Author: Holly King

43 days. There are a short 43 days left in my instructional year. As I ponder how I will continue to engage my students during those 43 days, my mind wanders to what will engage me – as a professional – during the last stretch towards the finish line.

I teach in a building with 45 other educational professionals. While we are independently responsible for our own rosters of students, we are a team focused on the same goal – preparing students for the next leg of their life journey – academically and socially. This time of year, we are challenged to maintain high expectations and continue learning, even when the students might prefer to be outside in the beautiful spring sunshine. Teachers are using every educational strategy to engage students as we review for exams.

What about the teachers? Teachers are feeling the stress of exams and the end of the year frenzy just as much as the students. What keeps a teacher going when kids would rather relish in the spring sunshine, the “to do” list gets longer while the number of days gets shorter, and everyone seems to be in a rush to check boxes as “complete”?

This quote speaks to me – particularly this time of year. I use this philosophy with my students to spark a stronger work ethic. I appreciate their work – so they give me a little more. I appreciate their attention to manners, to guidelines, to meeting expectations and to maintaining the same principles that we have had all year. By appreciating their efforts, both in large groups and individually, my students continue to surpass my expectations, even with 43 days left.

Teachers are students, too. With budgets dry and limited hours, what can be done to appreciate teachers so that they, too, will continue to exceed expectations during that last month of school? While I cannot speak for all, this is what motivates me:

Get to Know Me

Relationships are the number one ingredient in my educational environment. In my class, we start building those relationships on Day #1 – and, I work diligently to overcome barriers that surface throughout the year. As a teacher in the building, I thrive on that same camaraderie with my administrative team and colleagues. When an administrator knows me – what is important to me, can identify my strengths, help me strengthen my weaknesses and celebrate my growth – I am willing to be innovative, am resilient to failures and am confident in my efforts. There will be times when our conversations are challenging. However, if we have a relationship that is built on mutual trust with a focus on the same goal, we minimize the level of awkwardness, allowing us both to move forward in the best interest of all stakeholders.

Model Innovative Practices

Be just as innovative in leadership as you expect me to be in my classroom. Just like I am expected to be organized, current, thorough and collaborative with my student/parent communication, I expect the same from my administrative team.Talk to me about ways that I can professionally grow and collaborate with me on how to reach those goals. Allow me to share areas that need improvement in our building – as, if we are going to embrace a student-centered, growth mindset, then no area of our learning environment is immune to that reflective practice, including building leadership. Evaluate every meeting agenda, audience and expectation – how can these be more efficient? In evaluating efforts, be open to recommendations about every practice. What dated practices can be revisited and revamped? For example: can we rethink the “End of Year CheckOut List” where teachers spend hours trying to find someone to sign a document – only to learn that person is off-campus for lunch or not back until Tuesday. Isn’t there a better way to do it? Innovative methods are not just for classrooms.

Involve Me

Students appreciate being kept “in the loop”. Teachers are no different. When thinking about school improvement, consider teacher voices. ALL teacher voices. While some teachers exercise their voices louder than others, I promise that ALL teachers have thoughts on student discipline, professional development, instructional evaluations, school schedules and teaching assignments. By building bridges between leadership and faculty, opportunities surface for all teachers to have input on improvement. Exercising a voice in the decision-making process may result in a team of teachers more open to building changes and innovative initiatives.

In stepping away from this post, I recognize a  common thread:
The importance of relationships.

Talk to me. Collaborate with me. Involve me.

In turn, I will move mountains for you.

Together, we really are better.

For fifteen years, I taught advanced science courses in an independent, college-preparatory school. With a degree in Biology and Chemistry, I felt confident with my content and could easily deliver advanced concepts to students who were academically driven, trained in traditional educational methods and had the support of parents who valued education. While the content and pace of the courses were challenging, the actual teaching was not.

Fast-forward three years: After a move to a new area, I find myself in a local public school teaching a ninth-grade honors-level science course. After one semester, it was clear that my fifteen years of traditional methods were not working for anyone. I longed for ways to stretch my gifted students while engaging all students. I was unsure how to write true, differentiated lessons plans using data from my classes while still being a wife and mother. After all, I only have 24 hours in each day!

About that time, I received information about positions available in a new Gifted Education Certification Program. If accepted, I would enter into a cohort of teachers who would, together, complete the graduate courses required to add “K-12 Gifted Education Certification” to our teaching licenses. Four short weeks later, I entered my first course towards certification. My, how my classroom has changed since then.

In my first Gifted Education Class, our instructor taught our content through methods that work well with a gifted population. As I learned the characteristics of gifted students, I realized that she was describing the very same students in my previous school who was I able to connect so effortlessly. Surprisingly, she was also describing me.

Throughout middle and high school, I found “school” easy – and, I’m sad to say, boring. A few teachers – Ms. Kincaid and Mr. Grogan – lit intellectual fires for. However, by and large, school was mundane. It was not until I entered upper level science/math classes or challenging math competition teams that my brain fired on all cylinders. I was the kid who completed advanced logic puzzles for fun. I read the unabridged books and the anthology of Edgar Allen Poe. For fun. I was different. Uncomfortable. Always outside of the circle.

My 15 years as a teacher in a college-preparatory, independent school placed me in a classroom with dozens of students just like me. I easily taught them, because I identified with them. I am those students – 20 years later. Only, I did not realize this until I started to study gifted education. Interestingly, the gifted coursework was easy because I live it every day. I am sensitive to the social and emotional needs of these learners and can help them grow in weaker areas – as I share these needs and areas of growth. I understand how to gently challenge these students for I can envision how I would need to be gently challenged. I empathize with their uncertainties, need for perfectionism, desire for acceptance and overwhelming stress that accompanies a brain that seems to never rest – for my brain, too, works like that.

The courses in Gifted Education tied everything together for me. And, in doing so, turned my classroom upside down. Gone is the “one size fits all” instruction. My classroom is now filled with powerful student voices, self-pacing and lots (and lots) of educational chatter. In our learning space, we work in small groups, move, write on desks and use technology every day. Expect the unexpected.

I read this tweet today:

If your students aren’t influencing what you are doing, you are doing it wrong.

This is why I challenged myself to earn an advanced certification in Gifted Education. Students – through their silence – were speaking volumes.
I listened.

Our students need us to participate in additional professional development.
Our students need us to learn new strategies and methodologies.
Our students need us to continue to grow so we can meet their ever-changing needs.

Years ago, teachers listened to me silently express my needs.

Are you listening?

Anyone who knows me is fully aware of my deep love for sea turtles. While my family does live on the coast, my attraction for this beautiful creature started long before we moved here. In moving to the Outer Banks, my family began volunteering with the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles (NEST). Through this organization, we work year-round to protect our sea turtle population. In early summer, we comb our beaches for new turtle nests to mark and, 60 days later, we sit these nests to protect the hatchlings as they make their journey to open water. In the winter, we rehab cold-stunned turtles in our rehabilitation facility. Throughout the entire year, we educate our locals and guests on turtle nests, life cycles, rehab and all of the awesome things about being involved with the organization.

Only recently did it dawn on me: What is my connection to sea turtles? Did I seek out a volunteer opportunity? I think that my connection is much deeper than this. I’ve studied, observed and worked with sea turtles for four years. This is what sea turtles have taught me:

1. Sea turtles believe that home is where the heart is. 

Female sea turtles return to the beach on which they hatched to lay their own nests – 20+ years later. While I may have left my home for high school and college, settling down many miles away to raise my family, I always felt the tug to return home. Now, 20 years later, I have returned to that home. To my home, I bring the experiences, wisdom, and knowledge of my travels to blend with all of the comforts of feeling like I belong.

2. Turtles cry, but not because they are sad. 

Yes, turtles cry! However, it is because they have glands that rid excess salt from their eyes. Sometimes, I cry, too – when I’m proud, happy, emotional, stressed and – of course – when I’m sad. It’s ok to cry. Turtles do it!

3. Life is better with a team

Did you know that turtles hatch underground several days before they emerge? In fact, they often wait until all of the hatchlings emerge before they make their way to the surface. By rising and emerging together, they increase the likelihood that a few of them will successfully make it to the ocean. Survival of the fittest. Turtles figured out the power of teamwork millions of years ago… Let’s follow suit!

4. Follow the light

Immediately after breaking the surface of the sand, hatchlings sprint towards the brightest light available – hopefully, the white caps of the ocean or the reflection of the moon. (Note: Light restrictions on beachfront property prevent turtles from traveling in the wrong direction!) Following the natural light guides the turtles into the first leg of their journey. As an educator, I must also follow the light – new people and experiences that positively impact my growth as an educator, so that I am invigorated to implement innovative techniques in my classroom with passion and energy.

5. Just keep trying

Have you ever seen a hatchling encounter a wave for the first time? These little bitty turtles, about the size of an Oreo cookie, get pushed onshore by incoming waves, sometimes flipped upside down, yet they remain undeterred. No matter how powerful the wave or how long the trek, they flip back over with their eyes sternly on their goal, and simply TRY AGAIN. And again. And again. With each attempt, they get stronger, more determined and learn something. There is a lesson here.

For over ten years, sea turtles have been calling my name. Yet, it wasn’t until just this week that I fully realize all of the lessons that they have to teach me. This summer, I plan to spend many hours by turtle nests – enjoying beach guests, meteor showers, Space Station flyovers, breathtaking sunsets, fellowship with other NESTers…
and, if I’m blessed, a baby hatchling or two or 100!

Turtle on!