Jasmine Reese - Sacramento county teachers of the year 2013 interview

♪♪ I'm Tim Herrera the Sacramento County Office of Education, here with another Teacher of the Year profile. We're here with Jasmine Reese from the Natomas Unified School District. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Well, congratulations on being named a Teacher of the Year. I'm very honored. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us what school you teach and tell us subects, grade level. I teach in Natomas Unified School District at Natomas Park Elementary. It will be my 12th year teaching and I've taught 4th grade. And I have a multiple subject credential. Well, tell us a little bit about your classroom. What kind of things might you do differently, what are some of the things you do to really energize your students? Well, the students definitely keep you on your toes. They -- you have to energize them, but they may take some of the energy out of you. But some of the things I do in the classroom -- it's most important in any classroom -- is getting to know who your students are. It's very important to know who they are, what experiences they have, what interests them, what their strengths are, and what areas they need to work on. And playing and adjusting your instruction toward those interests is where the students are able to succeed. So what I do in the classroom is I try to make it fun for them. I try to make the curriculum relative to their everyday life. You know, why are they in school for six, seven hours? And I try to incorporate not just the direct instruction, but an opportunity for them to experience and to be with their peers and learn with their peers and converse as well as take them on all these great field trips to enhance their learning. So, you talked a little bit earlier about kind of almost dealing with them individually but at the same time as a group. How do you do that? It is very challenging. If anything, it's probably the most challenging aspect of teaching. You know, when you're given 30, 34 students in a classroom, each student comes with their own individual skill set. And the wide range of abilities are present. And one of the things that you have to look at -- and not just the wide range in terms of academics, are they below basic to the basic students, the advanced -- but you also have to deal with, you have your EL students, you have your English learner students. You also have your gifted and talented students. And you have your special needs students, as well. How do you deal with it? You have to do your best in learning how each student learns. That's the most important piece. Is getting to know who they are and figuring out what drives and motivates them and use it as your tool to differentiate your instructions. So you're able to get them to learn. To grow. And you're also dealing with students who may have some personal issues at home. And things like that, that you have to take into account, that affect learning. Yes, it does. And I think a lot things that kids, when they walk through the door, they need to understand that they are -- their main purpose in there is to learn. And I'm there to guide them. Their classmates are there to help them. But, at the same time, that partnership that you develop with their parent or with their grandparents or their guardians is so important. So they don't take on a lot of adult problems, I'd say. And letting them know that they have a supportive group. And that partnership with parents, teacher, student, and the community is so valuable. So that they feel valued. And not only that, reassured that we are there for them. Yeah, you brought up an interesting point about bringing the parent, the grandparent into the process. And there are some instances where the parents or grandparents are happy to be there and their available. What about those situations where, maybe, the parents are not willing or able? Well, usually what happens, when -- and I've been through this a couple times -- when there's a parent that's not willing, we have to understand why. You know, it could have been an experience that they've had. It could be that they just don't know. And so, by extending through communications and I'd say through my newsletters I have. At one point, I was doing weekly newsletters, but monthly newsletters. Updating my website so that they're informed. Phone calls home. Not just for behavior issues, but also for the successes in the classroom of their child. When they start to see that, and this is from my experience, when they start to see that, they are -- they become a part of their child's learning. And there's an example where I had, a few years ago, I had a parent who just felt that everything wasn't being done for their child so he just didn't have that trust. And this was at a different school. And when he came to our school, we were able to build that trust. And by the end of the year, he was very thankful. Completely different parent. A completely different student. Just felt like a family by the end of the school year. And the parents like to hear those phone calls telling them that their child is doing well. They love to hear that. They also love to know what their child needs to work on. And they want to know what are you going to do to help them. You know, after school tutoring. Or if a tutor is available at the same grade level but with another teacher, but that teacher's open to taking in all students. Also, sharing resources. What is the school doing for parents. What is the community doing to help the students? All of those are so valuable in gaining their trust. Because we just need to make sure expectations are clear and that we're all on the same page. It's just, like, a team effort. You have to build that supportive group in order for that child to truly learn. So, what do you think are some of the special challenges you face as a teacher every day? The challenges every day is adjusting the curriculum to fit their needs. Every day is different, but knowing that you're given a core curriculum that has some interventions in place, but maybe just not enough to where it needs to be tailored to your students. Our students are individuals. They need to be recognized as individuals. But, again, I've mentioned with so many students in the classroom, the challenge is finding the not just the material resources, in terms of support, but also the people support. So, the challenge is how to address the needs of each student, plan for it, and implement it well. And to continually adjust. One of the things is that it's -- I've taught 4th grade for many years. It's not the same every year. And it's not the same every day. Because your kids are your driving force in terms of how you're going to deliver that instruction. And so, I think that's one of the challenges we have in the classroom. But we do it. We do it. But it's a lot of work. We have to really reach out to our community to help us. Especially since, at least in our district, there aren't any instructional assistants in the classroom. So I've had many -- parents have been so valuable in helping me address those needs. You were talking about the curriculum. Has that been the biggest change in the classroom that you've see over the last few years? Or are there other things that you think have really come to the forefront as major changes? During your career. Well, during my career, I think the first thing I would have said was the biggest challenge is everything is so standard based. And there's very little time and focus on truly analyzing and understanding how our students learn. But I would say, in the past few years, the biggest change that I've see is just the strain of the economy on our families. And, you know, in the educational field -- in every field, career field -- but in the educational field, you know, the stress of supplies coming out of -- purchasing that out of your own pocket. The demand on really being creative on how to to get the community more involved. Asking for more donations. Through my newsletters, I've never, you know, requested as much as I have in the past. The stress of students on whether I'm going to go on a field trip. Well, they're all going on a field trip. You know, we have to see if there's this -- instead of going on seven field trips for 4th grade since we're studying California maybe it's just a few. So, I see more the strain of just teachers, of just layoffs and other pieces. It's just an internal stress you can feel. Families trying to -- having financial situations. The children coming into the classroom and using the word foreclosure. I don't remember that when I started. I know that people had financial stresses, but the vocabulary has changed a bit. And kids really don't need to have those stresses right now. And I would say that is the biggest change I've seen. Besides, of course, curriculum and standardized testing becoming the forefront in a lot of our teaching. Which, in that case, has affected -- I wouldn't say affected, but it has kind of directed us more into just staying so narrowly focused with reading and math. Reading and math. And not having that balance we may have had in years past. Yeah. Well, congratulations on being named the Natomas School District Teacher of the Year. We really appreciate your time. We've been speaking with Jasmine Reese from the Natomas Unified School District. Congratulations again. Thank you very much.