Less Than Awesome

One of my biggest goals for this year has been to make sure I did something really cool with the kids at least once a week. To step outside of my comfort zone or try something new. To build on something I've done before but make it better.

Up until this past week, I've succeeded at that goal.

This week I didn't.

We didn't have school Monday in observance of Veteran's Day.

Tuesday I had scheduled for us to do a massive pull-out for Learning Ally to get all of our students who qualify set up and make sure they knew how to use it. Due to some miscommunication, we weren't ready for that and instead spent the day as a team cleaning up accounts. We deleted duplicate accounts and made sure every kid who needed an account had it and printed their log in information. Learning Ally is a really amazing tool for students who struggle with reading for a variety of reasons. It gives them access to something like 80,000 titles of audio books. It is really incredible.  It was a day full of doing things that needed to be done, but not what I was expecting. I did get a phone call from Follett and they want me to present at a national conference next year. That's pretty stupid cool but the deadline for my application is coming up in a HOT minute so I really need to get on it.

Wednesday I took the day off because I was feeling really worn down from all the things I've been doing and I had my interview to be considered for Teacher of the Year for Brevard County in the afternoon. I knew I'd be much better prepared if I was well-rested. I didn't sleep in because I still had to take my kids to school. I spent the morning tackling a "to do" list instead of resting like I should have done. Right after my interview, I got several missed calls from my daughter's school saying she was sick. One Urgent Care visit later and we found out she had Strep.

Thursday = no school to stay home and take care of a sick kiddo. I also delivered some food to my kids's school to help contribute to a Thanksgiving Feast for the teachers and staff that the families of our church put on each year. I thought I could get some school work done from home but that did not happen.

Friday I could have been on an awesome field trip to the Miami-Dade Book Fair to see Jason Reynolds with our Reading students but I didn't know if I'd need to be with Ansleigh (my daughter) so I didn't go. My husband stayed home with her so I wouldn't miss another day of school. I thought I'd have a day of scoring 20 Book Challenge responses and working on my conference presentations (coming up soon and the new one requested by Follett) but instead I was asked to cover for a teacher because we were short on substitutes. I brought them all to the Media Center and let them check out and read. It was an early release day and they all needed books so that's what we did. I also had a meeting with someone to help her with research she's doing on how Media Specialists choose resources to promote diversity.

I literally didn't do anything cool with the kids this week except share what book I was reading with some students who were curious why I was so into my book when I sat and read with them. I'd love to share something incredible but I just don't have it.

I would like to tell you about my TOY Interview. I promised I'd be transparent about it and I want to.

My interview was blocked off for 30 minutes in the afternoon. There were 10 other secondary teachers being interviewed for the south area of our county (where I teach) and 8 of them went before me. When I walked into the room, it was my former principal who always runs this committee and hosts the interviews plus last year's south area finalists. I expected to see more people so I was kind of relieved that there were only four people plus me. I was told they'd ask me 10 questions and I could take a few minutes to look over the questions before we got started. What a gift! Although, honestly, I was so worried I'd run out of time answering the questions that I didn't want to spend a lot of time looking at the questions. I read through each one quickly and tried to think of a quick response I could give when they got to that question. I didn't spend nearly enough time on it. Once they started asking the questions, I tried my best to speak from my heart and not repeat the same answer over and over again but I honestly don't know what I actually said to them.

They asked me why I chose to go into teaching which gave me an opportunity to talk about my dad, which then lead me to start crying right on my first question. It wasn't ugly crying but I definitely teared up a lot. I was able to share his story of how he grew up and how he always impressed on me how important it was to be there for these kids. I also got to share how he passed away right as I was starting as a Media Specialist (literally, he passed away during pre-planning) and how hard I've worked to make him proud. I think I did well on that question.

They asked me several others about how I differentiate instruction, how I am part of school-wide initiatives and what leadership roles I have in that, how I collaborate with others and how I used project-based learning, how I participate in professional development (participating and leading) across the district and state, and how I involve the community. I honestly don't know if I even really answered their questions. It's so hard to tell. I spoke about the specific things they asked me and tried to give them new information for each question they asked. I tried my very best to impress up on them how much teamwork it takes to make any of this happen and how it isn't all me. I tried to make everything about the kids and what they are doing. I saw a lot of head nodding but couldn't really get a feel for how receptive they were. They were definitely hard to judge.

They asked me two other questions that I felt good about. They asked me something about stakeholders. I don't even remember what the question was but I got so excited. I started sharing with them how we have involved the community in our 20 Book Challenge, our City Councilman who participates in our Project Lit Book Club, the Mayor and our School Board Representative being at our event, the authors I share with on a regular basis, and how I use social media to share with the companies of products we are using (Nearpod, Ozobot, Follett, etc.), publishers of books our kids read, and other teachers and librarians across the globe. I even got to share about flying to New York to be on Bookish to share with not just our stakeholders, but Kwame's stakeholders as well, how awesome our kids are, how hard they are working, and how much they love his books. I told them that all of those people are ALL stakeholders because our kids have the power to change the world and all of these companies and authors are involved in that process. I was so excited to share my passion about why I work so hard to let the world know what we are doing. I may not have answered what they asked, but goodness gracious, I gave them an answer!

The other question I felt really good about was when they asked me if I could tell them about a specific student who had been impacted by what I do. I thought of S.C. who had never finished a book in his life until 8th grade and *almost* finished the 20 Book Challenge. He read every book we had by Kwame and Jason Reynolds. I thought of T.W. who hated to read and then started reading Kwame's books and in a few months his Reading Plus scores jumped several grade levels. I thought of A.C.T. who came to us as an English Language Learner and didn't like reading. I gave him The Red Umbrella in Spanish and asked him to read it for me and let me know if it was worth putting in the library. He loved it so much he asked for another copy to send to his family. He read all of Christina Diaz Gonzalez's books and finished our 20 Book Challenge in ENGLISH!!!!!! I didn't tell their stories though. I knew once I started telling those stories, I wouldn't be able to stop and all of those kiddos are in high school now. Instead, I told the story of M. B. who is a 7th grader right now. Her sister reads more than I do (and that's a lot!) and her mom mentioned that I wouldn't probably see M.B. as much because she never reads...ever. She's been trying for YEARS to get her to read and she doesn't like it. I convinced her Reading teacher to start the year reading The Crossover as a class and since then, homegirl can't put down a book. She's logged 9 books so far this year! 9!!!!!!!!

I ended up answering all of their questions with some time to spare (which is a miracle straight from Heaven because I'm always long-winded) and I was able to take a few minutes to talk about the state of our Media program when I took over and what kind of work we had to do to get it from where it was to where it is now.

I left not really sure of how well I did or if they cared at all about what I had to say. I do know that I had the opportunity to share how our students shine and how I get to be part of that.

The next step in the process is that they will choose three finalist and notify those three somehow in the next two weeks or so. The committees will go watch those teachers teach in December or early January. Beyond that, I'm not really sure what happens. I'm not too worried about it. I have no expectations to make it any further than I already have. I'm just thankful I got the opportunity to sit in that seat and represent my school to the best of my ability.