The Dream Teacher Blog

What the World Thinks about Teachers…

June 28, 2013

So let’s just say I’m a policy maker – a member of a state legislature, for example, who decides what my salary is, who seemingly moves the pieces of my professional life around like a chess game. And let’s say that, even as a legislator, I follow a few teachers on social media. What do we want the world to know about us?

Do we want them to think that we work only nine months…all the while counting down the days to spring break and then summer? Do we want them to think that the only reason we teach is …

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Skipping School

June 3, 2013

My Great Grandmother Maggie was a teacher in a one room schoolhouse. But she was also a teacher in her own house. And that is how it came to be that my mother learned to read when she was four years old.

My Great Grandmother Maggie Elizabeth Wallace Kennedy

My mother had what we in education call a “late birthday” (at the end of October) so she started school at five years old. She had been there for three days when her teacher brought in a pile of books and had her read for an audience of adults as well …

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Accomplished Teaching

May 27, 2013

Once I had a really amazing job working with teachers in my district who were pursuing certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. I had 350 candidates in the school district that now has more National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) than any other district in the country. I facilitated workshops for those candidates including how to write reflectively, how to videotape a lesson, how to “pack a box” of submission materials – it was support for teachers that lasted throughout the school year, and I also served as a trouble-shooter, tech assistant, counselor, and friend as those teachers …

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The Sap Is Rising

April 17, 2013

There’s a knowing look among teachers this time of year…sometimes just a glance, or even a nod, can speak what we all know: the sap is rising in the school building (and we aren’t talking about trees.)

The days between Spring Break and the coveted Last Day of School are some of the most challenging for teachers. First of all, the students are restless, what with all that warm weather and extended daylight and LOVE in the air. In a high school, the research paper due to the AP Physics teacher may take a back seat to the most important …

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Teachable Moment

March 14, 2013

I love it when our country’s focus turns to something positive and especially when that focus isn’t divisive. Such it was this week as we all waited for the new Pope to be named. I had to grin yesterday when one Facebook post after another (most from a long list of Southern Baptist friends) read like this: “White Smoke!” and “We have a new Pope!” and “The Smoke is White!” It seemed to be a warm fuzzy for the whole world!

In other news, I rarely allow a guest post on my blog, although I receive emails about three times …

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Losing Jenny

March 2, 2013

I don’t cry very often these days. As an adult I am aware of so much sadness around me on a daily basis, I could probably cry nonstop…I’m currently following three CaringBridge sites where close friends or their family members are battling cancer, and I know many others who have suffered loss lately…so I usually try to control my tears and work hard to think positive thoughts. Until a few days ago, the last time I really cried was when I saw the first pictures of the Sandy Hook victims. When those adorable faces started floating across my television screen, …

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The King’s English

February 25, 2013

Webster: “The King’s English – worthy to be spoken in the court of the king.”

So….in my city, the only court we talk about involves either a basketball or a judge and jury. But as a teacher with a degree in English, I have to practice such RESTRAINT when I encounter, about nine hundred times a day, someone speaking (or writing) incorrectly. I wonder if math majors get frustrated when they stand behind someone in the grocery store line who struggles counting out change, for example, or if they’re even aware that some of us despise balancing a checkbook.

That …

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National Teacher of the Year Program Conference – Day 4

February 3, 2013

Wow, these four days have flown by! We started the day with compelling conversations about education policy – always a hot topic with Teachers of the Year.

Scott Palmer of the Education Counsel group in Washington, DC provided a presentation entitled “Brave New World: Transforming Teaching and Learning.” He explained that education reform really started back in 1983 with the A Nation at Risk report. Prior to that time ESEA and state level governance provided the only education mandates. Palmer shared that there could be a third “moment” in education – after ESEA in the 60’s and NCLB in the …

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National Teacher of the Year Program Conference – Day 3

February 2, 2013

Darcy’s day started with breakfast and conversations with Missouri’s Teacher of the Year, Cathy Cartier, and Alabama’s Teacher of the Year, Suzanne Culbreth.

I had a conversation with the Teacher of the Year from Utah over lunch today, and I shared that when I was first named a State TOY I knew that I was part of a wonderful and humbling recognition program but that I never knew that there would be so many wonderful professional development opportunities as part of my role. She agreed and figuratively wiped sweat from her brow: we had been “developing” all morning!

The famous …

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National Teacher of the Year Program Conference – Day 2

February 1, 2013

What a packed day today! Darcy Grimes, our NC Teacher of the Year, and I are getting to know more and more State Teachers of the Year and State Coordinators and are establishing friendships and relationships with many amazing colleagues!

The day started with breakfast – they had my favorite Tea Forte – and a presentation  by the spectacular Jon Quam on the history of the Teacher of the Year program. Jon presented slides on each year’s National TOY, beginning in 1952, and spoke about all the teachers, telling a little story about each one. It was so interesting to …

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