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Summary

Have you been searching for a podcast that identifies the realities of the teaching profession but is also inspiring! Look no further. The Learning Project Podcast is designed to help teachers avoid burn out by providing tried and true strategies, routines and engagement strategies to help support your classroom. Our goal is to make sure you leave every episode with something you can try in your class to make your life easier. We are here to motivate, inspire and remind you why it is you became a teacher! So sit back, relax, and lets make those classroom dreams a reality!

In this episode of the podcast you will be introduced to me, Jenn Hunter the owner, operator, content creator and CEO of The Learning Project, and The Learning Project Podcast. Learn about my hardships of being a teacher and the growth that I have had on my journey to become and instructional leader to get me where I am here for you today

🌟 From Setback to STEAM Success: My Journey in Education 🌟

Hi my name is Jennifer and I am a teacher that failed. I did not set out on this path but fell into a career that has a bigger purpose than I ever could have imagined as my 21 year old self.  I was going to medical school. I just needed to finish some pre requisites for med school after completing my bachelors degree and began substitute teaching. I loved it. There was this connection with kids that I completely underestimated. Generally substitute teaching is pretty easy.No lesson planning, no long term commitment to kids that are not the nicest, and a new environment every day.   As the school year was rounding out I was asked to take on a position teaching science. I was flattered, and took the position as I was still awaiting the time I needed to complete courses to reach my goal, what was the harm in earning some money while I waited.  I accepted the position and was assigned to teach freshman Earth Science. Hmmm… Earth science, oh yeah, I took a semester of Geology my freshman year of college…oh yea…that semester I got mono…where I only completed 6 weeks of the course…Of course I can teach Earth Science. (Big eyed emoji face) 

I began my first year of teaching excited! I loved having my own students and my own classroom. I took all of the knowledge from my colleagues that I could to help provide the best possible instruction to my students. Day in and day out. I planned, prepped and did whatever I could to engage my students. The fact that I was young absolutely helped me to connect and build relationships with them.  During this first year, was the first time I experienced the dark side of teaching. I was assigned a mentor teacher, (who I am still in contact with 19 years later) who gave me positive feedback time and time again as she came to support my class. I am an enneagram 7, which means I am an enthusiast. Give me a goal, and a target and I am going to do whatever I can to meet that expectation.  Especially if someone else is depending upon me, real or imagined.  My administration would come and watch my class and provide me with glowing feedback. As far as I could tell everything was going fantastic my first year of teaching. So much so I was asked to be the freshman class advisor, and the California Scholarship Federation Advisor. As the year progressed our school decided to implement a mentoring program. Students were given the opportunity to choose their first choice for a mentor, which was a teacher on campus. I was asked to support the ASB director, and Science department chair who I had been working with all year to help with the implementation of this program. Of course I agreed. As we began to sort the responses from students, many of “her” kids were choosing to be in my class for their mentorship program. This is when the tide began to change for me. She lamentented that some of HER students chose me for mentorship and did not want me to keep her kids.  Being the young, naive, people pleaser I am, I acquiesced.  I still had a number of junior and seniors from CSF, and my swim team and a number of fun freshman ready to learn and work.  As the semester progressed and I was feeling my stride, I was asked to participate in a meeting with my department head and my principal.  It was the Friday before spring break. It’s funny, there are not very many moments in my life that I remember as vividly as this day. It was devastating. I sat in my principals offices, with the department head/ASB Directors/Mean Girl and was told, I was not a good teacher, that I was not meeting the needs of my English learners and that I was being transferred to the middle school. Umm, excuse me. What just happened? I had two individuals invite me to a meeting to tell me I wasn’t doing a good job, yet neither one of them ever stepped foot in my class? Curious. Devastating.  I was done. I had never been so humiliated and unsure of myself in my life.  All of the feedback that I had gotten up until this point and for sure thought I was going into this meeting leaving with a contract for the following year and praise about what an amazing teacher I was. Obviously, this ripped me to my core. I finished the school year and chose to not return to the district as a middle school teacher. 

As the next school year was beginning I decided to take a position at my alma mater, where my mom was an assistant principal. I taught Biology which was a breath of fresh air! I had an amazing and supportive department chair and had a great time teaching with many of my former teachers including my high school volleyball coach. As the first semester came to a close, I decided to move back down with my fiance and got a job at what ended up being my teaching home for nearly ten years. This school was my home away from home for many reasons. I had a phenomenal master teacher and department head in Nancy. Nancy taught me what it was to be a rigorous teacher with high expectations. She was no non sense, very type A, and extremely supportive. I valued her support more than I think I have ever articulated to her. In this school we had a course called Intro to Bio. This class was specifically designed for freshman that had struggled in middle school. Many of these students had never been in a science class before since they were double blocked in English and Math for their deficiencies. I had high numbers and very diverse students. I had all levels of English learners including transient newcomers that had been in and out of school following the harvest. I had many special education students with all of their diverse needs, and I had many students who had never been successful. I was determined to get them excited about being in my class. So I thought outside of the box. Being a science teacher I was encouraged to make my students do labs.  Thank goodness for Nancy Kellogg. She provided templates for lab reports, systems for managing all of the different materials, and lots and lots of content knowledge. Year after year, I would implement more and more hands on experiences for my students to have them interacting with the content. I am creative and loved being able to approach my classroom as a place where I could provide diverse experiences. I participated in professional development all of the time looking for ways to enhance my instruction for my most challenging students specifically English learners and students with disabilities. I have been out of the classroom now for seven years, and I still have some of my notebooks and models that I provided to my students because I am so proud of the work that we did together. 

Since leaving the classroom I have supported student learning in different way. My first position was a teacher on special assignment in a small district only 2 high schools and one continuation school where I was a part of a two woman team leading the roll out of the Common Core State Standards for English and math. Naturally because I was a science teacher I was responsible for math. Now let me tell you, I am not a math content expert. All of my math confidence was obliterated in my Algebra 1 class in high school. Thankfully I had an OUTSTANDING geometry teacher, shout out to Ms. Maury Lane, I was able to get a little more inspired and completed Algebra 2, and of course the college math courses that I had to take. No calculus for me!  Being that I was not a math content expert, I learned everything I possibly could about the shift to the common core standards for math, the traditional versus integrated math pathway, and all things quality math instruction. An essential component to leading this work was developing relationships with the teachers that I worked with. If you know math teachers, they are typically not super mushy, they are much more logical thinkers which is totally my wheelhouse. During this year I grew so much as an educator. Not only from my math colleagues, but also from my incredible TOSA partner Queana Givens! Queana taught me so much about the English standards and English learner strategies. Together we developed the district framework for the common language of instruction that focused on communication, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration. We designed and  provided professional development in lesson design, gradual release of responsibility,  close reading, checking for understanding, and collaborative instructional practices. This was 12 years ago, and the research and underpinnings of these strategies are still among the most effective today. Check out Hattie’s Research on maximizing student learning. Number 1 is collective teacher efficacy, but when it comes to strategies including students in their learning is high on the list. 

From this position I then moved out of the area and landed another TOSA position but this time in science. I had so much fun doing this work. This position gave me the opportunity to be a part of the Next Generation Science Standard roll out team for all grade levels kindergarten through 12th grade. I was able to learn deeply about NGSS and the shift in the classroom necessary to meet these new rigorous expectations. In this position I was able to be support and mentor elementary, middle and high school teacher with engaging science lessons that not just met the standards for science, but integrated math and English! What a dream. I was able to plan and create units for our STEM schools and walk the teachers through how to set up, take down and interact with their students. I created and implemented model lesson and had a fantastic time doing it. I met so many dedicated and incredible teachers willing to step outside of their comfort zone and learn some really fun science. Although the work that I did was incredible, the environment in which I worked, not so much. So I decided to make the next move and went into administration. Now I know some of you are saying that I went tot he dark side, but my goal has always been to to help more teachers and students. My heart is with the kids and I thought this would be the next step to support them. By this time my own children were 6 and 2, and I did not want to have high school administration hours so I was hoping for an elementary assistant principal position. Luck has it that I was able to work as an AP split between two schools. Again, instruction is my jam, and this is where I really developed my toolbelt for supporting students with disabilities. I had an amazing principal that taught me how to teach reading from phonics, and phonemic awareness, to blending and segmenting, I learned so much and was able to take my hard work ethic, and creativity and use it to help support teachers in meeting the needs of their students. I am a firm believer that every secondary teacher should spend at least one full day observing an elementary class. These teachers are super heroes! At the secondary level we have the benefit of class periods to break up the day, but also to cycle through our kids. No such luxury for our elementary colleagues. These teachers have their students moving, collaborating, working independently, reading out loud, presenting, the list goes on and on. And for my secondary peeps who are like well yea elementary kids love school. . . um nope. Not all kids do. I have been an administrator at both elementary and secondary level, and THE most challenging behaviors hands down are at the elementary level. 

One of the greatest distinctions between elementary and high school teachers and classrooms that I have seen has been the shift from having flexibility and variety in the classroom, versus  requiring kids to sit and listen. Somewhere between elementary and middle school we take away our student ownership of their learning and transfer that responsibility to us as teachers. No wonder we are exhausted. 

For the last three years I have had the incredible fortune to work as a consultant. Our work was centered around improving the school system from the superintendent all the way down to paraeducators.  I have been providing coaching and training to principals on the CCSS and what they are really asking students to do, calibrating expectations, and engaging instructional strategies that are impactful but do not require hours of prep. 

After all of this time, my goal has always been to revolutionize public education. Our system is not helping our kids to become the accountable, creative, critically thinking, communicators that we need them to be. My goal for this podcast is to provide you inspiration, tools, and strategies that are innovative and can help you to motivate and engage your students in new ways. Have a question send me a DM. I will hop on a call! My goal is to be your cheerleader! I love teachers! Teachers are a crucial part of our education system and I want to serve you with the best strategies and support that I have seen. I am not perfect, and don’t pretend to be, but I have learned so much and want to share. I have included in the show notes for this episode a freebie called 6 Ways to Increase the Energy in Your Classroom. Check it out. If you liked this podcast, please subscribe, rate, and review, share a pic on social media and tag me @TheLearningProjectJenn. 

I know this particular podcast was not full of tips, but I wanted to introduce myself first. I hope you have an amazing day and this left you feeling inspired and motivated to engage your students! Happy Teaching!