How Ideas Travel | Professional Development

how ideas travel
Judy Bieze, last year's Teacher of the Year for Idaho, says that "learning new ways to help my kids" is what keeps her interested in the profession.

Before Char Soucy became a first-grade teacher in Coeur d'Alene four years ago, she taught in an outdoor-education program in upstate New York. She still fits the part, with wavy hair falling to her waist, a singing voice that would sound great around a campfire, and a passion for hands-on, experiential learning.

As the lead teacher at Fernan Elementary, Soucy, 36, doesn't try to push her ideas about education onto her colleagues. "People have to be ready to learn," she believes, "and they'll only learn something new if they have a need to learn it." Typically, she waits for other teachers to ask for help rather than interjecting herself into their classrooms.

A staff development program that's based at the school level means that teachers can learn new teaching practices right in their own classrooms, with their own students and materials, during the regular school day. It's the opposite of training workshops that pull teachers away from their kids and classrooms. "People tend to learn from what they see, what they observe," Soucy says. "This program gives teachers a chance to see good ideas in action. Great ideas travel that way."

Soucy herself is always on the lookout for great ideas that will advance her own classroom skills, whether it's integrating technology into a first-grade classroom, or finding new ways to connect brain processes with whole-body movement. She watches more experienced teachers for clues and ideas. The teachers she "worships," she says, "are never satisfied. They're always improving, always adding more tools to their toolbox. A good teacher is an ardent learner."

Nancy Larsen is a perfect example. Before she started teaching, Larsen, 43, spent a dozen years as a full-time mom, volunteering in her two daughters' classes and activities. Ever since she started her professional career nine years ago, she's been stretching herself, reaching for new challenges that will make her a better teacher. It's paid off: Larsen has been recognized as Idaho's Teacher of the Year for 2000.

"If I don't do something new every two or three years, I become stagnant," Larsen says in the same soft, calm voice that holds the attention of her second-graders at Ramsey Elementary. After her first few years in the classroom, she went back to earn a master's degree. Then she started teaching literacy classes as an adjunct professor at the University of Idaho campus in Coeur d'Alene, working with education students "who are where I was just a few years ago." She devoted one summer to an intensive teacher-as-writer seminar sponsored by the Northwest Inland Writing Project, an experience that has shaped how she teaches language arts. Last year, both Larsen and fellow Coeur d'Alene teacher Judy Bieze went through the difficult process of earning certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, a process "that asks you to examine everything you do in the classroom," Larsen says. (See Raising the Bar.)

The lead teacher program immediately appealed to Larsen as "a learning opportunity for myself. The chance to get together with talented people throughout the district and discuss what we're doing in the classroom — that sounded powerful." As the program has evolved, Larsen has realized that it goes well beyond professional development. "It builds professionalism in teaching," she emphasizes. "We can do so much more when we reach out and build connections with other teachers."

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