Teacher of the Year

Normally, I do not sleep the night before school starts because I am so excited about starting a new year. This year, I did not sleep the night before because I was so worried about how school would actually open the next day because I felt we were so ill-prepared. I quickly realized there were very few routines and procedures in place from record keeping to starting the day. In a meeting with the teachers, I referred to our district policy on student transportation and I was introduced to a phrase that I hear too often, “This is Brighton and that does not work here.” I call this dysfunctional attitude the snake of Brighton.

Two years ago, when I first visited Brighton, there was actually a kindergarten classroom that had a problem with snakes. I was in this room one day with a teacher from Federal Programs when we begin finding small snakes. After we found the fourth snake, she and I looked at each other and said we are closing this room. We went to the office to talk to the principal and discovered she was at a meeting. We told the school secretary our plans and she informed us that the snakes had been a problem in this classroom for two years! We found the custodian, who actually had a snake catcher for one of his tools, and the three of us went to the room where we began to sack up everything. Over a period of two days, 16 snakes were found in this room. I was relieved when I was told the snakes were not poisonous. However, this was not the issue, the issue was that children do not need to be in classrooms with snakes! Someone said to me “ I guess it took the Teacher of the Year to do something about the snakes.” This annoyed me because this should have been taken care of two years earlier for the sake of the children not because I was there. District maintenance workers came that day and repaired the hole in the wall where the snakes were entering the room. An exterminator was called to come set off a snake balm and children were moved to the music room. The children stayed in the music room for three weeks with no chairs and tables. I am astonished when people wonder why the children in this school are not achieving at the expected level.

The snake situation is very symbolic of the gap in the standards we have for schools with high poverty. I live in area where we have four very affluent school systems nearby. I am sure if there was ever a snake in any of these schools, the problem would immediately be addressed. Parents would simply not allow this situation. Yet, in my school this was tolerated because- “This is Brighton.”

Ironically this year. I was placed in “the snake room”. I felt like this was probably my just reward for telling this story. However, I was moved the third week of school because we added an additional kindergarten class and I am happy to report it has been a snake-free year.

Please continue to send in your comments and questions.

Posted by at 12:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)

Brighton School has been under the mandates of School Improvement for the last four out of five years. For two years, the school has offered school choice as an option. As a result, we have lost about eighty students a year to other schools. Supplemental Services have been added and this year the first phase of restructuring the staff began as a new principal was hired. There was great difficulty in finding a principal for the school and it was ten days prior to school starting before a principal was in place. The teachers and the community became very frustrated with this process. I am sure this is a common problem in hard to staff schools. By some very unique events, one of my former principals was finally hired. I can not tell you how glad I was to hear Margie Curry’s voice on the phone when she called and told me the news. As I recorded in my journal, “A miracle-Ms. Curry is going to be my principal. Oh me of little faith!”

On the downside of this good news, Ms. Curry immediately asked me to change from my teaching position in Second Grade Teacher to Curriculum Coordinator for our K-8 school. I was really looking forward to having my own classroom again. I had recruited my son to come from Tennessee and help me get my room ready. In fact, we were both covered in paint when I received her call. At the time, I did not feel I could refuse her anything knowing how far behind we were in being prepared to open school. Furthermore, I thought this could possibly be the opportunity I had searched for to use the knowledge I gained in earning my Doctorate in Educational Leadership with the emphasis on Teacher Leadership. Maybe now I would have a chance to really see if a teacher without becoming an administrator can become a true school leader.

I started my first day at Brighton full of high hopes and lots of positive energy. I am one of those people who usually sees the glass half full. I inherited this “pie in the sky” attitude from my father who at 88 years-old wakes up everyday and says, “It’s a new day!” When I reflect on how I must have appeared to the faculty on that first day, I know now many of the teachers would echo what my brother said about my father’s cheery outlook, “Can’t he just wake up one day and not be happy!” I am sure I totally irritated the teachers as I gave the morning inspiration about how happy I was to be a part of their school and how I had made a special trip to the Shrine of the Sacred Hearts in Hanceville, Alabama to pray for our year. It is not that prayer is not valued, but this is really the last thing you want a pious newcomer say to you when you have been trying to survive in a school labeled failure. I really owe the faculty and staff an apology. I had no idea the stress involved in working under these conditions. I actually thought I had the answers needed to turn this school around. The afternoon of the first day, I began to understand how little I knew.

I will be posting updates about my experiences at Brighton every week and I would like to hear your comments and questions.

Posted by at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)

Several years ago, I went with my son's church on a mission trip to rural Alabama. Even though I had been a teacher in a Title I School for many years, I was not prepared for the poverty I saw that summer. When I returned to my classroom in August, I looked at my students and I realized there was one role as a teacher I had neglected and that was the role of being a voice for children, especially children in poverty. This information became my burden and I knew I had to do something with this new knowledge. I just did not know where to start.

A few months later, my colleagues at Leeds Elementary nominated me for State Teacher of the Year. This was the first time our school had ever participated in this program. At the time,I was not sure my being singled out was a good thing because my colleagues were such outstanding teachers and I had learned so much from each one of them. However, my co-workers seemed very excited about the possibility of my being named State Teacher of the Year. One question on the application asked what issue do you consider to be most important in education today. I liked this question because it was an opportunity for me to use my teacher voice. I wrote about equity in education. After being named Alabama's 2002 State Teacher, this became my platform and the issue I addressed in my speeches. I continued with this theme during my term as the 2003 National Teacher of the Year.

While traveling as State Teacher, I learned that not only was local funding inequitable in Alabama, but also the teacher quality in our most needy schools was often lacking. I became convinced we had to have our strongest teachers in our weakest schools. I knew after my term as National Teacher, I would return to my school system and go to the most needy school in our district--Brighton. So, on August 4, 2004, I began my work as Curriculum Coordinator at Brighton School with very high hopes of making a difference and following my conviction.

Posted by at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)