Educational Leadership

The First Time You Felt Like a Real Teacher

Tell Me About . . .

This month, in
honor of the
10th anniversary
of ASCD’s
Outstanding
Young Educator
Award (OYEA)
program, we
asked recent OYEA
recipients and
finalists to share
their stories.

“Air Quotes” and Empowerment

As a part-time volunteer teacher in a Massachusetts prison my first year of college, I was teaching a lesson on how to use quotation marks. As I explained, I used “air quotes” to emphasize where the quoted part of an example fell in the full statement. A man in the class shouted gleefully, “I get it! I never knew what people were doing when they did that with their fingers, and I always felt too dumb to ask.” He looked at his paper and stated that he couldn’t wait to use quotation marks now that he understood “air quotes.” We all laughed as a class— including him—because this small event felt so miraculous.

Working in the prison, I witnessed the impact
that a flawed education system can have on indi-
viduals—and the power
that teachers have to
influence lives. I realized
that this profession pro-
vided a way to share
both laughter and the
empowering exchange of
knowledge.

—Deirdra Grode, K– 8 codirector/principal, Hoboken Charter School,

New Jersey

Home Cooking

During my first year teaching a bilingual 2nd grade class in a Title I school, I felt nervous and tentative. I enjoyed the work and believed I was making a difference, but as the months went by, I felt myself getting buried by the demands of teaching. Then came parent-teacher conferences! On a whim, I offered parents the option of hosting conferences in their homes. All but three selected that choice. The experience had an indelible effect on my career. Not only did I strengthen my relationship with families, but I also got a feel for my students’ lives outside the classroom—and ate many a delicious,

home-cooked meal. For the rest of that year, our classroom ran itself. The children were wonderful, the parents were ultra-supportive, discipline problems disappeared, and the academic growth of my students was documented in almost every assessment. As for me, I knew I had arrived as a professional educator.

—Pete Hall, principal, Shaw Middle School, Spokane, Washington

Combining My Passions

To be honest, I was not one of those young people who dream of becoming a teacher. I got an MBA and planned to be an entrepreneur or a marketing manager. But I wanted something more than a lucrative pay package. The words of Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” guided me. So after a short stint as a marketing manager, I decided to accept a position as a computer instructor. It was a radical decision that stunned many around me, but I enjoyed every minute of dealing with young, bustling minds. After a couple of years, I was given the task of teaching business to grade 11 and 12 students. Bingo! This combined my three passions—entrepreneurship, information and communications technology, and teaching.

I started experimenting with teaching methodologies and various assessment styles. I took risks; I flipped my classroom to make it more student-centered and more focused on preparing students to be 21st century citizens. My students who had often been written off in traditional education started flourishing and becoming confident. Many are now successful businesspersons and professionals. When I see them, I feel that it was worth sacrificing one corporate career to shape hundreds. I am proud to be “just” a teacher.