Something Better
Reaching for excellence
December 2000
Teacher of the Year Valerie Maxwell, Pattonville NEA, never
stops looking for better ways to reach her students. Here
she shares some of what she's learned.
 Two
first-grade teachers played a pivotal role in Valerie Maxwell's
life's direction. They were not her teachers in a traditional
sense. Rather, they were her son' teachers. Her first child
had entered school, and, wanting to play an active role in
her child's education, she became a parent volunteer and a
leader in the Parent-Teacher Organization. Those first-grade
teachers recognized Maxwell's gift and encouraged her to go
back to school to pursue a career in teaching.
Eleven years later, with seven years of teaching under her
belt, Maxwell is the 2000-2001 Missouri Teacher of the Year.
A new beginning
The mother of three young children, Maxwell returned
to school to pursue her career at age 38. During her tenure
as a student, she became a single parent. Still, she pressed
on and eventually earned her master's degree and certification
as a reading specialist.
"At the time I became a single parent, I did not realize
how this would allow me to relate and communicate with many
of my students' parents," Maxwell says. "Having experienced
first-hand my own hurdles, I am often able to offer suggestions
and alternatives that may help my students and their families."
Secret to success
Maxwell, now a seventh-grade math teacher at Pattonville
Heights Middle School, says the secret to her success is letting
her students know she doesn't have all the answers.
"We're all teaching and learning at the same time," she says.
"Because they can teach me a world of things that you wouldn't
believe. We are in it together, and I think that's the biggest
thing that works for me. We work together, we respect each
other, and we help one another. It's best to be real with
your students."
Making math real
Maxwell believes in teaching the whole child. Because
children have difficulty learning mathematics when other issues
loom over them, Maxwell began the Care Team, which works with
parents and teachers when a child displays a behavior of concern.
The team has been successful in helping families discover
interventions necessary to help resolve problems.
Viewing instruction and learning from her students' perspective
allows her to create meaningful lessons, Maxwell says.
"My students become involved in solving such problems as
calculating the amount of sod needed for a baseball field
or determining statistics and graphing Mark McGwire's record
of 70 home runs," says Maxwell in her Teacher of the Year
application. "I develop my students' mathematical tool kit
through a variety of approaches that include discovery, visualization,
application, computation, experimentation and representation.
Teaching mathematics by using a variety of approaches allows
for all students to experience a measure of success."
The next rung
Maxwell never stops searching for ways to improve her teaching.
Her latest objective is achieving National Board Certification.
"I was looking for a process that would directly affect my
abilities as a teacher," says Maxwell, who has completed 15
hours beyond her master's degree. "I wanted to know if I really
was effective with my students and what I could do to improve
my teaching. I found this challenge in the process of becoming
certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards."
Professional development is a priority for Maxwell. She is
a member of the Pattonville School District's professional
development committee, the new teacher staff development committee,
the performance assessment committee and Growing Our Own Leaders,
a program focusing on developing leadership on staff development
issues.
This focus on professional development and her own life struggles
for success have certainly paid off for Maxwell. She brings
her lunch every day and opens her door to students who want
to talk about problems or need help with schoolwork. She has
developed amazing rapport with her students, according to
her principal, Dr. Bernard Epstein.
"Here's a teacher that not only demonstrates all those characteristics
of successful teaching but is a teacher who knows from personal
experience the value of never giving up," Epstein says. "Kids
don't feel lost with her. She interacts with them, using questions
to find out where they really are, and makes sure she's bringing
them along when they are struggling to understand."
"I love her smile," Epstein adds. "Watching her face when
she is with the kids is like watching a movie star on stage."
Advice for new teachers
-
Be yourself.
Develop your own style. Don't feel as if you have to be
someone else to be successful as a teacher.
-
Love your students.
You have to love the kids, or there's no point
in being here.
-
Reflect on how your lessons
went each day, what you did right and
what you could have done better. Write notes to yourself
so the next time you teach the lesson you will benefit
from the past experience. Don't beat yourself up when
you make a mistake. We all make them, and we have to move
on.
-
Pick one committee to get involved in the first year
and do it well. Don't overextend
yourself the first year.
-
Take one evening a week
for yourself. Teaching
can absorb you to the point you have no life. You need
an outlet.
"I want other teachers to learn what I've learned--how to
analyze and reflect on my teaching and how to improve it,"
Maxwell says. "By reflecting on and continually improving
my teaching,I am able to help each of my students become flexible,
intellectually curious, creative and thoughtful individuals."
Maxwell's Teacher of the Year message
Teachers
I want teachers to be well qualified and want to do their
jobs. It makes a difference in your teaching, and it makes
a difference in your students.
Parents
Be interested in your children and the school they attend.
We're all busy, and we all get bogged down in the I'll-catch-you-later
routine, but you have to be involved.
Administrators
Stick with your goals. Administrators often get too many ideas
going, and teachers feel as if they are being dumped on. Determine
what your priority is and stay with it. Try not to fragment
us.
Politicians
Please fund all our schools. Fund us, take care of us, and
don't expect us to be a world-class education system for nothing
because it's not going to happen. You don't see other people
sitting in an office with a leaking roof and no air conditioning
doing their best work.
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