Week of May 7-13

This has officially been named "recovery week." After an incredible week in Washington, D.C., this week found me catching up on paperwork, finally getting back to EPFP and visiting schools!

On Monday, I began the debriefing of my week and worked a little (okay a ton) to catch up my blog, return emails, file paperwork and begin some research. That evening I also had the opportunity to participate in a webinar through the Center for Teaching Quality on Value-Added Measure. It was an interesting and insightful webinar and it left me pondering many things about collaboration, our profession and effective teacher leaders.

On Tuesday, I had the exciting experience of speaking to over 200 middle school students and their proud parents at Campbell University. These students participated in the Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program) and I was honored to be a part of the awards ceremony. You guys should be so proud of yourselves! For more information on the Duke TIP program visit http://www.tip.duke.edu/

After visiting Campbell University, I traveled to Raleigh and where I was able to reconnect with my EPFP classmates. My schedule had me on the road for the past two weeks and I have missed my weekly dose of education policy. This week our presenter was Chris Fitzsimon, from NC Policy Watch. Mr. Fitzsimon talked about his career paths and provided us much insight on NC policy, especially regarding education. My wheels were turning the entire drive home!

On Wednesday, I continued to catch up on emails, articles, research and attempted to organize my "so-called" office. I truly think someone has broken in my office and rather than taking things, they left things. Will I ever catch up?

On Thursday, I enjoyed lunch with my daughter's second grade and then visited Duplin Early College High School to help judge a few Graduation Projects. Wow, I was impressed! I was amazed at the ideas and presentations of these high school seniors. One of the seniors studied boat building and he built a beautiful boat! Thanks guys for letting me be a part of seeing your senior shine! Great job!

(Senior Chance Houston with the boat he built for his senior project.)

On Friday I spent the day in the office preparing for next week's webinar!

VAM - Post Webinar Reflections

On Monday evening, I had the opportunity to participate in a webinar on Value-Added Measure. We looked at what value-added models can tell us about teacher effectiveness and what they cannot. Dr. Heather Hill of Harvard University led our webinar and shared her research. She has found critical evidence that VAMs are not appropriate for informing high-statkes decisions related to compensation. The dialogue between participants was thought provoking and some interesting points were made. Here are my take-aways:

1. How to best measure teacher effectiveness is a difficult question to answer. Certainly we will need multiple measures over time to determine our most effective teachers.

2. Why does VAM have to focus solely on an individual teacher? Why can we not look at VAM on a school wide level? This would help foster collaboration and encourage us to work together to improve our school and our profession. The general consensus is that policy makers may not be interested in this idea, but honestly I think it is our best approach!

3. RttT will continue to further the dialogue around VAM and how to measure teacher effectiveness. Many districts use VAM, but they do not all use the data in the same way. Some districts use VAM as a part of the teacher's evaluation. Other districts share the VAM data with the teacher(s) in order to help the teacher know and understand where he/she is and where improvements can be made.

4. A whole year's worth of work and it comes down to one test? That is the question that is usually asked about VAM and teacher effectiveness. Yes, we expect our students to grow each year. In addition, we expect them to meet or exceed performance at grade level. However, we must look at some of the test we use as a measure. Are these test aligned with the curriculum taught? Are these test a good measure of the skills and knowledge we want our students to have learned? So many test are simply becoming high stakes trivia pursuit games that test factual recall and do not foster the higher order thinking skills we want for our students.

5. I still have a ton of research ahead of me. I have read numerous articles, talked with a variety of experts and participated in numerous sessions centered around VAM; however, with each I learn that I have more to learn. The measure of a good webinar is whether you leave with new thoughts to ponder. That, I did. My take-aways only scratch the surface of the insight and knowledge I gained during the webinar.

If you would like more info on future webinars with the Center for Teaching Quality or if you would like the link to view the webinar, please email me.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and questions!

Teacher Appreciation

While we were at the US Department of Education last Thursday, we each had the opportunity to thank a teacher who had been an influence our us. I hope you enjoy what some of my colleagues have said about the great teachers in our lives. Thank you!




I wonder how many of my dedicated colleagues will be named in videos in the future? What an amazing job we have!

A Great Big "THANK YOU!"

As I traveled home on Friday, my mind raced with thoughts from the past few days. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would experience something so incredible. I truly wish every teacher could be honored and experience all that the 55 of us experiences last week! This amazing week would not have been possible with out some pretty amazing people! Thanks to the following:
The University of Phoenix awards each State Teacher of the Year a Teaching It Forward scholarship to present to a high school student of their choosing in their respective states and territories.
In addition to the scholarship and support, the University of Phoenix also gave each State TOY a kindle! Thanks University of Phoenix!

Thanks to ING for your continued support. We were given wonderful gifts that included a teacher's dream: a gift card to Office Max! Thanks ING for all that you do for education and in numerous communities throughout our country! You guys are awesome!
Target was also a wonderful sponsor this year. Not only did we get cool Target shirts and get to ride around DC in style on our Target Buses, but Target also gave us flip cameras so that we could capture the week! Target also gave us gift bags full of school supplies and sponsored a tour of DC for us and our families! Target Rocks! Thanks for all you continue to do for education!


The People to People Ambassador Program is a program that all teachers should learn more about! This organization helps teachers and students travel across the US and around the world to gain insight and perspective. In addition to the continued support of the NTOY program, the People to People Ambassador program gives the National Teacher of the Year a trip abroad (Michelle will be going to China) and gives each State TOY a scholarship to help us travel to China next year! How exciting! Thanks guys!

Thanks again to SMART Technologies for the amazing technology package you provide to each State Teacher of the Year. You give us the tools to create modern classrooms and provide the continued support to ensure we are all successful with our new technology! Thanks for keeping us connected and informed! You guys are fabulous!
A very special thanks to CCSSO! Jon Quam and Andy Drewlinger always create a first class experience for us! Thanks to Gene Wilhoit and CCSSO for sponsoring the National Teacher of the Year program.

For more information about the National Teacher of the Year program, visit www.ntoy.org

DC - Day 4 (5/5)

Is today really the last official day? Wow!

We began the morning with a panel discussion and press release of the Model Teacher Leader Standards. It was an interesting panel discussion. Panelists included:
Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director, CCSSO
Barnett Berry, President and CEO, Center for Teaching Quality
Christopher Poulous, Connecticut State Teacher of the Year 2007
Mary Beth Blegen, National Teacher of the Year, 1996
Joellen Killion, Deputy Director, Learning Forward
Katherine Bassett, Director of the Educator Relations Group, ETS
It was an interesting dialogue. More and more teacher leaders are faced with the difficult reality that moving up in education often means moving out of the classroom. As we begin to identify more teacher leaders and train schools and school leaders to effectively utilize our teacher leaders, amazing things are going to happen!

After the press release and panel discussion, we were able to visit the US Department of Education and participate in both round table discussions and a town hall style meeting with senior staff. It was a wonderful opportunity to engage in dialogue with each other and participate in discussions with those who help to shape education policy in the U.S. The Minnesota Teacher of the Year ( and someone I am proud to call my friend), Ryan Vernosh, was invited back to the Department of Education the following day to meet with staff on who focus on turnaround schools.
Danielle Kovach, an amazing person and the New Jersey Teacher of the Year, wrote about our experiences at the Department of Education. (see Danielle's blog)

We each had the opportunity to speak in our small groups and a few of my fellow TOYs spoke on behalf of our group. We were then able each make a video thanking a teacher (or two) who had in impact on our life. What an amazing time of reflection! (see a video of our day at the Department of Ed)
(photo credit: Joshua Hoover, U.S. Department of Education)




After our afternoon at the USDOE, we were honored with a reception by Scott Palmer and Education Counsel. The food and conversation were excellent and view was breathtaking! We also had the opportunity to hear from former Secretary of Education, Richard Riley. What an afternoon!



Then we went back to the hotel to put on our super cool Target shirts, grab our Target flip cameras and bag of Target goodies, grab our families and fill up three Target buses for a tour of DC. What a great time! We had great tour guides and enjoyed the guided evening tour of our Nation's Capital. What a fun evening to share with our families! Thank you TARGET!!




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DC - Day 3 (5/4)

This has truly been a week I will never forget!

We spent the first part of the day training with SMART Technologies. SMART donated an excellent technology package for each State Teacher of the Year. We learned so much during our morning training and each had the opportunity to collaborate and share. We left so excited about the new things we learned! Thanks SMART!

After our morning training at SMART, we took the Target buses back to the hotel and got all dressed up for our evening Gala at the Sphinx. What an elegant evening. Everyone looked amazing and we enjoyed the red carpet treatment. We heard from inspiring speakers and sponsors and the evening was concluded by our National Teacher of the Year, Michelle Shearer's speech. What an evening! I hope you enjoy a few photos from the evening.

DC - Day 2 (5/3) AKA - The day we met the President!

On Monday night we could hardly settle down and get to bed. We were like children on Christmas Eve!

On Tuesday, we all put on our best suits and dresses and prepared to meet the President of the United States. How surreal! The weather was gorgeous and we felt so honored to have this opportunity to speak with President Obama on behalf of the amazing teachers in our states. We stood in line, went through security, some of us (yes, me included) were even told to "hold it down". Such excitement! If you had told me last year, that I would actually meet and talk with the President of the United States, I would not have believed you!

We all filed into the very cool Target Bus and off we went! Wow!

We were each able to meet President Obama and spend a short amount of time in the oval office. Then President Obama announced Michelle Shearer (Maryland) as the 2011 National Teacher of the Year. Congratulations Michelle.

Here are a few more pics from the day!




Click her for a video of the ceremony honoring the 2011 National Teacher of the Year.


After an exciting morning, we were honored by SMART Technologies at dinner. Thanks SMART for your continued support of the National Teacher of the Year Program.