(1/9) “I'm not sure what I would do if I weren't teaching. Sometimes I think maybe architecture, because it's math and I like design. But I have a memory from second grade, when they talked about jobs, saying ‘I want to be a teacher'...”
(2/9) “One thing that keeps me going is when students come back and somehow let me know that what I did was impactful for them. Simple things. I've gotten thank you notes in my mailbox the following fall, and sometimes those are really motivating...”
(3/9) “Everything is different about #middleschool. Everything is different about middle schoolers. I love the students in this building. And it seems to be a love/hate kind of thing, where people either think we're nuts for doing this and would never do it, or you love it...”
(4/9) “Teaching is a profession, and it takes serious training and ongoing education. I'm concerned about the things that different states are having to do because there aren't enough people going into the profession. It isn’t a job where you can just walk in the door...”
(5/9) “I think when you're a new #teacher or in that #studentteaching phase, one of the things that comes up a lot is that there are just so many things to think about in the day, and you don't realize how many things you have to be thinking about simultaneously...”
(6/9) “I think teacher #autonomy is a huge way to keep more teachers in the profession. And it varies state to state, district to district, building to building. A lot of it depends on district-level or building-level leadership...”
(7/9) “There are things in education that could be better. There are also a lot of great things happening that people don't look at or don't want to see because they want to send a bigger message, especially when it comes to public education...”
(8/9) “Last year, coming off the COVID year, we did some things in our building to try to address that we knew there were some kids who weren't as engaged and were lagging from where we would like them to be. We weren't sure what our protocols were going to be...”
(9/9) “It is my hope for #education and for the teaching profession that we, in this country, don't continue to allow the rhetoric and the negativity to continue to the point where we talk quality future educators out of being educators...”
(1/11) “When I took over, I noticed that there were behavioral issues for kids who didn't want to do projects like beadworking. And so I started changing my way of thinking about how I structured the whole classroom...”
(2/11) “At the high school, I created a class on #indigenous representation in film. I would show the film, we'd have a short discussion, and then I would have them do a movie review. But then I started thinking about having the kids connect to our ancestors...”
(3/11) “When you start talking about representation, it reverberates out. Not just a historical perspective of indigenous people, but Indigenous Futurisms too. It’s like Black Panther: What would happen to indigenous cultures if they were left uncolonized?”
(1/13) “I was the kid who was under the table with a fireman's helmet on, covering his ears because he didn't understand what people were saying. I would get frustrated all the time because I didn't understand multiple syllable words...”
(2/13) “I was debating between aerospace engineering and education. My parents actually kind of pushed me away from teaching music, because they were both music teachers and that's something they had lived experience with.”
(3/13) “There’s a moment every day that reinforces my commitment to #teaching. Sometimes it has nothing to do with music. Sometimes it's a heart-to-heart conversation in the office about how a kid’s feeling, English class, and how they’re doing – helping them in their lives...”
(1/6) “My mom taught for 30 years. And after I went to grad school she said, ‘Why don't you get some experience in the city schools?’ I did it, and I haven't left. You get really attached to the work and the students, especially once you see them...”
(2/6) “I hope people can better understand the commitment that teachers have in each of those areas that they're called on: from social work, to social-emotional learning and mental health care, to everything outside of that textbook...”
(3/6) “We had a student who’d never done theater before. She was very quiet. She kept to herself a lot. And we are at the point where we assume every child that comes in has experienced some level of trauma. She had hers, without going into detail. But for the most part...”