I'm Headed to Dubai as a Top-10 Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize

Global Teacher Prize
 Photo Credit: Forbes.com

I'm writing this post on the morning of Tuesday, February 16th, 2016. Tonight, at 12:01AM EST, I am going to be announced as a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, widely considered the world's Nobel Prize of Education. I'm writing this post as the first in a series that will take you along with me on my journey through the presentation of the $1Million prize to the winner at the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) in Dubai on March 13th.  Just as I did when I won the PAEMST award a few years ago, I want to document the experience for those finalists in the future who are wondering what will happen, share my emotions and experiences with you, and preserve my experiences for myself so that one day I can look back and remember all of the details from this incredible time in my life. Maybe by writing down what's going on I can start to let the "realness" of it all sink in.  It's still hard to believe.

I've been sworn to keep my selection confidential until the official announcement has been made, so this post won't go live until tomorrow morning, the same time as the announcement.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to fall asleep tonight.  I can't wait to see who the other finalists are, and I am so excited to see the video that was created last month when a camera crew was at my school for two days. One of those mornings, while I was teaching in my classroom, the crew went up to the high school to interview some of my former students. When they heard that I was a top-50 finalist and that a camera crew was coming they asked if they could share their stories. I have no idea what they shared, and I'm looking forward to seeing if the great memories I have of them in my classroom match what they remember.

Scranton Times-Tribune Billboard

The outpouring of support from my local community in the past few months since being announced as a Top-50 finalist has been incredible.  I've been featured on the local news a few times, had a front page story in the Scranton-Times, had articles written about my teaching in local newspapers, and even had a billboard with my picture on it displayed in Scranton.  I am so very appreciative. I love my community, and they are the reason that I am so passionate about what I do.  It's such a blessing to know that everywhere I go there are people rooting for me.  It's also an amazingly encouraging sign that there are positive stories being written about education and teaching. With the narrative around education being so negative lately, it makes me proud that I can be part of the reason that the narrative is changing.

My travel plans are booked for Dubai already.  I'll be flying out of NYC with Melissa Morris, one of the finalists from last year's Prize. For two days before the GESF all of the top-50 finalists from both last year and this year have been invited to a summit in which we will be working together to look for ways to improve education around the world and improve the standing of the teaching profession.  I am as excited for this opportunity as anything else that is going to happen. Every one of these finalists that I have met in person or online has been a source of inspiration for me.  I feel incredibly honored to be mentioned alongside them. Being able to learn from all of them for two days will be amazing.

My wife, Lori, and my mother will be flying to Dubai a few days after me for GESF and the award ceremony. I'm looking forward to having them there to share the experience with me. Every amazing experience is made better when you have people you love to share it with.

Nancie Atwell and I in New York City

I almost didn't apply for GTP this year.  After being a top-50 finalist last year, I was thrilled to have received that recognition for doing what I love. In September, at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, I got the chance to meet Nancie Atwell, last year's winner.  She encouraged me to apply again this year. I'm sure she had no idea how powerful her words were to me. The ability to empower others around you naturally is a characteristic of a great teacher. Right after that, I was nominated by a teacher that I work with in my building and a teacher friend in South Africa for whom I have incredible respect.  That convergence of support and encouragement convinced me to take another shot. At the very least, I figured that it might give me more opportunity to advocate for student-centered education, global service learning, and the empowerment of teachers and students in our educational system.  Also, I didn't want to let down those who had thought enough of me to take the time to fill out a nomination.

So, here we are - hours before this huge announcement that will continue to shape my career in ways I never envisioned when I became a teacher. I realize that with this great honor comes the solemn responsibility to use my platform to fight for educational systems that put teachers and students in situations where they can use their unique talents to make the world a better place.

It's going to be an amazing journey.

Edcamp USA at the US Department of Education

Let me start out this post with an apology. I should have shared more in the past few months. There have been many blog worthy events and topics that have presented themselves. Unfortunately, there have been so many of those opportunities that I've been too busy to write about them. As time went on, I felt like I had so many blog posts to write that I was a bit overwhelmed to even start catching up. And, so I didn't write.

As someone who preaches to others the importance of telling the positive stories in education, I am sorry that I didn't share some of the incredible things I see teachers and students doing around me.  Here are a few brief descriptions with links to catch you up on some of them:

• Our 4th grade students have been collaborating with 6th grade students in India to put together an awareness campaign to stop child labor in Asia and Africa
• The South Elementary School students wrote a school-wide collaborative book and recorded it digitally.
• Our 2nd graders had an amazing virtual field trip to Colorado to learn about snakes
• South Elementary students have visited many national parks, including Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Yellowstone National Park, and Biscayne National Park
• The 4th and 5th grade chorus had the opportunity to participate in a 3-continent cultural and musical exchange with students in South Carolina, Venezuela, and Kenya via Skype
• Our 4th grade students learned about weather from meteorologist Gian Villamil and NASA/NOAA scientist Bill Brown.
• South Elementary students have started a "Distance Teaching" project in which they will teach students in Kenya using math materials we have here in Pennsylvania through short videos.  In return, Kenyan students will be teaching us Swahili. I just received word last week that I have been approved for a grant that will allow me to travel to Nairobi at the end of next school year to put together a documentary showing the learning gains by both groups of students as teachers and learners using this pedagogical model.
• 6 other organizers and I ran a very successful edcamp in Northeastern Pennsylvania in which amazing conversations, great professional learning, and excellent networking took place among teachers in the region.

There are other amazing things going on at school, but that list gives you some idea of the things we've been doing. Because of those projects, Skype in the Classroom took notice of our school and asked me to represent them at a media event in New York City last week, and at the Social Innovation Summit, which is hosted by the United Nations. Being able to share stories of the amazing things our students and teachers are doing in front of thousands of the most innovative problem solvers and do-gooders from around the world in New York is definitely one of my career highlights so far.

Edcampers gather for a group picture after #EdcampUSA

So, that brings me to Friday.  The US Department of Education and the Edcamp Foundation collaborated to bring teachers from around the country and policy makers from the Department together in an unconference format to improve education for the first time. There was overwhelming demand among teachers to get a free ticket to the event, and I was fortunate enough to get selected in the lottery. I am also grateful that my district agreed to allow me to take a professional day to attend.

Anyone who follows this blog or knows me understands that I have not always agreed with policy decisions coming out of the Department of Education.  I can honestly say that I did not have high expectations that USDOEd would put much weight into the ideas that teachers shared at this event, and I was a bit worried that they would use it as a publicity event instead of an opportunity to really hear what teachers are saying.  Reflecting back on the day, I believe that the Department was very interested in hearing what we had to say.  I know that policy changes slowly.  I'm not expecting RttT to end tomorrow due to our discussions, but I think this was a positive step forward.  Welcoming teacher input and inviting teachers into the building to have discussions with policy makers was a positive.

I was pleasantly surprised at the feedback I heard from those in the Department. Emily Davis, a Teacher Ambassador Fellow at the Department is amazing.  She spent the day attending sessions, providing input, and taking notes to pass along to others in DOEd. We need teachers like her in higher policy positions.  I know she is looking forward to getting back in a classroom, but voices like hers are needed in rooms where education policy is being decided.

Right before lunch, Ruthanne Buck, a Senior Adviser to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (who made a brief appearance in the morning) sat in on a session in which digital leadership was being discussed. She seemed very impressed with the quality of the ideas being discussed and debated.  I had the opportunity to talk with her over lunch about educator-led professional development like edcamps, the need for teacher voice to be heard by those in senior policy positions, and the need for our best teachers to have avenues into those top policy positions.  She was genuinely interested in finding ways to give teachers more influence, which was a pleasant surprise for me.

The discussions at this edcamp were excellent.  Unlike many of the other edcamps I have attended, the sessions were more geared toward bigger issues and action rather than classroom pedagogy and tools.  There's nothing wrong with the latter topics, but this venue called for deeper and larger thinking, and those in attendance definitely recognized that.  The first session I attended, entitled "We're here. Now What?" was a great discussion about taking action to improve education.  Another session on building digital leadership also talked about actions we can take to help develop leaders who will take risks, push back against poor policies, and share success stories.  Both of these sessions made me realize that I have been shirking my responsibility to blog about the good things happening in my small corner of the educational world. In addition to continuing to share the positive stories I encounter at speaking engagements, I committed to doing a better job of documenting those stories here on this blog.

At the end of the day I accomplished another goal of mine for the visit.  As part of the grant I mentioned above, I would like to do some professional development for teachers in the Kibera Slum of Nairobi (more about that in a future post), and work with the Kenyan Education Ministry to put on a STEM summit in which teachers from Kenya have the opportunity to share their best practices with me, and I, as a PAEMST awardee, get to share some of the best practices I've seen in the US in return.  Emily was kind enough to take me upstairs in the Department to the International Affairs Office (I'm not sure if that's the official title) to make a connection who will help me coordinate those activities.

At the end of the day we were asked to commit to blogging about the day and committing to action going forward on the things we discussed.  Here are my committments:

• I commit to blogging more often about the good I see around me in education
• I commit to developing the potential leaders around me to be voices for student-centered, learning-focused educational policy through graduate course offerings, professional development opportunities, encouragement, support, and by sharing their success stories with the media.
• I commit to fostering the connections I have made at the Department of Education, United Nations, National Science Foundation, the corporate world, and non-profit organizations doing social good to promote positive changes in education policy here in the United States, and internationally.

A Few More PAEMST Pictures

Yesterday pictures were tweeted out by both the National Science foundation and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy of our PAEMST group.

 

2012 PAEMST Winners at the National Science Foundation

President Obama speaks to 2012 PAEMST Winners in the East Room of the White House

Obviously, all the winners are pictured in the first picture.  I got lucky to fit in the crop in the second picture (I'm in the top left corner).

The second picture was tweeted out with a link to the following article that described our visit to the White House and included several quotes from some of the other winners:  President Obama Welcomes Top Science and Math Teachers to the White House

PAEMST Recognition Trip - Day 5

The alarm went off at 6 AM this morning, and it was tough to get out of bed.  We had to be on the buses to the Award Ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences at 7AM.  Our guests were also being bussed to the event at 7:15 on separate buses.

My father's ring that he resized and gave to me & I wore for the first time at the Award Ceremony

We made it to NAS after a brief detour.  Apparently, NAS has two different Washington DC locations, and we went to the wrong place.  Everyone filed out of the bus and started to go into the building before being told to get back on board.

The wrong Academy of Sciences building

The National Academy of Science building (on Constitution Avenue, across from the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial) is a beautiful building.  There was a light breakfast available for us, and we mingled for a bit.  This last day had a very "last day of summer camp" kind of feel.  We had all made some great friends, and knew that this would be the last time we would all be together.  Two and a half days was not nearly long enough for any of us.

The right Academy of Sciences building

Before the actual award ceremony we had a practice ceremony.  We lined up in alphabetical order by state and were told where to walk, stand, etc.

Pennsylvania FTW!

It was a bit odd to have such a major ceremony first thing in the morning.  Especially since many of us were concerned about getting back to the hotel in time to make check-out time and not be charged for an extra night.  Some people even checked out and brought their luggage with them to the ceremony so they could take a taxi right to the airport afterward.

The ceremony was nice.  The Undersecretary of Education talked for a bit before the award presentations.  Even though Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had nothing on his public calendar, he didn't consider this important enough to attend.  Unfortunately, the other speaker, acting director of the National Science Foundation Cora Marrett, got stuck in traffic and had to give her remarks after we received our awards. 

My big moment

Lori, Darwin, and I

A few of us with acting Under Secretary of Education Jamienne Studley

Seeing the award for the first time was pretty amazing.  President Barak Obama personally signed each one of them, and our names were written in calligraphy on the awards.

After the ceremony we spent a few minutes taking pictures and saying goodbyes to the other winners.  Those of us taking buses back to the hotel then boarded.

We got back to the hotel in time to quickly pack up and check out on time.  My mother offered to take some of our luggage in her car back home for us so that we did not have to carry it on the plane.  I gave her most of our luggage (which would later come back to haunt me) and the flowers I had bought for Lori at the beginning of the trip thanking her for all of her support that allowed me to achieve this honor.

Lori and I had a nice lunch at the restaurant in the hotel before taking a taxi back to Washington Reagan National Airport.

Our flight home was pretty uneventful.  We had to wait on the tarmac for a while in DC which made our connection in Philadelphia tight, but got back into Scranton on time.  As we walked through the terminal in Scranton I suddenly realized that my car keys were in one of the bags that I had sent home with my mother. 

Lori and I had to wait for an hour in the empty airport for my mother and sister to drive the keys to us.  I showed her the meditation room in the airport while we waited.  It's actually pretty cool. 

AVP Meditation Room

Finally we got home, gave our kids big hugs and the Presidential M&Ms that I had gotten (which they are not allowed to eat), and collapsed into bed.

On the first night of the PAEMST events we were told by the three presidents of the alumni societies that this award would change our lives.  I guess we'll see...

PAEMST Recognition Event - Day 4

If you read my last blog post, you know I didn't get much sleep before these events. My mind was so full of ideas that I didn't fall asleep until 4AM. The alarm went off at 6, and we needed to meet in the lobby to take the buses to the White House at 6:45.

That didn't stop me from having another incredible day. The buses dropped us off at the White House Visitor Center around 7. We spent quite a while outside in the security line. It was in the high 20s, so we got a little chilly. I enjoyed the conversation with a few of the other winners.

The tour of the White House took us in through the lower level, past a few rooms that were roped off (a library and a room full of past china sets) and then up a flight of stairs. At the top of those stairs we found ourselves back in the East Room, where we had met the President just a few hours ago. We were not allowed to take any pictures on this tour.

Three high school girls in front of us heard myself talking with a couple of the other winners about our meeting with President Obama in this room the day before and asked us for details. I told them that I shook the President's hand "right there in the same spot that President Kennedy's coffin rested after his assassination."

They asked us why we had that experience and we were able to explain that we we being honored for being some of the best math and science teachers in the country. Maybe we inspired one of them to become a STEM teacher...

This time, the East Room was roped off so that we had to follow a narrow path. The same was true for the Green Room, Blue Room, and Red Room junta we had free access to the day before. It was only now that the depth of yesterday's experience sank in. Few of us had realized how special the access we had yesterday was.

From the White House we walked about 5 or 6 blocks to meet our guests at National Geographic's headquarters to see an advance screening of their new show, Cosmos. It was explained to us that we were to be the first group of people in the world to see the first episode.

I loved the show. It is based of a show of the same name by Carl Sagan years ago. This version is hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of my personal idols. The show debuts on TV on March 9th, and I can't wait to see more. As a gift, National Geographic gave us each a copy of Carl Sagan's book, Cosmos and a really awesome poster showing the history of the universe compressed into a calendar year.  Unfortunately, I had no way to transport that poster around, so I didn't take one.

From National Geographic, we parted with our guests and made our way to buses that took us to the National Science Foundation Headquarters in Arlington, VA. We heard from the acting Director of NSF and then had lunch meetings with different assistant directors. My group of about 10 math winners met with NSF's education staff, and we had an excellent discussion about ways to get more excellent STEM teachers into positions that influence policy decisions, pre-service teacher teacher training in STEM, and the need for better content-specific math and science pedagogical knowledge among current teachers.  It was times like this - when the Assistant Director in charge of the National Science Foundation's education efforts was asking me for advice on how we could improve STEM education in the United States that I realized the magnitude of the award I had won.

Acting Director of NSF, Cora Marrett

Pennsylvania Winners with Director Marrett

NSF Atrium

When out meetings were done for the day, I took the Metro over to the Smithsonian to meet up with Lori, who had toured the Holocaust Museum earlier. We had a snack in the Museum of American History Cafeteria, walked through the Natural History Museum's mammal, ocean, and gem exhibits, and then took a taxi back to the Omni.

Jim Henson exhibit at American History Museum

Marie Antoinette's earrings

For dinner, we met both my sets of parents, who just got into town for tomorrow's awards ceremony, at Founding Farmers. This restaurant was very highly recommended by others who had spent time in DC before, and got good reviews on Yelp. Dinner was excellent. I had the shrimp and grits, and Lori had the chicken and waffles. We split the cornbread appetizer, which was really good, but were too full for dessert afterwards.

After dinner we said goodbye to all of my parents and spent some time with other winners and their wives/guests at the restaurant and a place called Bayou 'celebrating' Fat Tuesday. It'll be another night of short sleep. The buses to the awards ceremony leave for the National Academy of Sciences at 7AM.

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Location:George Washington Memorial PK,Arlington,United States