Educational Leadership

related to lesson design, instructional strategies, and child development had not fully prepared me for the realities of the classroom. As I worked through that five-week practicum experience, my learning curve was nearly vertical. On the final day, a 2nd grade student gave me a hug, accompanied by the comment, “I’ll never forget you, Mr. Hewson.” At that moment, I felt like a teacher. Making that connection with a student represented the genesis of what has been a rich and rewarding career.

—Kurtis Hewson, faculty associate, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Students Can Light Up the World After my freshman year in college, I had the opportunity to work as a 5th grade English teacher in New Orleans. My students and I used many of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches to study aspects of the English language. As a final project, students wrote their own “I Have a Dream” speeches about a problem in the world they were determined to solve. During the program’s final celebration, my students stood in front of an auditorium filled with 500 parents and community members and shared their dreams. The audience was stunned, remaining silent for several minutes after the last speech. At that moment, I realized the power young people possess. When they are challenged in a supportive environment, all children have the ability to light up the world as my students lit up the auditorium. The desire to give all young people the opportunity to fulfill this potential inspired me to begin working with the Durham community in 2005 to start Student U, a year-round program that provides academic enrichment for students who are at risk of becoming disengaged from education.

Opening Students’ Eyes

My first few years of teaching, I worked in a high school that had limited racial, socioeconomic, and religious diversity. One day, my literature class was studying Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” when I noticed one of my students staring at me with an incredulous expression. Later, he shared that he was stunned when I mentioned to the class that I did not fully understand some parts of Edwards’s sermon because I was raised in the Jewish faith. I was the first Jew he had ever met, and he had always been taught that the yarmulke Jews wear was to cover their horns. Because I had no horns and wore no yarmulke, he didn’t know what to believe.

That was the moment when I realized my job was about more than just teaching literature and writing; it was about establishing relationships and helping students grow and expand their worldviews. It was also about opening myself up to the fact that not all students bring the same background, knowledge, and experiences to the classroom.

—Marc Cohen, principal,

Seneca Valley High School, Germantown, Maryland

Smart Is Something You Become

The moment when I first felt like a real teacher is crystal clear to me. You could feel the energy in the room as my student, Israel, suddenly realized the progress he had made. I am a firm believer that smart is not something you are, but something you become. I am also certain that students’ beliefs can powerfully influence their success. Israel realized that in our time together he was indeed getting smarter. This was a pivotal moment in both our lives.

I initially became an educator because I had a teacher who believed in me when others before her hadn’t. She was the first person that looked beyond the surface and embodied the belief that I could indeed become smarter. From that moment on, my mission has been to help people become smarter. To this day, that is when I most feel like a “real” teacher.