Building Teacher Advocates: An ECET2NC Reflection

-by Kylee Maarschalk, New Hanover HS

Ad·vo·cate noun 1. a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy

Teacher advocates are few and far between in today’s culture.  When the opportunity to tell someone my pride of working in education arises, I happily take it on without question; however, the responses that teachers receive from the public as we share our joy in the profession is one of “Oh, wow! How do you do that?!” or my favorite southern expression, “Bless your heart!” which the last time I checked, meant I was a little more than left of center on the crazy scale. All too often, the teaching profession is viewed as glorified babysitting, regardless of grade level taught.

Teachers who succeed rarely make headlines. Raising EOG scores, surviving a week with both Friday the 13th and a full moon, keeping a clear hallway in a high school in October, and facilitating a Paideia Seminar without wrinkle are all great teacher successes that go unnoticed by the public. Why is that? We give one another high-five’s in the hallway and nods of understanding when the days are long, so much said in a bob and furrowed brow, but do we share these proud moments with others?

One of the most impactful conversations I’ve had in my teaching career happened in a round-table deep dive session at ECET2 NC in Charlotte. I was surrounded by fellow New Hanover County Schools teachers, along with other educators from the mountains and Triangle area, all with a wide-range of years of experience, North Carolina Core Advocate Captain Joanna Schmizzi, and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards President and CEO Peggy Brookins. Our discussion began with exploring posts written for The Standard the blog of NBPTS and led to our thoughts on what we could also write about in the future. It was through this discussion that I recognized that I was not alone in my combination of feelings of faith, frustration, and fatigue regarding the future of education in America. Our table dialogued on the continuous number of hats teachers today are wearing. On an average day, I play the role of nurse, comedian, psychiatrist, cheerleader, friend, event coordinator, detective, zookeeper, and educator. Through the constant switching of hats, we are responsible for molding young people into becoming productive, intelligent members of society ready for college, careers, and military. This is no small feat. So again, why don’t people celebrate our successes along with us? I believe that it is because we don’t celebrate our successes loudly enough.

Ad·vo·cate verb 1. publicly recommend or support

EdNC Voices, Center for Teaching Quality, NCAE, Professional Educators of North Carolina, Hope Street Group, NBPTS and more are all incredible resources for advocating for teachers and sharing what’s working and what needs improvement. Session after session at ECET2 NC I heard representatives from these organizations speaking on behalf of teachers across the state and asking for input on what can be done. What? Teachers having solutions to problems in education? Who would have ever considered that we can be our own advocates?

Fortunately, within New Hanover County Schools, we have a great group of teacher advocates for our Beginning Teacher Support Program. The team focused on longevity in the career diligently works together to put systems in place to support teachers in their first three years in the profession. We currently have 9 schools with a Support on Site model in place to regularly bring beginning and veteran teachers together to collaborate and solve problems while learning how to better balance the 15 hats worn each day.

I fully believe that teachers can begin to carry the same esteem as other well-respected professions in the world, if and only if we begin to find a positive outlet for sharing our observations and experiences. The world is unaware of our day-to-day, and if we don’t share about it, who will? We can bring policy issues to the table. We can fight for our students that struggle with reading and math due to their environment. We can provide a perspective so unique from our daily interactions with students to protect their futures. We can connect beginning teachers and veteran teachers to promote longevity in this great profession. We can form bonds with our peers around the county, state, and nation. Together our voices can be heard.

Find ways to support all teachers in your school and district. Speak out in your community about the needs and concerns of your classroom full of young people. Promote teacher advocacy groups to your peers around the country through social media. Or take a bold, outside of your comfort zone step, and accept the opportunity to use your own words to share about your own experiences and passion, and write a blog post to celebrate your successes. Teachers can become advocates while advocating. Let’s do this together!