What did you learn in high school?

I learned that I wasn’t good enough to pursue my dreams.

Sadly, I am not alone in feeling my ambitions were not embraced or encouraged by the adults responsible for educating our youth. I have heard others share that their families didn’t go to college, so it was not expected that they would either. Instead, their educators gently nudged them in another direction, or they were told flat out that their plans were too lofty.

As educators, isn’t it our charge to educate our students and inspire lifelong learning?

We must be careful to not douse the passions and dreams of our students. Instead, we must give them the tools to deal with the inevitable roadblocks that everybody faces in life.

We must not be one of those roadblocks.

Teachers have the power to nurture students’ dreams and fan the flames of their passions. We can allow them to explore all their options in the safety confines of the K-12 learning environment.

We are often told that there are jobs that will exist in the future that we aren’t even cognizant of today. How can we predict what job paths are best for certain students?

The simple truth is that we can’t. We shouldn’t engage in any activities that stifle a student’s pursuits. Our mission as educators should be to engage learners and encourage them to reach for the stars.

We need to embrace the fact that the “lifelong learning” mentioned in so many Pennsylvania school mission statements means we are never our best selves and we are always growing.

Our students are always growing too. In order for their fullest potential to be realized, we cannot limit them or restrict their opportunities.

It is vital that we stop placing students on predetermined paths, and instead ask them what their intentions are. Then we can assist them in exploring the possibilities.

Career exploration should be about learning what opportunities exist for students, not curtailing or narrowing the possibilities based on grades, gender, economics, or our perception of their talents.

History has taught us that there are many famous athletes, scientists, artists, performers, politicians, and even educators who were once told that their dreams were unattainable.   

Albert Einstein, a dyslexic, was considered a poor student by his educators.

Michael Jordan was once deemed too short to play on his varsity basketball team.

Lady Gaga was a self-proclaimed misfit in school.

Steve Jobs dropped out of college due to financial difficulties.

These successful people ignored the naysayers, powered on, and forged their own paths toward their destinies. The list of others who have triumphed over trials is endless. I often wonder how much farther or sooner success would have come if they had been given a leg up from those who doubted them in the first place.

Consider the power behind this quote from Alfred Doblin,

“I used to think great teachers inspire you. Now I think I had it wrong. Good teachers inspire you; great teachers show you how to inspire yourself everyday of your life. They don’t show you their magic. They show you how to make magic of our own.”

Why shouldn’t educators allow themselves to foster an environment of exploration and the magical possibilities of the future for their students?

I was fortunate enough to rise above the doubt that was cast on me when I was a student in order to become a successful teacher. Others were not so lucky. We must create environments where students to do not have extra obstacles to overcome in order to be successful in life.

Instead of anchoring our students to their futures, why don’t we instead anchor our students to the idea of chasing down their dreams?

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Teaching can be lonely.

This sounds odd because we as teachers spend our day surrounded by other humans, but the actual art of teaching is normally done solo. Many teaching days involve hours of isolation from other adults in a classroom of students, often with the door closed.

Rarely do we as teachers step out of our solitary confines to co-teach or network with the teachers around us. Often, with the demands the system puts on us there isn’t much time for contact and collaboration with other adults.

The first part of my teaching career found me with lots of teacher friends, but very few that with whom I had opportunity for deep professional conversations. Talking about specific lessons, collaboration and brainstorming were things that I tried, but in the end I did most of my planning by myself.

The Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS) conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has shown that American schools tend to not excel at providing the culture and opportunity for teachers to collaborate with each other. I certainly felt that in the beginning of my career.

Too many of my early attempts at collaboration were negative experiences. Instead of working to find innovative ways to help students, I was told over and over why my ideas wouldn’t work. The discussions ended there.  

This caused me to believe that it was best for me not to reach out to others. Looking back I know this wasn’t best for my practice nor my students. I wonder how many current teachers feel this same way.

One year, on a whim, I applied for a week-long residential summer professional development session. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I love to learn and I love to travel, so it seemed like a
perfect opportunity.

What I thought would be a fun week away learning new concepts ended up completely transforming my professional career.

So much so, that when I now reflect on my life as a teacher, I think of BPD (before professional development) and APD (after professional development).

What happened at this life-changing event?

How did it transform a teaching career in 5 short days?

What changed me really had nothing to do with the content. It had EVERYTHING to do with the people.

You see, at that session, I walked into a room and found myself surrounded by 35 other people
who were as enthusiastic as I was to grow as a professional. I found teachers whose passion for teaching matched mine. I found teachers who experienced the same joy that I experienced in lesson planning. I found teachers who wanted to sit and talk for hours about strategies and resources. I found teachers who couldn’t get enough of whatever could be done to help their students succeed.

In short, I found my people.

I was astounded. I went in thinking that I was alone.

I left knowing the true value of an authentic professional learning community.

Nine years later, I have attended at least 20 other PD sessions just like the first one and I have added hundreds of teachers to my Professional Learning Community (PLC). I have used what I’ve learned from these teachers around the world to engage and inspire the teachers in my school, my school district, and beyond.

I have even stepped into leadership roles planning and facilitating learning opportunities for other teachers.

I like to think of it as helping my fellow teachers to find their people.

Professional development isn’t the only place to build a PLC. As part of my professional journey, I have found that social media is a networking teacher’s dream.

Twitter, Facebook groups, and Instagram are all ways to connect with inspirational teachers from around the globe. Memberships in professional organizations like the Pennsylvania Teachers Advisory Committee (PTAC) and the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Network of State Teachers of the Year (NSTOY-PA) have helped me to add even more teachers to my PLC.

Finding other people who share your passion and commitment is exponentially transformative. In this act of networking is the recognition of our passion in the faces of others. Finding one another is powerful. Maintaining those connections is transformative.

Amy Poehler was 100% correct when she said, “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”

It changed mine.

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A few years ago, the education department at Elizabeth College wanted to present me with a Distinguished Alumni award. My first reaction was to ask them if they had the right person.
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I was surprised by the honor at first. My surprise soon turned to excitement as I realized the incredible opportunity this would afford me to talk about a group of students that are often forgotten in our school systems.

Late bloomers.

Anyone who has children or has worked with children knows that children learn and develop at different speeds.

When I think of my own children, my eldest daughter would be considered a daffodil or a crocus. She was an early bloomer. Betsy knew in 8th grade that she wanted to be a doctor. When her classmates were reading romance novels and adventure books she was reading books written by medical school interns and residents. She was researching colleges with the best acceptance rates to medical school while others were still thinking of what they wanted to do after high school. Betsy has followed her dream and is now in medical school.

My younger daughter is a rose or delphinium. Emily is a summer bloomer. She spent her high school years looking at her strengths and interests. After looking at six or seven different occupational paths she has finally found her passion and is focused on a career in chemistry. She enjoyed high school and is working hard at university taking classes and doing research.

I am a late bloomer. Like a chrysanthemum, I let all of the other spring and summer flowers bloom before me. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do my senior year in high school. There was no particular college that I had in mind. It was made clear to me by others that I was expected to attend college, though. After 4 years of college and a degree, I still had no idea what my calling was in life.

I attended college for 4 years and still didn’t feel ready to start a career.

I was fortunate enough to find teaching more than a year after getting my college degree. That year allowed me to mature and to realize that being a teacher was what I was meant to do.

In Robert Kraus’s book “Leo the Late Bloomer,” the protagonist is a tiger who isn’t keeping up with his classmates in school. His father is very concerned that his struggles will keep him from succeeding in life, but his mother keeps stressing that Leo will “grow in his own good time.” Of course, in the story Leo ends up proving his mother correct.

Like Leo and I, many of our students just need some time to bloom. With the right encouragement and nurturing, they will be fine. Our system expects all of our children to learn at the same rate, but as teachers we know that each individual learns and grows at their own pace. No child should be discouraged or penalized because they develop faster or slower than their peers.

A family friend once told me that his father was fond of giving the following advice. “Bloom where you are planted.”

I was planted at Elizabethtown College, where the motto was “Educate to Serve.” I clearly remember convocation when I first arrived. I don’t remember who I was sitting next to or how long the ceremony was that night. The only thing I remember is thinking how important it was to serve others.

During my time at Elizabethtown I germinated and grew strong roots. I joined clubs and groups, worked at the snack bar, attended my classes, and was exposed to a wide variety of different people.

It was a blessing to have wonderful friends and professors during that time. When I made mistakes, they believed in me, forgave me, and helped me grow. Those mistakes and lessons I learned from them made me who I am today.

Those lessons helped me bloom when it was my time.

When I have a student who is struggling in my classes, I always ask myself, “Could this be a late bloomer?”

I want to make sure that I am giving the encouragement, support, and assistance to each of my students that was given to me during the times in my life that I needed it.

Here are 5 ways that you can ensure all the flowers in your classroom, including the late bloomers, get what they need:

1. It only takes one person to make a change. We often talk about change and how it should happen. But we wait around hoping for someone to lead us in that change. Don’t wait for that person. BE that person.

2. Everyone makes mistakes. I certainly made lots of them, and I still make them at times. All of us do. Take responsibility, ask for forgiveness, learn from the mistake, and try not to repeat it. Model for students what learning from mistakes looks like. Hiding this part of yourself from them robs them of an opportunity to learn from you.

3. Don’t give up on kids. At times change takes place right away. Other times, change may take a lot longer. Be patient with your students.

4. Give change a chance. Allow students to have agency in your classroom. The more flexible and open-minded you are, the more students have an opportunity to grow and thrive.

5. Model innovation and problem-solving for students. If they see that you don’t have all the answers, and they learn from you how to go about finding solutions to the problems in their world, they will have more opportunity to develop into their best selves.

On Saturday, October 6th, the Pennsylvania Teachers Advisory Committee was excited to welcome our newest members at an orientation and training in Mechanicsburg. Our new members represent a wide variety of locations and teaching settings in the Commonwealth - from Philadelphia to rural areas in the northwestern part of the state. 

After completing the initial training, members are eligible to participate in helping PTAC provide substantive information and feedback to stakeholders in Pennsylvania that make education decisions. The diversity of teaching settings, expertise, and viewpoints in the organization allows us to provide decision makers nuanced and varied narratives from a wide variety of schools.

Membership applications to the Pennsylvania Teachers Advisory Committee are reviewed on a rolling basis and new member trainings are scheduled several times throughout the year. The application takes about 5 minutes to complete and can be found at at http://ptacvoice.org/apply-to-join-ptac . 

As summer winds down, and a new school year peeks around the corner, I can’t help but be filled with a sense of excitement, and even a bit of trepidation, about what this new school year will hold.
 
Even though I’ve been teaching for nineteen years, I always get a bit nervous at the beginning of a new school year. It’s not about the content, or my colleagues, or even my district...for me, it’s always about the students and what kind of relationships we will share.
 
A few short months ago, I said goodbye to a group of children with whom I had bonded deeply. We learned together, we laughed and we cried together, but more than anything, I developed a unique relationship with each and every student in my class. Some of the relationships came naturally, but for quite a few, we had to work hard for many months to grow something meaningful.
 
No matter how difficult it may seem at times, the most important goal I have each year is to develop a relationship of kindness and respect with every child in my classroom.
 
Even though I am not a gardener, developing these relationships with my students always reminds me of the stages of plant growth. Our students come to us as seedlings. It is up to teachers to give those seedlings exactly what they need in just the right amount in order for them to thrive and grow. There are so many qualities our students need each day, but what I have found is that the needs of each student are often quite different.
 
Some students need a whole lot of kindness and empathy, while others need structure and high expectations. Some will thrive with praise, while others will shrivel in the spotlight. Some students bring so much baggage into the classroom, that they will require a great deal of patience and tenacity in order to break through their tough outer shells.
 
It is not always easy to determine what each student needs, but if teachers take the time to work through the possibilities, eventually, we will find exactly what each student needs in order to take root and flourish.
 
As students begin to feel comfortable, and they know that their teachers care about them, they begin to sprout. At times the growth is slow and steady. Sometimes you may question if any growth is occurring at all, but it is during those times that the roots are taking hold.
 
Students are seen taking risks, believing in their own abilities, and demonstrating confidence that wasn’t there earlier in the year. Students begin persevering in tasks that are hard, not necessarily because they want to, but because they know their teachers believe they are capable. You start hearing student conversations and are surprised to hear your words echoed in their own.
 
These are the times when you realize that your seedlings are starting to bloom as a result of the relationships that you started building with them on day one.
 
For me, the most important part of being a teacher is not about covering content.
 
I am confident enough in my skills and abilities as a teacher to know that the content will be taught, but that isn’t the main focus in my classroom. I am focused on teaching my students to be better, kinder human beings, and to send them out into the world a better person than they were when they arrived.
 
It is almost impossible to achieve that goal without first developing good relationships.
 
So, as we begin a new year with a new group of students, please remember to take the time to nurture your seedlings and grow strong relationships.
 
I can promise that if you do so, you will have a great year with an amazing display of blooms at the end of the year!