Dallas Day Four

Today was a special day for me at the National Teacher of the Year Conference because today my friends from the Center for Teaching Quality were here to present on "Building Communities for Learning." Of course, CTQ is headquartered in Hillsborough, N.C., about two miles from my school. And my involvement with CTQ's Teacher Leaders Network has literally changed my professional life. So to be so far away from home and see these familiar faces made me a happy conference participant today!

Here's my virtual, and now face-to-face, friend Nancy Flanagan presenting to the group. Behind her you can see National TOY Finalist Susan Elliott's sign language interpreter and behind her, my other CTQ buddy, Alice Williams.

We continued our Home Room discussions today, talking about the balance between being a Teacher of the Year presenter and committee member while continuing to be a teacher. Our "leader" - National Teacher of the Year Mike Geisen - gave us insight into the job that he's been doing for the past year.

Next Susan Elliott, Tony Mullen, and I attended a meeting that enabled us to understand the finalist process. And Alex Kajitani was there, too; he joined us from California via conference call. His baby was born last night! We were given all of the requirements for what will surely be an exciting time in Washington, D.C. as we participate in the National Teacher of the Year selection process for 2009!

Here I am with my fellow finalists, Tony from Connecticut and Susan from Denver!

Tomorrow is another fun-filled conference day here in Dallas. Stay tuned for news about a very special and elegant dinner - I've heard it's a wonderful experience!

Dallas Day Three

I began the day having breakfast with my friends from the Teacher Leaders Network! Here I am with Barnett Berry and Alice Williams of the Center for Teaching Quality and Nancy Flanagan, former Michigan Teacher of the Year.

It was another eventful day in Teacher of the Year land! We began the day with a slide show that included pictures of each State Teacher of the Year and each State Coordinator. When our pictures came up on the screen, we had to introduce ourselves and tell what we teach. Of course, teachers always go a little farther. For example, the Arizona and Pennsylvania Teachers of the Year, Sarah (we call her Sarizona) and Rebecca, inserted some comments regarding the little football game coming up on Sunday. So when I introduced myself, I just had to mention that I proudly represent North Carolina, the home of the Carolina Panthers who were spanked by Sarizona's team on January 10th. It was all in good fun, and each teacher tried to outdo the other by saying that his/her coordinator was the best. I introduced the North Carolina Coordinator, Danny Holloman, by saying, "My coordinator can beat up your coordinator." So it's on!


Today I sat with my buddies Cindy Couchman (Kansas) and Chantelle Herchenhahn (Mississippi)

After introductions, we were entertained with an overview of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) who runs the National Teacher of the Year program. We were given a history of the TOY program - the first National Teacher of the Year was named in 1952 - Geraldine Jones from Santa Barbara had only taught school for two years when she was given this national distinction. Next Lois Rodgers from CCSSO presented "Key Issues for Tomorrow's Schools" and we discussed "What We Would Tell Arne Duncan" - the newly named Secretary of Education.

We were in for a treat next when Betsy Rogers, National Teacher of the Year in 2003, spoke with her principal Margie Curry about their school - Brighton School in Alabama. Brighton, a low performing school for years, made a real turnaround after Dr. Rogers became a curriculum specialist there. It was inspiring to hear the stories of the kids at Brighton. One especially compelling story was about a kindergarten class that was overrun with snakes! We all squirmed at that story...


Ms. Curry is talking about her school as Betsy Rogers watches.

Another National Teacher of the Year (2007), Andrea Peterson, told her moving story. She was nine months pregnant when she was named National TOY! She told us, after reading a quote from The Phantom Tollbooth, that we've been "practicing for this all of our lives" - we have been practicing for this leadership role. Both of these former NTOYs were inspirational!

A discussion of education policy is always an eye opener, and Amy Starzynski from the Education Counsel in Washington, D.C. talked to us about the transition between Presidents and about the issues the folks in D.C. are dealing with related to education. After a brisk question and answer session, Jon Quam, our NTOY Director, explained what is coming up in the next year. Not only will we travel to Washington in April to be recognized by President Obama, we'll also travel to Alabama to go to Space Camp and we'll meet in New Jersey to work with the Education Testing Service. This will be our "Next Steps" Conference...we'll discuss what to do after our Teacher of the Year role is over as we continue to lead in our schools.

The question and answer session as we discuss education policy.

Next we broke into groups and went to "Home Rooms" - each National Teacher of the Year facilitated a group, and my group was led by none other than Mike Geisen, the current National Teacher of the Year. We introduced ourselves and talked about our passions in teaching. It was great to be able to share in smaller groups and to get to know each other better.

In the Home Room, Edney Freeman from the Virgin Islands talks while Deb Wickerman from Ohio listens.

Also, in the Home Room, we listen to National Teacher of the Year (2008) Michael Geisen speak about his passions in education.

Our dinner tonight was very special. It was held at the Texas Women's Museum, and when we walked in, we saw huge screens that displayed each of our names one at a time. After a few moments of networking with each other, we sat to listen to a special presentation from the sponsor of the dinner - the University of Phoenix. It wasn't long before we were given some amazing news - as our state's Teacher of the Year we will be able to choose one high school senior to receive a full scholarship to the University. I literally sat there and cried! I have so many former students who need this type of opportunity - now to choose one...

After a lovely dinner and a tour of the museum, we boarded the buses to return to the beautiful Hilton Lincoln Centre. Tomorrow will be another very packed day!

Dallas Day Two

It is entirely possible that my brain cannot hold any more information today. The State Teachers of the Year spent an intense day learning about the SMART technology that we all received for our schools. There are many instructional techniques to learn; we just barely scratched the surface. But still, we learned so much, and we're eager to get back to our schools and practice!

Our instructor, Kimberleigh, shows us how to use our SMARTboards.

Dissecting a frog on the SMARTboard - amazing!

Kim, the Washington, D.C Teacher of the Year, practices her skills.

This afternoon our Teacher of the Year Coordinators arrived in town, and we had a festive Texas style dinner (including beef ribs and peach cobbler) to welcome them to Dallas. National Teacher of the Year Chauncey Veatch (2002) spoke to us about leadership. I'll always remember him telling us to take our Teacher of the Year roles and go after the opportunity to lead - to "pursue it like a missile seeks out heat." We left moved and inspired and ready to embrace the task he set before us.

Chauncey Veatch motivates the audience.

Dallas Day One!

Here I am at the National Teacher of the Year Conference! It's 1 AM (which is 2 AM to my body), but I can't sleep. The ice is pelting against the window in this Southwestern city that is supposed to be warmer than home. So much for that...

I flew to Dallas through clouds that allowed zero visibility. At times I couldn't even see the wing to see if we were going to hit any birds. And once we got over the airport, we had to circle for 45 minutes because there was an airplane traffic jam, and we couldn't land. Finally, I was off the plane and pretty much starving. (I had fallen asleep during the six-pretzel-give-away, this being the first time in months that I was sitting in one place and not running from one thing to the next.) So I grabbed a pretzel before I went out to the baggage check, aka the point of no return, at least as far as food goes.

I wasn't in a hurry because it was noon, and our first meeting wasn't scheduled until 6 PM. So I decided to go get my luggage and then sit somewhere nearby to eat my tasty pretzel. And it was a first - when I got there, my luggage was there all by itself, riding around on the baggage carousel. At first I thought I was in the wrong place until I saw my husband's duffel bag I had borrowed - the one with the bright orange letters with my last name on it - riding around looking neglected.

Anyway, the pretzel ended my starvation jitters, and then I set out to find transportation. The nice people with the Teacher of the Year program had sent us a voucher for a shuttle. I had planned to catch a ride with my cutie patootie grandchildren (and their mother, my stepdaughter) who live nearby, but, alas, the ice storm was not conducive to dragging three kids out in the elements. So shuttle it was! When I stepped into it, I immediately recognized Sharon, the Teacher of the Year from Utah. (I had previously stalked the webpage with all of our pictures on it!) Soon we picked up teachers from Missouri, Mississippi, Delaware, Indiana, and Arizona and off we went to the Hilton Lincoln Centre!

After checking in and cleaning up everything I owned (my lotion and toothpaste had exploded mid-flight) I went downstairs and enjoyed fellowship with my new found friends. I also enjoyed Fritos, because again I was starving and dinner wouldn't come until three hours later. At dinner we introduced ourselves and talked and talked and talked. My life seems rather uninteresting next to Dorothy's - she's the Teacher of the Year for the Department of Defense schools. She lives in Germany now, but has taught in Poland and Guam, after a brief stint in her home state of Louisiana. Just the fact that she was sitting there talking to me when her body was pretty sure it was the middle of the night was amazing to me!

Jon Quam, the Director of the National Teacher of the Year program, welcomes us.


Here we are having an elegant dinner.

Tommorrow we'll learn all about the SMART Board package our schools received, and later in the week we'll go to the Women's Museum. But the highlight of today? When Sarah, Arizona's Teacher of the Year, told us that her kindergarten students are excited that she's going to meet our new President "Rock-Your-Mama." How will we ever top that?

It was interesting that so many of us chose to wear red on the first day. We also had on black pants, which we felt compelled to show the camera. However, I'm the only one still "mid-kick." Everyone else was a little faster on the return. Here you see the "Ladies in Red" - the Teachers of the Year from Mississippi (Chantelle Herchenhahn), Missouri (Margaret Williams), Colorado (Susan Elliott, another finalist), Utah (Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh), North Carolina (WooHoo - that's me!), and Kansas (Cindy Couchman).

Stay tuned for Day Two...

Snow Day!

Those two words mean more to teachers than any other group of people! After a reflective Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, many teachers in North Carolina woke up Tuesday to a blanket of snow on the very roads they would have to navigate to get to school. So you know what that means - NO SCHOOL! And how timely...we were able to stay home and watch the Inauguration festivities without interruption. It was a beautiful festive day, and I stood in my den and saluted the flag and sang the National Anthem alongside my dog. And as wonderful as that was, I know it was amazing to share that experience with schoolchildren, too, so for those of you who were in schools that day, I'm sure the experience was just as meaningful, if not more.

There are a few words that carry the same impact as "snow day" and here they are: "two hour delay." I love those words. My brain works on a two hour delay so, to me, this is the perfect school day. After our snow day on Tuesday, we had our two hour delay on Wednesday, so we all arrived to work well rested after a long weekend.

On Thursday, I participated in an online meeting with the State Superintendent's Teacher Advisory Committee, the teachers from the current and previous Teacher of the Year teams. Due to budget concerns, we didn't all travel to our state capital as usual. Instead we "met" over the phone while viewing documents online. We are compiling statements concerning what we "believe" about teaching - these are called "We Believe" statements. James Bell, NC Teacher of the Year (07-08) and I will be presenting these statements to the State Board of Education in the next couple of months so we spent a good deal of time discussing each statement until we were sure that they represented our beliefs.
We also discussed a book we each read entitled Made to Stick. Authors (and brothers) Chip and Dan Heath write about the six principles needed to make an idea stick:

1. Simplicity

2. Unexpectedness

3. Concreteness

4. Credibility

5. Emotions

6. Stories

As teachers, it's important that we understand how to make our lessons "stick" with our students. This book uses entertaining examples to explain how that works - it's an interesting read for all of us who work with kids.

I ended the week with the opportunity to meet the new Dean of the School of Education at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Bill McDiarmid. A UNC graduate himself, Dr. McDiarmid shared his vision for the School of Ed. He pledges to prepare more highly skilled educators by being in the business of making leaders. He also wants to address the dropout rate in our country and do a better job of working with kids from high poverty areas and those for whom English is their second language. I'm looking forward to working with the School of Education at UNC, as well as North Carolina's other state and private schools of higher ed as we prepare our colleagues of the future.

Next week is an exciting one for me. I'll be traveling to Dallas, Texas to spend a week with each of the country's State Teachers of the Year. It's my goal to post about our activities daily, although time will be limited. I hope to at least give you a little insight into what we're doing there. That way I'll take you with me!

Wish me luck as I go to represent you, the outstanding educators of North Carolina, on a national level...I'm off to pack my cowgirl boots!

A Week to Remember...

Actually, every week I have spent as North Carolina's Teacher of the Year has been memorable. This one, though, included the elements of shock and surprise. I'll get to that in a minute. First, I began the week, as I do every other Monday, in my school. These days are precious to me, and I'm so glad my principal was one of the first people to go ahead and get scheduled early as I began developing my Teacher of the Year calendar. I enjoy my time working with National Board candidates, and at this time of year, they are deep into their writing and videotaping. So I spent Monday viewing tapes and reading entries. This is a growth process for me, as well as for the candidates, because I learn so much from reading about what these amazing teachers are doing! I also had a chance to visit with my students, which is a opportunity that means the world to me, and many of them yelled across the hall, "Mrs. Rigsbee, are you going to the chorus concert?" How could I say "no?"

But first, I attended the PTSA meeting and spoke to the group about the Community Literacy Center. I wanted to ensure that our parents are aware that we are meeting on Sunday afternoons in the event they want to volunteer or participate as learners as we work on reading skills in our community. Next I attended the chorus concert and was so proud to see some talented eighth graders on the stage singing. I thought back to them, as tiny sixth graders, and felt honored that I've had the opportunity to watch them grow.

This would be an important week for me as I knew the finalists for National Teacher of the Year would be announced publicly on Wednesday. I knew ahead of time that I had been given this honor; my State Superintendent had pulled me aside before the State Board of Education meeting last week. I was literally blown away at this news - I had no idea that it would even be possible for a reading teacher from rural Orange County to be considered in the running for National Teacher of the Year. I spent the remainder of that board meeting mulling over those kinds of thoughts and had a difficult time paying attention!

I was concerned, though, about the faculty and staff at my school finding out online or on the news. This honor is so much about them, the support they have given me, and the fact that they make me work harder and better because they are all such good teachers! So I asked the principal if I could say a few words on the intercom Wednesday morning and then if he would make the "big" announcement. He agreed so I drafted some very emotional words and tried to say/read them without crying. I told the entire story - from me being named my school's first ever Teacher of the Year - we were brand new that year - to the district process, then the regional, then the state process last spring. I did get emotional a couple of times, but I got through it. Then I asked the teachers if it would be okay if I came by each classroom and said "thank you" to every one of them. Next my principal got on the intercom and made the announcement, very loudly, "Mrs. Rigsbee is one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year!" I could hear the students screaming all the way in the office so I couldn't wait to get out there and see them.

Here I am at the principal's desk, reading my thoughts over the intercom on the morning announcements.

Here I am with Cristie, the first classroom I came to, where I thanked the teachers and students for their support. Cristie and I joked that we had planned to dress alike.

I didn't have to wait long. When I got through the office door, there they were - 8th graders pushing and shoving to get to me, all of us crying like babies! I told them I'd soon be in their classrooms and then turned onto the first hall - the sixth grade hall. I could see my BFF, 6th grade language arts teacher Cristie, way down at the end of the hall. She was waving and yelling, "Get down here!" When I got there we were both crying, and one reason was because I had mentioned in my intercom speech that Cristie came back to school from maternity leave to speak to the Regional Teacher of the Year Committee about me. Her beautiful daughter, Whitley, was barely a month old! That's how wonderful the teachers at my school are! I continued down the hall, opening doors and hugging teachers and students, and by the time I got to the 8th grade hall, I found myself in the middle of a class change. Talk about a traffic jam! I was hugging and crying and trying to get kids to class, but it was difficult. I went in Jenny's room - Jenny was a first year teacher and my mentee last year - and when I came out, I was shocked to be looking face to face with Trisha Muse, the Sandhills/South Central Region Teacher of the Year! She had heard the news and driven all the way to my school from her house where she had taken the day off because she was sick! I was so excited to see her, and she walked with me from room to room, meeting all of my colleagues at Gravelly Hill Middle and hearing me tell the same stories over and over. It was a very special day, and I'm glad I was able to thank all of my friends before they heard the news.

Here's Trisha, after her surprise visit to my school, along with Alisa, the PE teacher, and me.

The rest of the week was a whirlwind of activity - two television interviews, a radio interview, and many calls, including calls from the Governor's office and from Chairman Lee of the State Board of Education, and hundreds of emails. Everyone has been so supportive and encouraging (I feel so unworthy of such a prestigious honor!) Thank you to everyone who has touched me as I have traveled on this Teacher of the Year journey. It has always been my hope to make you proud. I hope you know how much you all mean to me...

The Meaning of Meetings

This past week has been one meeting after another for me, and believe it or not, I am thankful to have the opportunity to begin the year this way. These meetings are meaningful in that I vow to learn as much as I can at each and every one, while at the same time developing and nurturing those educational relationships that are so important.

I began the week meeting with our school district's Principal of the Year and talking about our philosophies and visions of education. If only I were certified to teach elementary school, I would love to work for her as she is an administrator who has the expertise to manage an exemplary school while at the same following her heart when it comes to nurturing her faculty and staff.

My next meeting was my weekly Education Policy Fellowship Program, and this week's speaker was such a treat! Dr. Jim Johnson, from the Kenan School of Business at UNC Chapel Hill, gave a compelling presentation on the changing demographics of our country and the impact on our schools. Again, I'm learning so much from just sitting and listening to experts who work and live right down the road from me.

Of course, this was a State Board of Education week, and it coincided with my first ever North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards Board meeting. Back in the fall, I was appointed by Governor Easley to serve on the commission, and it was an emotional moment for me as I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I found the Board to be a group of committed educators who took me into the group with such compassion that I didn't feel like "the new girl." We were excited to be able to speak to the State Board of Ed on the successes of the new Teacher Evaluation instrument that is being implemented in thirteen school districts (including mine) this year.

I looked around the State Board of Ed meeting and realized that there were five (former or current) North Carolina Teachers of the Year in the room. Of course James Bell (07-08) and I are serving as Teacher Advisors to the Board, but also in attendance were Melissa Barlett (02-03 and National Finalist) who is a member of the State Board of Education; Diana Beasley (06-07) who after serving as a Teacher Advisor to the Board continued in her role as committee member to the 21st Century Professionals Committee; and Allison Ormond (03-04) who is a member of the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards Commission. Allison was a member of the Regional Teacher of the Year Selection Committee that interviewed me and visited my classroom last winter, and Diana was a member of the State Teacher of the Year Selection Committee last spring so it was like a family reunion for me. All of these wonderful teachers have been mentors and role models for me. I want to be like them when I grow up!

Here I am with James Bell, Allison Ormond, and Melissa Bartlett. Diana Beasley slipped away before I could get her in the picture...

On Friday I returned to North Carolina State University to meet with the Teaching Fellows there. This time my friends from Western Carolina University were there to visit, and I called in Teaching Fellows Alum and Sandhills/South Central Regional Teacher of the Year Trisha Muse to help me present. We offered our "Teachers Are Professional" (TAP) presentation and then enjoyed a brisk round of tap dancing (clogging) with award winning clogger Trisha. We had a ball and worked off the spaghetti dinner we had just eaten.

NC State Teaching Fellows are talented cloggers!

Trisha Muse, center, teaches us clogging steps while Jackie Smith, Western Carolina Teaching Fellows Director (right) practices.

I'm thrilled to continue to have the honor of representing North Carolina teachers in 2009. Happy New Year everyone! I'm off to another meeting....see you next week!