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Derek Thomas, English Teacher, Plant High School

From the moment I began the Teacher Voice project just over two years ago, one of the first people who immediately came to mind as a guest was Derek Thomas, a local English teacher whom I never met yet felt a connection to because of his positive tweets. Much like myself, Derek struck me as a person and teacher who values relationships with his students over virtually every other aspect of being in the classroom with kids.

But he’s also one heck of a writing teacher, and as someone who also reads a great deal of student writing in my role with the IB program, I wanted to discuss how he gets kids to grow as writers and, ultimately, communicators. This conversation, then, largely revolves around those two ideas and I savored every moment of this talk, both in the moment and while listening to it again before publication. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have.

Thanks for listening, everyone! Enjoy the first back week with your students!

P.S. – Although this is not one of the tweets I read at the end, I intentionally skipped this one in the feed because I thought it would be a great post script/first day message from Derek. If you are on Twitter and need a burst of positivity relating to the kids or classroom, you can follow him @derekjathomas

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Bianca Goolsby, MBA, Brand Strategist and now former HCPS Jennings Middle School teacher

As of today, Bianca Goolsby no longer works for Hillsborough County Public Schools. Approximately two weeks ago her blog post was published as a guest column in the weekend edition of the Tampa Bay Times. The piece generated a lot of discussion on social media with many, many teachers from schools all across the district and state lamenting the lack of discipline in Florida’s schools. As noted in my own blog post, although suspensions are clearly on the decline, students and teachers alike are suffering the ramifications that include a self-perpetuating cycle of emboldened misbehavior met with leniency.

I will warn listeners of this episode that what you hear may disturb you. Bianca clearly pulls no punches about what is wrong with her school and how she tried to generate a conversation for how these issues could be met head on in a proactive manner, only to receive lip service with no follow up–if she even got an answer at all. I spent much of the conversation listening as she poured her heart out, occasionally speaking with tears in her eyes while conveying the concern and love she has for her students.

Please listen and share this important conversation with others. Bianca’s words are a powerful testament to the challenges numerous teachers face on a daily basis, and underscore the need for a long overdue conversation for how we can address these challenges head on. And, if you can make it, please join Bianca, myself, and others at the next HCPS School Board meeting at 3:30 pm on Tuesday, June 11th at the Temple Terrace Town Hall.

If you’d like to read some of Bianca’s former students’ stories she talks about during the podcast, you can click the “Student” links below:

Student A   Student B   Student C   Student D   Student E

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The email sent to Yinka Alege that Bianca reads during the podcast.

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My name is Ryan Haczynski and I am a veteran public school teacher working in Tampa, Florida. In my 19 years of living here–and teaching for the last 14 of them–I’ve seen a great deal of change to the public education system here in our state, some of it good, a lot of it not so much. My goal for this blog and associated podcast is to write and talk about the issues with education stakeholders of all kinds: teachers, parents, local and state legislators…anyone who has something to contribute. I am firm believer in the power of dialogue to foster change, which is why I need your help.

If you are reading this, my guess is that you’re interested in education. Like me, you are  passionate about the issues and pay attention to what is happening locally and across the Sunshine State. Ideally, I want this blog and podcast to be a diverse and collaborative project that will feature guest writers as well as people who want to sit down and talk about important challenges currently facing education.

 

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Got an idea you’d like to discuss? Contact me!

Are you interested? If so, stay tuned. I have a lot of ideas and am still putting together other social media outlets to help spread the word and build an audience. If you have suggestions, please contact me at 1teachervoice@gmail.com or through one of the various social media connections.

Thanks!

-Ryan