Welcome everyone. I'm Tim Herrera with the Sacramento
County Office of Education and we're here
with
Scott Meyer, the Teacher of the Year from the
Folsom Cordova School District as part
of our teacher profiles.
Thanks for joining us. [Thank you.]
Well tell us a little about yourself. Tell
us where you teach and what you teach.
I'm a teacher at Mills Middle School.
I teach leadership as well as social science
and I'm the activities director, so
it's a lot of fun.
Tell me about
teaching leadership classes to that age group.
What do you work with on -- with them and
what's that like?
Well, it's one of the reasons I got into the
educational field. There's not a better age to
start
teaching students the skills, the leadership
Teaching it through a variety -- whether it's sports
it's really cool except
come second half of the year they're actually
running the class. So,
I'm investing the first half of the year teaching
them the skills but eventually it pays off
and
they love it.
And hopefully it's something that they'll remember ten,
fifteen, twenty years from now and
it'll make a difference.
So how long have you been a teacher?
Six years. [All in the Folsom Cordova School District?] Yes.
In middle school?
Actually, I've taught at Cordova High School every
summer,
just to mix it up a little bit.
It's pretty cool because it's all my former students,
that have now gone up, so I still have that relationship
with them
and it's kind of nice. It's a nice change.
I couldn't honestly say which I like better
but
it's a nice change.
Well what are some of the challenges that you face
as a teacher. Not necessarily with just that
age group
because I know that they have some specific
challenges for middle school students,
but as a teacher overall
what are some of the challenges that you have now?
The number one challenge that nobody ever talks about
is every student's completely different.
And if they were all the same
my job would be really easyÉand boring.
But every student
has their challenges they bring
but on the twist side, they also bring different
skills and
other things the table that
that's really neat.
But some of the biggest challenges that I face
right now at Mills is we have a really high
turnover rate
so often you'll build that relationship and then
you can really start these students improve and
then they move. And
that's really...
that's a dagger sometimes when you
invest all this time and you really start seeing
the students shine.
Another challenge is
they're twelve, thirteen years old
and
I remember
vaguely when I was twelve, thirteen
just a lot of changes going on
and everything seems so important
so it's...you really have to be careful
you really have to be careful.
They're kind of at a fragile state there
and
but on the twist side
it's just such a great age to work with you
I really feel like that is
the best age to make a difference
they're really turning into young adults, and
as far as
being able to influence
I can't think of a better time period.
Now, you've been a teacher for six years and
while that's not a great span of time
but within that time
have you seen education change
and how so?
Sure, well, obviously the last year or two has been
really challenging with the budget cuts.
It seems like every year there's more and
more that we don't know.
Coach.
I still don't know if I'm going to be coaching next year
because I don't know if we're going to have sports.
I don't know if
the other teams in our league are going to have sports.
I don't know if I'm going to have
certain teachers coming back next year
who are not only colleagues but good friends
of mine
so
in that sense, the not knowing factor, sure
that's changed a lot. It seems like it's
and I think a lot of it has to do with money
and
but generally no, I guess overall,
besides the money factor I don't think it's
changed too much.
How do you see the money factor impacting the
students and what are they saying to you?
Well, the students are
kind of oblivious because threats have been
made
well, we're not going to have sports, we're
going to have to cut all our clubs
but nothing's really
completely happened. Now this year's...things
are going to really change. I mean they've been cutting fat,
cutting fat, but
I like to say they're starting to get into the
muscle now
and
it's really going to impact the students.
What -- what I think's important
and what we're really working already
even though school hasn't started,
but myself and my colleagues is
trying to stay positive
bringing that optimism because for better or
for worse
the students will
feed off of us.
They're going to feed off our energy. They're going
to feed off of our
off our feelings.
So we're really trying to keep that positive
And if you don't show that you're motivated,
then you would have a hard time motivating
them?
Yeah it'd be hypocritical.
And
we've already made a pact -- we being our
staff at Mills Middle School
were not gonna
come into the year being negative.
You know, we're not going to say
talk to the state talk to the superintendent.
No, that's
that's neither there
or here. That...
We're here to teach
and we're here to be leaders, so
I'm actually really excited.
There are going to be challenges this year, but
anyone who gets in the education field,
you have to expect these challenges and it will pass.
It might not be for a few years, but it will pass.
Now, one of the challenges that effects
education at all levels is parental involvement
and trying to get enough of it.
What kinds of things do you do to try to
encourage parental involvement to help in the
classroom and help with your students?
We're constantly trying to
create our PTA
which has been smaller than other schools
our size.
We have really gone
technology
we really try and use e-mail
and are really trying to go paperless in
contact with parents.
Whether it's a weekly grade check
or
not only sending negative e-mails for for
every I call them negative e-mails
you know, Johnny's not doing his
homework
we're trying to send to positive e-mails.
and that's another pact at Mills Middle School
that we're really trying to enforce
and so that makes parents feel more comfortable
because
you know, a parent gets a phone call
from a teacher
or an e-mail
first thing you know what are they going to do
but we're really trying to change that
because
without the support of parents
it's really tough to get
get full success out of the student.
Another thing we do is
our sporting events
we have a lot of -- we have eighteen clubs on campus
with all our
advisors are really passionate
and we try to get parent involvement in those
clubs -- parent volunteers -- any of our field trips
our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade
all have their own field trips.
We invite parents
to go to all of those and that's a really
great experience to hang out with not only the
students outside the classroom but the parents
and establish that bond.
Um, but yeah, the parent involvement's huge
and you can never have too much of it.
And when you send those little positive e-mails, it
really helps build a relationship with the
families.
Absolutely.
And
and then if you do need to talk to a
mom or dad about Johnny not doing
his homework
it's not as much of an attack. They generally
understand, hey
this teacher really wants
my son to succeed, so
So what inspired you become a teacher?
I was actually heading towards law school.
Taking my LSAT, and I had a professor:
Paul Persons
at Chico State
who was just
I loved his class and it gives me chills
thinking about him right now
and I've also had some great teachers in high
school and it -- literally -- you hear about
these things just clicking and it just clicked.
And within a year and a half I was
teaching. Full time. At Mills.
It wasn't part of your early plan, was it?
Not at all. I mean, I actually was looking
at either getting into probation -- I knew I wanted
to have an impact, I wanted to make a change
and I looked into probation.
I looked into family law.
But I really wanted that daily
interaction.
Cause I think in order to make a changes you need
to be there. You need to be around.
Not once a month,
not every six months, you need to be around
daily. And I have no regrets.
So what was your reaction when you found out
you were the Teacher of the Year
for your district?
I should have known. I just
it wasn't even a thought in my head and it's
such a busy time of the year and I was just
honored to be
teacher
of our site, Mills. Because we have such
great staff there
and I should have known because my mom just
showed up
and she was supposedly flying to New York to
visit my sister and
I was oblivious at the time and then my fiancŽ
wife now, but she showed up
and my reaction
I'm still just
smiling ear to ear. It's such a great honor.
Nobody gets into teaching to get patted
on the back.
Nobody gets in the educational field for that.
But with that said
it feels pretty good.
Well, that's great. Congratulations to you. We are
speaking with Scott Meyer who is the
Teacher of the Year for 2010 for
the Folsom Cordova Unified School District.
We appreciate your time.
Thank you. [Thank you.]
