DC - Day 1 (5/2)

Monday was so exciting. We all arrived at breakfast early to hello to folks we did not get to see on Sunday night! It was so exciting to meet the families of my friends and to catch up since our time in Dallas.

We were all taken the The Smithsonian and as a large group we learned more about the Smithsonian's history. Then we broke into our small groups for a few hours. Each group was asked to tweet activities, thoughts, and questions. If you would like to know more about each individual groups activities, go to twitter and search #SIDAY. There are some insightful tweets about our day!

(With my small group at the National Museum of American History)

My group's activities took place at the National Museum of American History! I could have spent a few days in this museum! Between Ric Flair's cape, Dorothy's ruby red slippers, and the Greensboro lunch counter, I was in heaven! We enjoyed the opportunity to tour parts of the museum and learn more about President Lincoln. We talked a great deal about teaching with objects. Every object tells a story! At the conclusion of our tour, we were able to participate in an activitiy and collaborate with our colleagues about ways to use what we learned today in our classrooms! Then we returned to the Smithsonian for lunch and to share reflections, It was fabulous! I learned so much and I am sure I will post about "objects" we learned about soon!

After the Smithsonian, we were off to the Vice President's residence to meet Dr. Jill Biden. Secret Service checked our IDs (though they did say my purse needed it's own zipcode!) and off we went! Dr. Biden was so down to earth and we all loved that she continues to teach. Her words to us were just what I needed to hear. During her first year of teaching, she taught my dear friend Joe, the Delaware Teacher of the Year. We had a great time.
( with Dr. Biden)
I will confess that I dropped my professionalism briefly and talked the DOE photogrpaher into letting me use the really cool professional camera. I took photos for some time and loved every minute of it! Thanks Joshua for letting me shoot photos at the VP's residence! It truly added to an already exciting day!

(Wilma from Massachusetts, me, Cheryl from Florida, and Joe from Delaware)

(Jay from Washington and Kristen from Hawaii at the VP's residence)


(The 2011 TOY class with Dr. Biden)

Capturing DC

Wow! I cannot believe that last week I was in Washington DC at the Smithsonian and preparing to meet Dr. Jill Biden! What an incredible week it was! This was the second conference of the State Teachers of the Year and it was so incredible! Though we all just met for the first time in January (Dallas, Texas) we have formed friendships that will last a lifetime! We have laughed together, cried together and supported each other since January! From texts that are sent at just the right time to Facebook posts that make us laugh, we are truly a bonded group of passionate, inspiring and dedicated teachers. We all talked about how underserving we each felt to have this honor and how truly amazing the teachers we work with every day are to us and to our communities. If you ever doubted that great teachers exist in the U.S., please email me and I will give you more amazing classroom teachers to visit than you could possibly get to see in a few years! Yes, public education has its problems. What organization does not? But do not ever doubt that that life-changing, passionate, dedicated and professional educators fill classrooms across our nation!


We had the opportunity to participate in so many things and to meet so many people, including President Obama! I think it may be easier to blog about each day separately. So if you are interested, feel free to follow the crazy week in day-by-day blog posts!

Overall Reflections:

1. Teachers are special people. They are dedicated to changing the world one child at a time. We love our jobs! We love our students and in stand in awe of each other and our colleagues at school! One thing I think we all have in common is that we entered teaching with an unbridled passion to change the world and we still believe we can!

2. You can say "If I could meet the President, I would tell him..." all you want. The reality is you may well find yourself star-struck and speechless! (Y'all know me well enough to know that my name and speechless do not go in the same sentence. Yes, I talked to President Obama!)

3. Dr. Jill Biden's speech to the 2011 State Teachers of the Year was just what I needed to hear. I was so impressed by how real she is! You can check in out on youtube!

4. When I heard some of my fellow TOYs speak at the U.S. Department of Education, I was so inspired! If you passion for teaching is dying, listen to some of my colleagues and your flame will be rekindled!

5. Regardless of the age, the socio-economic status or the ability level of our students, or the subject we teach, educators are inspired to collaborate with each other to help make our students better thinkers and overall better people.

6. Even though we are teachers with a few years of experience under our belts, we long for quality professional development so that we can continue to grow as professionals. Teachers, especially great teachers, are reflective practitioners who are willing to share their strengths and equally willing to admit areas that need improvement We want to be great because we expect our students to be great!

Week of April 25

Our school district was on Spring Break! Like many teachers, I did spend some of my spring break working! I spent some time in the office organizing (or at least trying) and researching. I also spent a great deal of time preparing for my upcoming trip to Washington, D.C. with my fellow State Teachers of the Year. So I only traveled a couple of days this week and my car did not know how to react!

On Monday, I traveled to NCSU to meet with future teachers. Many of the folks in the group will be graduating this May and are excited about becoming teachers in the Public Schools of North Carolina. I talked a great deal about why I love teaching and why teaching is the most amazing career! At the end, a young lady asked me about my less than successful moments. I talked about this difficult reality and also talked about the importance of having hope! I truly believe that every child can learn and that every child can be successful. Even through the less than successful times, I hold on to this belief as it is at the core of who I am as a teacher. No, we don't save them all. However, we try our best to help as many students as we can along our journey. As my good friend from high school, Ray Starling, once said "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." Every child has strengths and as teachers we must always remember this!

I wish each of you the best of luck as you embark on job hunting! Let me know if I can help you in any way!



Me with Allison Bowers (2011-2012 Person County TOY) and Gina Lunsford (2010-2011 Person County TOY)

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to spend some time in Person County. I spent the afternoon with some pretty amazing first, second and third year teachers! I loved that they were all eating ice cream cones when I walked in! They asked great questions and seemed ready to face the challenges that the close of a school year can bring! Thanks for letting me spend the afternoon with you guys! I had fun!
After the session for Beginning Teachers, I met the infamous Dan Holloman (former State Coordinator for the NC TOY program) and then was privileged to attend the Person County Teacher of the Year Banquet. What an exciting evening! I enjoyed meeting the dedicated and inspiring teachers in Person County! Congratulations to Allison Bowers, a math teacher at Person County High School, for being named Person County's Teacher of the Year!

The rest of the week was spent getting ready for my trip to DC. Happy Spring!

Week of April 18

For many of you guys sometime soon marks Spring Break! Whoo! Hoo!
On Monday, I worked in my office and began working some research regarding teacher effectiveness. I am such an education nerd!
On Tuesday, I felt like I was on the Amazing Race as I tried to get everything finalized for my travels to China. Five hours later than anticipated, I jumped in the car and drove to Cullowhee. It does not matter how stressed I am, driving across our beautiful state certainly gives me a chance to think, reflect and unwind. Though it is a long drive "up the mountain", it is truly a beautiful one.
I arrived at NCCAT and spent a couple of hours talking with Jan King about her new role. I will miss spending time with her next year!
On Wednesday morning, I had the amazing opportunity to work with Will and Deni McIntyre. They are truly the dynamic duo. We were working on a video about NCCAT. For me, it is always an honor to talk about the difference NCCAT makes for our teachers and in turn for our students. After hair and make-up by Natalie (she is so awesome!) I found myself in the bright lights with a real marker clapping in my face and the sound of "take one". It was so cool!
Thanks to NCCAT and Will and Deni for allowing me to be apart of this video!

Thursday morning was spent in the office and then it was time for our school's prom. I really enjoyed the opportunity to eat dinner with some of my favorite teachers and friends at Midway High. Prom is always so much fun! I love to see my students all dressed up!



On Friday, I enjoyed a day at home (finally!) with my family.

Weathering the Storm

Over the weekend, North Carolina experienced some pretty devastating tornadoes. As we were all gathered in my grandparent's basement, I stared out of the window and watched the wind bend trees and move everything around. I usually don't panic during bad weather. I have always looked at it with the attitude that I cannot change the weather. I can only prepare for it. But I will be honest and say that this recent round of tornadoes scared me. After things had settled down, I went outside and sat on the front porch of my house to take a deep breath and pull myself together. To give you a better understanding of where this story is going, I will give you some brief family history. I am living in a 1911 farmhouse that has always been in our family. My grandparents raised my mother and my aunt here. My parents raised our family in this house and today, we are raising our children in this very house. Even as child, the front porch swing was my place of refuge and after the storm, I sought that comfortable place.

As I sat on the porch, I looked over at the beautiful pecan tree that is outside my home. I remember that tree when I was growing up for many reasons. First, as a young child I hated having to pick up pecans and secondly, during storms it was the scariest looking tree through my bedroom window! As I sat starring and the beauty of this massive tree, I thought about the numerous storms this tree has weathered. From massive tornadoes in the mid 1980s to Hurricanes Hazel, Fran, and Floyd, this tree has stood strong. Other trees have fallen and even a few branches have dropped from this pecan tree. But through it all, it still stands. Why this tree? Simple, it has strong, deep roots. Strong, deep roots can help weather the most difficult storms.

As I sat there I began to think a great deal about education today. Education has been weathering some pretty intense storms both here in NC and across the United States. Will we survive? Yes we will. We will survive because we are deeply rooted in our belief that all children can learn. We are deeply rooted in supporting each other, even when morale is unbelievably low. We are deeply rooted in the belief that we will continue to change lives and shape the future.
Yes, the tree of education is the midst of a series of challenging storms. We will continue to keep our beliefs strong, lean on each other and let our deep roots carry us through.

Week of April 11

On Monday, I traveled to Henderson County to speak with some pretty awesome BTs. Even though it was a Monday afternoon and a week before spring break, this group was energetic and I enjoyed the opportunity to talk and laugh about the teaching profession. Thanks to Amy Laughter for inviting me to visit! I had a great time.
After speaking to this group, I met my college friend for dinner and a little pre-planning for my space camp costume!

On Tuesday, I enjoyed a little time with Jessica Garner, my mentor and friend, to reflect on this truly amazing year. Jessica is such an inspiring mentor and a true friend. Thanks Jessica for all you have done to help me this year! After a lunch meeting with Jessica, I traveled back to Raleigh for our EPFP meeting. It was a great night and I really enjoyed our speaker!
I also had the opportunity to see the initial draft of the House budget. Needless to say, the speaker was much more inspiring than the budget!

The State Superintendent's Teacher Advisory Council met on Wednesday via webinar. We talked in detail about the proposed House budget and it's impact on public education. I really want to express that education has been cut tremendously over the past years. At this point, we are truly operating in skeleton form and almost ANY cut in education is a cut that will impact the classroom. Taking away support, does indeed leave a lasting impact on my classroom. I encourage you all (especially legislators) to think about the big picture when looking at the education budget.

On Thursday, I traveled to Greensboro to speak with the Delta Kappa Gamma group. We enjoyed a great dinner and talked a great deal about the importance of having solid roots during difficult storms. I ran into a former classmate from Midway and I also met a 1943 graduate of Meredith College. It was a wonderful evening!

(I am standing with a 1943 Meredith graduate and former Social Studies teacher. She is a member of Delta Kappa Gamma.)

The Teachers and Leaders subcommittee of the Governor's Education Transformation Commission (GETC) met on Friday morning and we looked at the guidelines for teacher preparation programs and the importance of the collaborations between IHE and public schools in helping create amazing teachers for the profession. It was an interesting discussion.
I left GETC and traveled to Midway Middle School to serve as the closing speaker for their annual career day! The best part of the day was being introduced by my nephew, Michael McLamb. I had fun with this group of eighth graders! Thanks for inviting me and remember - Go, Go, Power Rangers!

I finished the Friday evening with my son at the Duke Basketball Banquet. This was not really a TOY event, but when you can spend the evening with Coach K, it is worth a line in the weekly blog, don't you think?

Dealing with the Heartbreak of Disappointment

Remember your first heartbreak? To this day, you can still painfully recall that "kicked in the stomach" feeling and the hurt you thought would never go away. Sure, we can all recall this feeling and we convince ourselves that once we pass our adolescent years, this feeling will never return, right? But for those of us who teach, we will inevitably have that feeling of heartbreak before we retire. No it will not be because our first crush just took a job at our school and all of those suppressed middle school feelings resurface. It will be, however, because we will have our hearts heavy with disappointment from one or more of our students. We have done all we know to do. We have encouraged. We have supported. We have lost sleep and even let our own families down to reach out to a student we see heading down the wrong path. Whether the student decides to drop out of school, or she decides to start back using drugs after a few very long months of sobriety, or even whether the student we were trying to help just shuts down and walks away. Most of us in education love our students as our very own children. We hurt for them. We cry for them. We work to help in every way we can. We will save so many, but we must face the harsh reality that truly loving our jobs means we will face disappointment.

I once had someone ask me if I ever embellished my teacher stories or if I ever made up endings to sound good. I have not, but it made me think about why I choose to share some stories and not others. I am always willing to share the ones with the storybook endings, but I am not so open about the ones that left me with tear filled eyes and sleepless nights. "Why don't you talk about those?" asked the stranger sitting next to me. "Can't you teach as much through the stories of disappointment as you can from the stories of success?" I had not thought about it that way before; however, I have thought a great deal about this since our random conversation at a conference earlier this year. Yes, there is much to be learned from the good and the disappointing in our profession. As teachers, we are willing to share the good and talk about the lives we feel we helped to change for the better. We don't talk so much about the ones who broke our spirits by dropping out of school or continuing down the path of poor choices. I could never really answer this person when he asked me "Why don't you talk about that?" So here is my answer:
Teaching is the most difficult job anyone could have. Not because we are asked to wear so many hats or that we feel overworked and under-appreciated. It is because we pour our hearts into our "jobs" and when one of our students makes a poor choice, it is emotional for us. We don't talk about the "disappointments" because it would tear us down too quickly. It is focusing on the things that bring a smile to our face that get us through this very emotionally taxing career. To my fellow teachers who have cried the tears and lost sleep at night, remember that we help more students than we don't. We set unrealistic expectations for ourselves, but that is why we are teachers. Through the good and the bad, the highs and the lows we will always care about our students. We will be proud "parents" when our kids make good choices and rise above. Likewise , we will cry and hurt when we watch them make mistakes.