspectives, and stories--the kinds of stories that keep us going in a world of education where we feel like people have sometimes forgotten to be intentional. However, with our dedication to the larger purpose, we carry-on hopeful to make an impact through thoughtful, purposeful, and creative education geared toward providing students choice and interest in their learning. Of course, you might recall my previous blog post where I discussed my correspondence with Hilton and my dream of a starting a Teacher Powered School.

We enjoyed this fantastic play by the Theatre Dept. Alumni Weekend

Blogging for Cake & Whiskey Sip and Slice

I delightfully announce that I've been selected as a contributing blogger for Cake & Whiskey Magazine's new blog Sip & Slice.  As you know I've previously contributed to the print magazine, so when they decided to start a blog and began accepting applications, I jumped at the chance to contribute to this source of inspiration for women in business.

Some friends have been surprised that as an educator I am writing for an audience of women in business. Why, they ask?  Why? Because just like I believe our students have stories to share, I also believe women from all walks of life have stories to share, and I believe in the Cake & Whiskey mission seeking to share women's stories with the world.

My contributions to the blog will be focused book reviews aimed at providing busy women (and men) a tiny glimpse into various books by women authors. The first review comes from one of my February books of the week, Marathon Woman by Kathrine Switzer. You can read the post on the Sip & Slice blog. I also encourage you to check out other blog posts and even subscribe to the beautifully designed magazine to read stories about women and to find delicious recipes.

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You can access links about my experiences writing for the print magazine here.

An American Educator's Thoughts on Girl Rising
Writing for an Inspiring Business Women's Magazine

Turning My CV Into a Resume

Asked recently to provide my resume to our organization's files for new board members to learn more about our staff, I reluctantly submitted my ten page curriculum vita because I didn't have a traditional resume. My CV has worked for a career in teaching, but as I continue in the world of education nonprofit, the situation demands a more traditional resume. For the past several weeks I've been thinking and working to create a resume. I read What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles, visited multiple websites, and spent hours over a few weekends distilling my professional career experience and skills into a shorter three pages (still not the ideal 1-2 pages, I know).

I found it difficult to admit that all my conference presentations and teacher publications don't mean anything in my new world. Seriously, I love public speaking, facilitating learning sessions, teaching, sitting on panels, writing curricular documents, and serving on review boards for various topics, and these things apparently don't really matter in my new world. Sadness. At least at first. When I got over myself about this though, I realized that an organization might not care about my academic persona as much as they care about what I can do for the organization. So, I tried to highlight specific skills such as grant management, supervisory experience, and strategic planning instead.

Likely, with one complete draft, I've only just begun this resume writing process, and since I'm not searching for a new job (I love the one I have), my new resume is not specific for a particular job search. If you're curious though or if resume writing is your speciality, and you'd like to provide me some feedback, you can see my ten page CV here and my new three page resume here. (I left my street address off both documents for privacy purposes, but I do know that and my telephone number should be added if I ever submit this for a job search.)

What do you think? Do you have a CV or a resume? Have you ever tried to turn a CV into a resume? Please share your thoughts so I can continue learning.

Sunday Salon: What I Read Online February 23-March 29

A month of balancing out of state travel and family life leaves me full of good online reads to share. Obviously, I won't be sharing everything here or the blog post would be way too long, but here are some of my favorites in the past month.

The hotel in Seattle where we met for our NT3 Learning Session 

New Ways of Thinking About School

I Wish Someone Had Intervened  by Heather Costaras conveys the story of a young girl whose needs are not being met in a traditional sit still school environment. Posts like these further emphasize the reason I remain in public education. We've got to make some changes for kids.

Every Child Deserves a World Class Education. Check out the #UpforSchool campaign.

In this post, an NBCT explains how she persevered through the National Board Certification Process even when it was tough.

Yet another reason to re-think our school models--Suspended Students Lose Millions of Days of Instruction While Out of School, a Washington Post article by Donna St. George.

We Should Be Teaching Our Students Like Yoda Taught Luke, a terrific article about personalized education by Vicki Phillips in Wired.

In The Power of Professional Capital by Andrew Hargreaves and Michael Fullan I learned about other countries in the world who treat their teachers like professionals who build a better nation. We can do this, America! It means we have to change our ways of thinking about teachers and teaching though.

Why I Quit Teaching by Adam Kirk Edgerton serves as an excellent reminder of why teachers should be treated like the professional adults they are.


Students at this School in NYC Get Jobs, Not Grades. Imagine the possibilities if we would think about making this type of school more accessible to more students in America.

Teenagers need playtime too. Nothing reminds me of this more than my own sons who consistently complain about how much they have to sit still at school.

The power of we in distributed leadership models within schools. Read this article if you care about new ways of leadership in our public schools.

Women, Leadership, and Self-Improvement

Read about amazing women who have accomplished much in life and also think about why we still need more women in particular fields Women's Work: Why We Need More Women in Media by Paula Kerger.

The 7 Habits of Truly Genuine People was a good reminder to me as I think about improving myself as a person and leader.

I've been thinking lately about the important connection between leaders and readers, so I found a few articles online on the topic including this one titled Is Reading Boring?

Though I'm not hugely into fashion, the article For Michelle Obama, Clothes That Lean In caught my attention because of the focus on Mrs. Obama wearing appropriate clothes for her mission to promote girls' education worldwide, and I certainly am into that.

This App Makes Your Phone Buzz When You Approach Places Where Women Made History. Not much else to say. Love it.

For fun & because I like to travel and enjoy watching Kentucky basketball...
Though it was a close call last night when Kentucky played Notre Dame, I read this second article a week earlier--Kentucky basketball is huge around here, and the biggest story right now relates to the historic number of wins. John Clay claims Kentucky will go all the way unbeaten. Of course, it's always fun to see Kentucky reflected positively in The New York Times.

As we continue planning our family summer vacation to Colorado, this article from The New York Times caught my attention since we will be staying in Steam Boat Springs for a large portion of our trip. The restaurant sounds lovely, and I look forward to trying the delicious sounding foods mentioned.

A view of the Space Needle from my room

Seattle, Washington remains one of my favorite cities in America to visit, and fortunately, I had the luxury of working there most of last week.

My work in the past week highlighted again the importance of teacher leadership. In our third learning session of the Network to Transform Teaching (NT3), we shared ideas across states and we made specific goals around the two aims. Read more about that work here.

I appreciated the focus on improved learning experiences for students as the reason why we need teachers leading in our schools and districts.

Thoughts on The Opposite of Loneliness

Browsing the newly released books in our small town local bookstore, I paused in my tracks upon seeing a book jacket portraying a young woman in a yellow pea coat smiling brightly. When I picked up The Opposite of Loneliness and read the back cover, I was instantly jarred to read renowned Yale Professor, Harold Bloom, refer to the book’s author in the past tense. “I will never cease mourning the loss of my beloved former student Marina Keegan.“

The passing of a young woman leaves me thinking about what could have been—the talent, the beauty of a writer and reader of literature. I didn’t know Marina or even of her until the release of her book, but I was drawn to this young woman’s story because it reminded me of one of my former students, Morgan, who also died instantly in a car accident a year and a half after Marina’s tragic accident.

Instead of dwelling on what could have been, I find comfort in reading the writing left behind by Marina. A lover of nonfiction myself, I quickly read her short stories, aiming to speed through the nine works of fiction so I could feast on my favorite nonfiction. But then something happened while I was reading. Marina’s stories took me to different places, both literal and figurative, and I found myself devouring her fiction with rapid intensity.

From “Winter Break” in suburban Michigan when Addie is home from college on vacation hooking up with her boyfriend and visiting her parents as their marriage declines to “Reading Aloud” where Anna, an older woman, calls on Sam, a man who is blind, to read aloud to him his mail, his textbooks, his cooking directions. Marina’s writing transports us into the lives of ordinary people carrying on with life. The vast differences in the subject matter of the nine short stories struck me because some of the stories surely required research as they were well thought out beyond Marina’s 22 years. The stories conveyed a sense of hope, a hope we find when we connect with people. A feeling, the opposite of loneliness, that Marina found at Yale.

 In the essay with the same title as the book, The Opposite of Loneliness, optimism abounds. "We're so young. We're so young. We're twenty-two years old. We have so much time." Marina's last essay, written for the Yale Daily News upon her graduation went viral. Indeed, Professor Bloom's assessment of her talent reminds us of the "extraordinary promise that departed with her."

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.
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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~~~