All Great Things Face Resistance – Perseverance Will Prevail

One of the major pieces of work for my fellowship was to authentically enhance financial literacy at the elementary school level.  During my externship at the North Carolina Council on Economic Education I found a video that inspired me to make the same thing happen at my little elementary school in Fuquay-Varina.  Here is the link for you to become inspired too!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9eCN2QCNM8  

Sandy Wheat, Executive Director of NCCEE made just one phone call to Creighton Blackwell at Coastal Federal Credit Union to get a resounding, “Yes!” I was so excited! I could hardly contain my enthusiasm!  I busily planned my trip to Baltimore to meet with the Nebraska Council on Economic Education and speak with them personally about how to make it all come together. Not only were they open to speak with me but they gave me a 3 ring binder of everything they use and designed to open school branches, gave me the digital copies of the binder, and offered their continued support.  I couldn’t be happier!

Then came the meetings, planning, and preparing documents personalized to my school. Coastal Federal Credit Union came to my school and we began to finalize the necessary documentation and planning for the first school branch of Coastal Federal Credit Union! They offered incentive gifts for student deposits, four members of CFCU to come to our school for our deposit days, they would interview and train 4th and 5th grade students for the teller positions, and best of all, they agreed to place $20 in every students account upon their first deposit! No matter how much the first deposit was, they would deposit $20!!!

Everything was looking up! I could envision the ribbon cutting and who would be there!

 Then came the big stop sign!

CFCU and FVES completed the paperwork required for Wake County Schools and my wonderful assistant principal met with the key decision makers for the approval of our business partnership and my dream of creating an authentic way for students to learn about financial literacy with an emphasis on personal finance, long term and short term savings. The word came back after a long wait….too great a liability for the school and for me to have students bring money to school for a credit union deposit! My heart sank. I keep my composure and listened to the concerns of my administration. I made the call to my CFCU partners. It was painful.

 Now comes Plan B. It’s so interesting to learn about all the connections we have as members of the education community and business community.  Creighton Blackwell is a member of the North Carolina Business Committee for Education.  Sue Breckenridge is the Executive Director.  She works directly with Governor McCrory. Here comes the wonderful connection!  At the last Governor’s Teacher Advisory Meeting on Tuesday, I was sitting at the same table as Sue Breckenridge! She knew all about our proposed business partnership! Creighton shared it with her at their last meeting! Now, I know I’m going to have to respectfully tread lightly on resolving the liability issue, but Sue Breckenridge is now on the “find a solution” team with us! Another wonderful blessing, Dr. June Atkinson was also sitting at our table.  She also knows about my project. She offered to make whatever phone calls she needed to get this partnership established!

I have a scheduled meeting planned with Creighton and Sue in the next 10 days. I know I can call Dr. Atkinson for help and now I’m concerned about stepping outside of my authority but my passion and perseverance is telling me to “go make it happen!”

I haven’t had my mentors visit the school as I had intended. When I met with CFCU in October and November, we had planned for a December or January ribbon cutting.  Now it’s the first day of February, my plan has hit a road block that I’m seeking to overcome the challenges and at the same time, keep my job in the WCPSS school system.

I want to end generational poverty! I believe one way to do that is to instill strong fiscal responsibility in our youngest depositors. I have a ton of resources for teachers to use to teach about savings and I just want a chance to make this all happen in Wake County.

The Kenan Fellow/Mentor partnership is the foundation of our program and what we do. What does this partnership mean to you?          

My project provided me with an opportunity to have two mentorship partners. Both of these partnerships have forever changed my life.  I think differently. I consider my partners business perspectives when I’m designing lessons. I look for opportunities to share with my fellow teachers the amazing experience I had. And now, I’m a poster teacher for the Kenan Fellows Program.          

Let me begin with my first externship at the North Carolina Council on Economic Education. As I posted earlier, this partnership provided me with the opportunity to travel to Baltimore, Maryland for the Annual Council on Economic Education Financial Literacy & Economic Education Conference.     http://www.councilforeconed.org/tag/annual-conference/       

Sandy Wheat, Executive Director NCCEE, provided me with all the time I needed to share my vision for increasing financial literacy for elementary school children K-5.  True to Mrs. Wheat’s leadership style, she began immediately searching for a scholarship for me to attend the CEE Conference in Baltimore. She knew that I would find a wealth or resources and meet banking and industry leaders that shared my passion for financial literacy. Mrs. Wheat secured a $1200.00 scholarship from Wells Fargo Bank for me to attend the conference. My flight, transportation, lodging, food, and conference fees were all taken care of with the scholarship.           

When I arrived in Baltimore, and opened up the conference program, I saw all of the incredible sessions that were made available to me because of the generosity of Joanna Leclair and Angel Zapata of Wells Fargo Bank. I had difficulty in selecting what to attend. The most memorable and most applicable sessions that I attended began with the Banking in the School Savings Program hosted by the Nebraska Council on Economic Education.  The session provided me with the knowledge and resources I needed to begin the first School Credit Union branch in Wake County, North Carolina.        

I’m currently working on a business partnership with Coastal Federal Credit Union, Raleigh, North Carolina. We will be “cutting the ribbon” to open the Fuquay-Varina Elementary – Coastal Federal Credit Union School Branch office in the next 60 days. Since attending the conference, I was selected to be on Governor McCrory’s Teacher Advisory Committee.  This business partnership is now being watched by our Governor as an example of the powerful impact of a business and education partnership. My goal of increasing financial literacy and my hope of ending generational poverty in our state is becoming a reality.  This all came about because of my amazing mentor, Sandy Wheat, and the vision and investment of Wells Fargo Bank.           

My Kenan Fellows partnership brought me together with a mentor that not only changed my life but will change the lives of the 780+ students at my school.  Because of Sandy Wheat’s excellent reputation and her business partnership with Coastal Federal Credit Union, CFCU is giving all of the students at FVES, no matter what the deposit amount, $20 when they open their savings account! As a Math Coach of a Title 1 school, I not only feel doubly blessed from CFCU’s generosity, but also feel a great sense of accomplishment in reaching my goal of creating financially sound citizens for the future, beginning with kindergarteners all the way up to 11 year old students.            

My other mentors supported my project goal of increasing global awareness. Working with the researchers at Duke Universities, Center for Globalization, Governance, and Competitiveness launched my partnership with a 3rd grade teacher at FVES. Due to the interest and heritage of the students in the class, the countries selected were Australia, China, Japan, and Mexico.  On the day before our Thanksgiving break, Mrs. Pettus and I brought food that represented each country.  Australia offered rice with shrimp. China offered fried rice with chicken and vegetables.  Japan offered edamame. Mexico offered warm cheese quesadillas with salsa.  Students filled their plates with food from each country. Before we completed our global feast we asked students if they tried a food that they had never had before and if they liked the new food. Students pointed to various tables with enthusiasm and many student found that they loved edamame. The most popular food came from Mexico.  The four Hispanic students in the classroom felt valued from the overwhelming positive response and so did we as the teachers. For many cultures, food is an expression of their heritage.  Cultural celebrations will now always be a part of my teaching philosophy.  This came about from my Kenan partnership with CGGC at Duke.         

Additionally, I created a Global Web Quest on my web site, http://classroomherrick.net/www.classroomherrick.net/Global_Web_Quest.html for students to use to gather information to create a travel brochure.  My next step with the students will be for them to connect these countries with North Carolina in the Global Economy. The Center for Globalization, Governance, and Competitiveness provided me with the web site resource and connections with the researchers who created the site. Just look it over! It offers a wealth of information at the click of your mouse. http://www.soc.duke.edu/NC_GlobalEconomy/index.shtml          

As I mentioned at the beginning of my post, my life and my teaching are forever changed.  These examples of the difference the Kenan Fellows partnerships have created in my life are just the beginning.  When I first interviewed, with Craig and Susan, I said my goal was to present a TED Talk one day.  That goal is still in the horizon but I know that I will achieve this dream as I continue to build my Making Global Cents project. I’m extremely grateful for what I’ve been given as a teacher and how my Kenan experience has changed me as a person.

What an amazing Professional Development session! It all came together when I completed the survey of our PD! Wow, we were exposed to so much! Outstanding topics, outstanding speakers, and most of all the common goal of becoming Teacher Leaders as Kenan Fellows!

Will Cross did an amazing job breaking down the specifics of copyright and fair use.  I’ve never understood the specifics of the guidelines and have always relied upon my media specialist for the advice.  Now, I’m much more confident and can refer to the clearly outlined criteria from the power point posted on our wiki site!

I want to go back to school, full time, at NC State! I was in awe of the amazing settings provided at the Hunt Library but now I want to try out every room!  The tour

was excellent! The amount of time, the various locations, the knowledgeable guides, right down to the connectivity in each of the rooms!  I would love to collaborate with my Kenan Fellows in one of the rooms in the future!

I’ve had many opportunities to find out about my learning style, my leadership style, whether I’m a North, South, East or West thinker, but at this PD I learned about being an Originator.  There is power in knowing more about yourself! I use that knowledge to temper my enthusiasm if needed and to monitor the specifics I may have overlooked when suggesting a grand idea! Fortunately, I am surrounded by enough Pragmatists to keep me encouraged and yet grounded.  I noticed that the majority of our creative group of Kenan Fellows, to include our program directors, were Pragmatist! Those are the members of my collaboration team that I rely on to guide our next steps to the new idea! I’m wondering if my current role as a math instructional coach has caused me to think more like a Originator because I found a lot of my leadership traits aligned with the Pragmatist…of course leaning always towards the Originator.

My biggest take away from this professional development session was hearing about Education Policy from the perspective of Eric Guckian and J.B. Buxton. Eric presented a vision for teacher salary that hasn’t been articulated to the public in an understandable formula so teachers could actually buy into the possibilities of being paid on a different scale.  I would be in favor of developing teacher pathways that would provide additional salary for leadership roles.  Currently, the department chair or lead grade level teacher get a very small stipend for the additional time and responsibility they manage. These roles don’t necessarily promote increasing student achievement. The teacher pathways that Mr. Guckian described could provide greater opportunities for teachers who wish to stay in the classroom and accept a Teacher Leader role.

The opportunity to discuss and help implement positive change on the topic of teacher salary was articulated by J.B. Buxton in such a concrete way, it almost felt as if we could do something about it as an underpaid educator.  I shared my story and Kimberly video taped me on her smart phone so she could share it with her advocacy group in her school. Without that opportunity to share, positive steps may not have been taken.  J.B. offered his ongoing support and resources. I’m hoping to need them in the near future.

Lastly, I loved hearing about the experiences of Rebecca  and Sam as Einstein Fellows! Once I complete my Kenan Fellowship and my graduate degree at Meredith, I’m going to apply.  In the meantime, Rebecca offered some connections and I intend to follow up with her.

All in all, every moment was well spent. I learned more than I ever  expected and I gained greater insight as an educator and Teacher Leader.  I appreciate all the time, effort, planning, and arrangements that were made for these fabulous two days of professional growth!

Describe something that you’ve learned as a result of your Kenan Fellowship that will change how you teach next year.

We’ve had students for one week now and I’ve garnered support from four of my colleagues to implement components of my Kenan Fellowship project.  I’m so excited to begin designing lessons with my third grade education partner Jenny.  Friday afternoon I showed her class the iSmartphone video to introduce the four countries that her students will be representing, China, Japan, Australia, and Mexico. Next week the students will be actively engaged in learning about their countries by collecting data and reading informational text about their countries online and from books in our school library.  In a couple of weeks we will be introducing our classroom economy!

Pettus World Bank will begin operating with a bi-weekly payroll, with classroom jobs that mimic roles in responsibilities in our communities.

I can’t wait to show Jenny’s class the video of Miss Jenny’s Pickles

Miss Jenny’s Pickles – Going Global!     that I located during my research of North Carolina in the global economy at the Center for Globalization, Governance, and Competitiveness at Duke. I will be introducing Jenny and her students to the amazing website created by CGGC listing all of the major areas of North Carolina’s role in the global economy.  I’ve found some amazing resources, actually kid friendly resources, during my research and have a mountain of materials to share when I’m planning with Jenny!  My goal is to capture the positive impact these lessons have on student learning in Jenny’s room and then “advertise” our work in hopes of having other teachers join me to spread the global awareness piece and also teach economics through children’s literature.

My fifth grade education partner and I have prepared math lessons together and will soon begin preparing “flipped” lessons for her class.  I am so grateful for all the resources that were brought my way this summer at NCCAT. I can show her the Moodle links and will allow her to be a part of the creation so our mutual collaboration can transform her daily instruction.  It is a work in progress but the key word in this statement is “progress!”

Our school counselor and our teacher/librarian are both excited to use some of the children’s literature I found during my fellowship!  It’s only week one and I find myself anxious and excited all at the same time.  I’m anxious about the fast pace that we all run to keep up with the curriculum and don’t want to be absorbed into just “meeting the needs of the curriculum” but would rather transform the delivery of the curriculum.

I’m excited because at our 2013-2014 Staff Kick Off, our amazing principal introduced our “Connecting the Dots” theme for this school year!  The three D’s! Define, Design, Deliver!  Those terms have helped me to introduce the design and deliver concepts of my fellowship while I’m defining the content with my colleagues.  I’m on my way to a successful school year of implementation! My goal is to stay true to the course of transforming the way we design and deliver instruction by spooning out, little by little, the huge amount of resources and knowledge I’ve gained through my fellowship work this summer.

As you prepare for the 2012-2013 school year, describe how you envision your summer experience impacting your students.

When I consider all that I learned this summer and how I will distill and apply even a portion of that learning, I have a sense of shire excitement and a sense of how will I convince other teachers to participate with me. As a Math Coach I work with all the teachers in our K-5 school.  My role is to work with teachers to enhance math instruction.  Part of my project can be connected with math but it aligns more with the social studies standards. So I’m trying to balance both.

Before school started I had a meeting with two of my teacher friends.  We were meeting to discuss our plans to support teachers in flipping lessons using the Teacher Leadership Grant money from Wake Education Partnership.  I didn’t have time to share all that I’d learned about flipping at this particular meeting but I did share all the books I’d purchased over the summer. I found a wonderful resource during my fellowship at the North Carolina Council on Economic Education, Teaching Children Economics Using Children’s Literature. My librarian teacher friend, wrote down all the titles and said that she would love to teach my lessons!  My school counselor friend, said that she would also like to use some of the books I shared with the economic principals because she saw the positive character message in the stories as well.  I hit a Home Run on the first time out!

I guess I’ve learned from that positive experience that if I take the time to appeal to the content of the individual teachers that I work with rather than pushing my own agenda they will see the value and make it their own because it’s great material and I won’t have the be the “sales woman” for my fellowship lessons.

Here’s to a wonderful, hopeful, impactful year of balancing math instruction, flipping classroom lessons, and integrating my Kenan Fellowship project into the curriculum with accepting, excited teachers!  I’m confident this will be successful!

http://youtu.be/HKhfghBl-dk

To be inspired…take time to listen to Rascal Flats…Forever Changed…just the music and words…everyone needs to be Forever Changed

If we have eyes to see, ears to hear, minds that seek…we can find.  The fellowship partnerships that I’ve made with both of my mentors, the materials I’ve found in my research, and the professional development provided for me this summer has all created a “forever change” in my personality, my professional practice, and the way I approach preparing lessons for my teachers and students.

There was not one specific “aha” for me but many “wow – this is so cool” moments that I can’t wait to share with my colleagues at school and the children at Fuquay-Varina Elementary school.

I’m going to be presenting at the World View Conference at Enloe High School on August 13th with the North Carolina Council on Economic Education and have prepared a Smart board lesson.  Using the iSmartphone video that I attached a few posts ago, I’ve created a lesson that will provide resources and materials to teach the economic principals of productive resources, world/international trade, specialization, division of labor, and entrepreneurship. If you are interested in viewing it to use in your class, just let me know and I’ll send it in an email.

http://youtu.be/IYO3tOqDISE

If you loved iSmartphone…here is the original …. ipencil.  I’m including the wikipedia excerpt to share that the thinking of “global” economy didn’t just occur in the 21st century with the Smartphone.

This is another example of connecting my fellowship with the curriculum and a great example of how technology supports student learning and broadens our perspective, no matter what the topic!

“I, Pencil” is written in the first person from the point of view of a pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.

“I, Pencil” is an essay by Leonard Read. The full title is “I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read” and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled “I… Pencil” in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name. In the 2008 50th Anniversary Edition, the introduction is written by Lawrence W. Reed and Friedman wrote the afterword.

It’s an interesting concept to consider…what came first the chicken or the egg?  When thinking about the question will the Common Core/Essential Standards influence the use of technology for learning, I think about the chicken and the egg. One cannot exist without the other.  It wasn’t the Common Core standards that prompted using technology for teaching and learning but the benchmarks for each standard imply that students will be given the opportunity to discover, through the use of technology, the content being taught.

Curriculum is curriculum. As educators we don’t have a choice of what to teach but we do have a choice how to teach. The learning goals create the basis for the student experience that each teacher creates.  The learning experience needs to include periods of discovery and research which is directly related to the use of technology.

Here’s a quote from Columbia University that articulates beautifully the ongoing challenges education has regarding the delivery of instruction.

The Department of Curriculum and Teaching, established in 1938, was the first department in the U.S. devoted to the scholarly study of problems of curriculum and teaching across all subjects and all levels of schooling, from early childhood through the education of teachers and supervisors. Broad questions about the nature, purpose, and design of curriculum and about the theory and practice of teaching remain at the core of all department programs. Addressing these questions in contemporary times calls for critical analyses of the ways in which curriculum, teaching, and schooling contribute to social inequalities, and a commitment to educating for social justice. 

Now we add the technology piece. I believe that technology always enhances my research in finding materials for my lessons AND tremendously increases the active participation of my students. Therefore, no matter what the curriculum, I will always seek the benefits and resources offered by the various tools of technology.  To me they walk hand in hand.

The Common Core standards lay a beautiful foundation for the future of education and, in my humble opinion, significantly enhance the opportunities to use technology.

Bring on the world. Bring on the World Wide Web! Bring on Learning!

http://youtu.be/IYO3tOqDISE

If you loved iSmartphone…here is the original …. ipencil.  I’m including the wikipedia excerpt to share that this thinking didn’t just occur in the 21st century.

This is another example of connecting my fellowship with the curriculum and a great example of how technology supports student learning and broadens our perspective, no matter what the topic!

“I, Pencil” is written in the first person from the point of view of a pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.

“I, Pencil” is an essay by Leonard Read. The full title is “I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read” and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled “I… Pencil” in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name. In the 2008 50th Anniversary Edition, the introduction is written by Lawrence W. Reed and Friedman wrote the afterword.

I thought you all might enjoy this latest connection made from my fellowship time at the North Carolina Council on Economic Education.  Teaching economics and discovering how we need things from all over our world (global awareness) to make something that we use everyday! Hit the Target again…Bullseye! Plus the kids are adorable…and I’m creating resources for elementary age students!

Enjoy!  Please submit any feedback or let me know if you are going to use this video in your class!