In a meeting with Ron Clark and Kim Bearden, co-founders of the Ron Clark Academy, I was given the advice that you have to know how to brag on yourself. People won’t always be able to see or hear the good things you do, so sometimes you have to tell them. Since #CaitlynJenner has found mass appeal to break the internet and #Beyonce has to have a Good Morning America special to announce her Vegan lifestyle choice, I feel I am obliged to use my piece of the sphere to share two significant events in my educational experience this year with which I shared a connection. For teachers, our battles are fought and won inside the classroom, and there they stay. However, it is important for me to share these accomplishments with a greater audience.

1. ZERO WRITTEN REFERALS IN CLASS. Yes! I wrote zero referrals on the students that I taught. Let me set the stage. I taught a remediation class, so I had upwards to 60 students (not the typical of 100+ of regular classrooms). All students who did not meet some standard in math that caused a concern. The population was about half and half girl and guys; half and half black and white; a significant amount of discipline issues; and given that the school overall was 67% free or reduced lunch, a significant amount of low socio-economic status. Those stats make this a HUGE accomplishment, because it showed that people from all of those statistics can stay in class and can have an interest in learning! It was not easy! As a teacher, I was really challenged to rise to the occasion when students showed behaviors that normally had them removed from class, and find ways to solve the issue without compromising my high standards or relinquishing my power by sending them to an administrator. Some of the strategies I used can be found in my blog My true vision of classroom management.

2. MY FORMER INTERN WAS A TEACHER OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE. I have only had one chance to have an intern in my nine years of teaching, and this year that intern was voted as a Teacher of the Year Candidate for her school! Part of the significance here is that she was part of a Master’s of Arts in Teaching program, a program for non-education majors, who had not had previous teaching experience. I don’t claim to take full responsibility, because teaching takes a great inner desire and drive to be great; but, as an advising teacher, I hope the experiences created during our time helped build and develop the desire and drive that navigated her to that point!

So there are my two accomplishments that I’m sure no one will talk about, but they are MAJOR! The whole reason that I created the W.I.L.L. Educational Services is because I feel I have a calling to make a difference in education, but it is not enough just to use in isolation in my classroom. I wanted to build a platform to share my beliefs, ideas, and strategies on a larger scale. I am also building the framework for my own school; a model institution that I hope can change the face of education and make it THE priority again for all groups of students! To me, these accomplishments are significant because they give credibility to my philosophy. I hope that it gets everyone who reads this more interested in the movement that I am trying to stir; and that you will call on me to help build that desire and drive to make a difference in your school or organization.