Educational Leadership

Students Take Wing

In my third year of teaching, I taught a newspaper journalism class. One day as the students were working on an issue of the school newspaper, I overheard several of them animatedly discussing a recent problem in the school in which one student used Facebook to disparage another student. Students began referring to what they had learned in our class about slander and how social media aren’t exempt from such laws. Then I heard a student say, “I think we have a story here!” As the entire student staff developed the story and several companion stories about social media and teens, I never said a word—I just sat there smiling. The students completed the issue and published a wonderful story. When I realized that they had learned how to operate without my guidance, I knew I had done my job.

—Chris Canter, assistant principal, Spalding Drive Charter Elementary School,

Sandy Springs, Georgia

Please Stay!

I never intended to stay in education; my plan was to teach for a year and then complete law school. In April of my first year, I informed my principal that I would not be returning. Quickly, word got out to my students and then to their parents, and in the remaining six weeks of the school year I received many heartfelt thank-you notes and kind words from the entire school community. The words of one student, Laron, made a special impression. One day after school as I was tutoring him, he said, “No teacher has ever cared about us as much as you have. There are so many of us who wish you would stay. The biggest lesson you’ve taught us is that life is bigger than ourselves; we must give back to others.” At that moment, I knew I had been in the right profession all along. It’s been more than 10 years since I withdrew my resignation, and I’ve never regretted it.

—Dallas Dance,

chief school officer, middle schools, Houston Independent School District, Texas

Expanding Students’ Worlds

My 9th graders were studying Of Mice and Men
and discussing how characters in the novel had
to cross barriers of intelligence, age, race, and
gender to form unlikely friendships. In relating
the theme to their lives, most students stated that
their social connections did not reach beyond
our community. So we arranged for these 9th
graders in a suburban, coed, public high school
to become pen pals with students at an urban,
all-boys, Catholic high school in the neighboring
county.

A Positive Word

I was teaching 8th graders in an assignment that was challenging for a first-year teacher. I found my third-period class especially difficult. Allen was one of my biggest discipline problems. One day he was cooperative in class; I seized the moment, and that afternoon I called his mom to tell her how proud I was of him. The next morning, as I was going into the school, Allen ran up to show me his new sneakers, a reward from his mom in response to my positive phone call. Allen told other students, who began asking when I was going to call home about them. That’s when I realized the power of building positive relationships with kids—especially those who have learned to push teachers away.

—Susan Kessler, executive principal, Hunters Lane Comprehensive High School,

Nashville, Tennessee
““I am proud to be ‘just’ a teacher.

We want to hear your
stories! Future “Tell
Me About” columns
will feature readers’
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feedback, working with
challenging students,
and more. To see
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and contribute a
response, go to www
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