Sloowww Dowwwnnn....

Imagine this is me only without the drink and replace the water with cement!

I was hoping this week I would be writing about International Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama that all State Teachers of the Year are invited to. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do some astronaut training and connect with teachers all over the world. However, life doesn't always go as planned. Sometimes it sends you the message to SLOW DOWN. On Wednesday of last week, I fainted and did the "Nestea Plunge" straight back on my head. I was out for over 10 minutes and lost my short-term memory for a few hours. After 3 days in the hospital and much pain medication, I am feeling better! I am still missing my sense of smell and taste but all the doctors, including my neurologist (no one should have a neurologist), tell me my senses will come with time - my brain is just swollen right now. Consequently, I missed my flight and the doctors said spinning at 3 G's is not a good idea - I agree! I kept telling my doctors that I was to go to Space Camp Friday and my mom and aunt had made me special "ruby red slippers" to wear as I was going as Dorothy (pictured at left is my Aunt Nancy and my mom). Every state teacher is supposed to dress like something from their state...I was going to go as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Now, evidently I was telling the doctors this along with some other statements that made no sense all along not being able to recall my sons' names. In my report, it says "pleasant female with memory loss and hallucinations of going to space dressed as Dorothy." I busted out laughing at that!!! I bet everyone thought I was really going crazy!


I have since learned about "severe head trauma" and have a new appreciation for athletes who suffer a concussion. It is a very dangerous condition. My oldest son is getting ready to play 7th grade football and I worry about him ever going through this. I know there are safety precautions and protocol in place to make sure athletes don't return to the sport before they are healthy but as a mother, I still worry. I have had many students over the years suffer concussions and now understand what they went through; the headaches, the inability to focus, the vertigo, the nausea. Having this experience will definitely help me in handling students who have to go through this.


Everyone needs to know your state, district, and school's policy on concussions. In Kansas, I can not find any written policy or guidelines regarding an athlete's return to competitive sports. It makes some sense that coaches must rely on a doctor's assessment and release. I hope coaches across the nation take this issue very seriously. The price a student athlete pays is not worth winning. I used to coach and am not sure I understood all the ramifications of a concussion. Lately, there has been much press about concussions (thanks to Trent Green) and we are much more aware....I still worry - it is a "mom thing!"

NEA Foundation and DC

The Panel pictured with me after the interview.

For some of you who know me and are "friends" with me on Facebook, you already know that I have been in Washington, DC being interviewed for the NEA Foundation Horace Mann Teaching Excellence Award. I was selected as a semi-finalist. The Foundation then interviews the top 10 and narrows it down to the top 5 (and selects the winner). This was a great opportunity for me in so many ways and want to share the process with you all. I had 90 minutes with the panel - the first 25 minutes I taught a lesson (pretending the panel were students) - the next 45 minutes were the interview questions. I felt sorry for the panel as these very accomplished people spent 10 hours Monday and 10 hours Tuesday in interviews. Now that is a couple of LONG days! These are the questions they asked and were sent to us ahead of time:

1. Why did you choose this particular lesson for us?
2. What do students take away from your classroom besides knowledge of a particular subject?
3. Describe the greatest impact you believe you have had on a student or students.
4. Please tell us the student body and the community in which you teach.
5. How do you involve parents and the community in your students’ education?
6. How do you help your students to value and understand the diversity (e.g., of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, politics, etc.) represented in our society?
7. Beyond activities in your own classroom, how have you contributed to the success of your school and/or district?
8. How would you convince college students and new teachers that it is vital to join and take an active role in the association?
9. What has been your most significant accomplishment in terms of advocacy for public education or the teaching profession?
10. What professional development experience has most affected your teaching practice?
11. What has been your most significant contribution to the professional growth of your colleagues?
12. Where has your intellectual curiosity taken you recently, and where do you expect it to take you in the future?
13. If you are selected as a finalist, you may get a lot of media attention. What issues related to public education would you want to advance? What would your key concerns and messages be?

Janice Ward with the NEA Foundation - she calmed our nerves, made sure we had everything we needed and fed us!

If any time remains at the end, I could talk on any topic. Hard to believe, but I had 2:24 to talk MORE! So I talked about the drop-out rate and the need to have interventions in place in 6th grade....waiting until high school is often too late. I wish I could report that I gave this wonderfully, perfect lesson but I didn't. My technology crashed in the middle of it and I had to quickly change gears. Consequently I didn't finish the entire lesson. Think I got any credit for adapting and being flexible??? :-)

I learned a lot through this whole experience and have grown professionally and personally. The NEA Foundation does amazing work. There are 3.2 million NEA members in the US and $1 of our dues goes to the Foundation. This Foundation is committed to lowering the drop out rate and promoting teacher innovation (among many other goals). Kansas City just was awarded one of their grants for the planning stages for Closing the Achievement Gap. How awesome is it that our dues are reinvested in educators....we are giving back to ourselves! If you aren't aware of all the Foundation's work, focus, grants, and awards - check it out here.

Harriet Sanford, President of The NEA Foundation

I was treated fantastic while in DC - like a professional! The hotel was incredible and the people were friendly and passionate. Harriet Sanford, President of the NEA Foundation gave me a book, Three Cups of Tea, to read. Can you believe this was on my list to read? It was perfect!!!! I have already read about half of it and it is inspiring to read about how one person is changing lives through education! I continue to learn and grow with each experience and have a new appreciation and awareness of the NEA Foundation. Thank you for this amazing opportunity and I look forward to the Awards Gala in February where all state award winners are recognized.

My chance of making the top 5 are "Slim to none and Slim just left the building" but will let you all know who the top 5 are when I find out - I am keeping my fingers crossed for a few other great State Teachers of the Year who were also up for this award and whom I consider great friends.

This is Madi and I pictured at KU in April.

So after a day filled with anxiety, relief, frustration, excitement, learning and exhaustion, I returned home to find an email from a previous student, Madi Shipley, majoring in math education at KU. When I was in Oklahoma City for the Regional Math Conference, I learned about a NCTM Scholarship math education majors could apply for. I thought Madi would be a perfect fit for this scholarship. She applied and guess what??? She was awarded it!! Only ONE student in the United States is given the $10,000 scholarship and Madi is the ONE! I am so proud of her. I know she will be an innovative, enthusiastic, and mostly, CARING educator. Some lucky students and district in the near future are going to have her for a teacher - exciting! This news completed my jumbled mix of emotions over the last 24 hours....and it ended with pride....and a reminder of why I teach!

Education Commission of the States in TN

Governor Jeb Bush and me!

The past two days I have been in Tennessee attending the Educational Commission of the States National Forum on Education Policy. This has been an interesting conference as the attendees are mostly policy makers and State Teachers of the Year. There are governors, state board of education members, department of education members, senators, representatives, deans of universities, researchers, and sponsors. I wish I could somehow have shared the experience (and the food- incredible) with everyone as it is hard to put it all into words but I am going to try! It was at times exciting and enlightening and a lot of the times frustrating. The State Teachers of the Year have repeated over and over - almost to the point of chanting: "You need TEACHERS AT THE TABLE" on all these issues. However, what I found frustrating is we seldom are. Research was shared, studies were shared, recommendations were shared...SELDOM were teachers involved in any of the process. College Board did a huge study on Education and the American Future. Their recommendations include (there are actually 10).
1. Provide a program of voluntary preschool education available to children from low-income families.
2. Improve middle and high school college counseling.
3. Implement the best research-based dropout prevention programs
4. Align the K-12 system with international standards and college admissions expectations.
5. Improve teacher quality and focus on recruitment and retention.
6. Clarify and simply the admissions process.

I find it highly ironic that the people involved in telling me how to fix K-12 education did not include any teachers. It doesn't stop with College Board. ACHIEVE has basically written the national curriculum for math...guess how many practicing math teachers were involved? Yep- zero. When will this madness end? Teachers must have a voice in the process. It was frustrating to be here and be talked TO rather than being talked WITH.

Ahhh- now that I have all that off my chest, there were some great speakers and I walked away with a greater appreciation of research and an appreciation for all the passionate policy makers that took the time and energy to attend this conference. One of our incredible State Board of Education members, Sally Cauble, attended and I had the opportunity to visit with her extensively. Mrs. Cauble is truly dedicated to improving student learning in our state, passionate about keeping Kansas on the leading edge, and proud of our teachers and learning achievement. Thank you, Sally for your service and the service of the entire State Board of Education.

Some highlights of the conference were:
1. Former Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. His 5 recommendations were: Raise Standards (but have fewer), Create a system of learning where teachers are a profession, Harness and embrace technology, Allow school choice, and Create a culture of lifelong learning.


2. Dr. Uri Treisman. He was amazing. His research and message spoke directly to me. Dr Treisman teaches math at UT-Austin and he said the College Algebra course needs to be blown up and recreated. This course has a very high dropout rate and is useless curriculum for 80% of the students enrolled. I have been saying this for years. The data he shared is incredible and will change how you perceive colleges and the math curriculum. Be sure to check out his PowerPoint (see below for link). At the left is Dr. Treisman pictured with me.


3. Clayton Christensen. He is the author of Disrupting Class. Also very thought provoking...he predicts that by 2012, 50% of the courses high school students take will be online.

4. Dr. Uri Treisman. He was so great, I thought I would mention him twice! He is also sending me all his calculus information - he has taught Calculus for 50 years!

5. Dr. Richard Elmore. He shared the crisis in public education starts in the 6th grade. Dr. Elmore has done research in Canada, Boston public, and also in 3rd world countries. In my opinion, he was the most knowledgeable about what is actually happening in the school system as he observes public schools twice a week. Some things he shared were:

• Outraged at what we are doing to adolescents. Kids are denied access to higher level work because teachers deem them unworthy of learning higher problem solving skills due to lack of lower skills.

• Teaching is a skill and the US has mismanaged this skill (compared to other countries). Human resources are the majority of the budget and that is were the money should flow. The first item that should be budgeted is professional development.

The resources and PowerPoint's are posted on their website. Check them out here. I continue to learn more about the people, organizations, politics, and research that goes into the educational system and am awed by how all this effects our classrooms. Policy does effect teachers - we definitely better start paying attention and getting our voices heard. Change is coming. It is exciting and scary and big and could be revolutionary....let's be sure teachers are at the table through this!!

Whatcha' Been Doing?

I haven't posted to my blog in a couple weeks and I have been getting the question, "Whatcha' been doing?" I guess the answer to that is LEARNING! I haven't really traveled anywhere for KTOY the last 2 weeks so I took advantage of some down time and took 3 credit hours on topics such as Moodle (now have my own Moodle page), Instructional Strategies (I am always needed to be reminded of what I should be doing), and Data Driven Dialogue (very useful with state and common assessments). I have also been READING - I really recommend the book Never Work Harder than Your Students. Don't let the title put you off as it did me. It is an incredible book that made me evaluate how and why I teach students the way I do. I am going to change some things for next year in my class using this book as a guideline. It is very easy to read with stories and specific examples of what to do in your classroom. I promise - you will love it!


The second book, Disrupting Class, isn't as easy to read but VERY thought provoking. The title makes you think it is going to be about how to handle discipline issues but it is about our new generation of learners and how to better address their learning styles, using technology to "disrupt" class. I have many questions about some of the ideas in this book (how do online courses change how education will be delivered, etc). I will get the opportunity to ask those questions in Nashville, TN next week at ECS National Forum on Education Policy where I get to listen to the author. So - if you are reading, or have read that book, share your questions and concerns and I will relay them next Thursday in Good 'Ole Rocky Top!

I am also working on reading Why We Teach. This book is perfect to start the school year off as it is very inspirational and reminds/reinforces what education is all about. Next on my list will be Outliers. I have many friends who have recommended this book to me and I am looking forward to this read - or should I say "listen" as thanks to Little River High School and Dawn Johnson, this book is on my Nano Ipod I received!! WHOO -HOO!!


Some people are under the impression teachers don't work in the summer. Anyone who is a teacher or knows a teacher realizes we spend all summer reading, learning, reflecting, and preparing for the next generation of learners. We are all really life-long learners - walking our talk.