Her Story
About Luanne
I've been in education for about 17-18 years, and I've always taught special education interrelated classes. My journey started in my late 40s when I went back to college at night to get my degree in general education for early childhood and special education. At first, I didn't want that special education attachment at all, but once I started, you couldn't have pulled me out of special ed to do anything. Two years after starting college, I was a certified teacher, and a year after that, I got my master's degree from Mercer University. My biggest achievement is actually seeing the growth my students make, measuring themselves against themselves rather than everyone else. I make sure that everybody has individualized work for their needs, so I may have 5 or 6 different groups going on at one time. I had an amazing adventure teaching in a remote Indigenous village in Alaska with about 650 people, and I probably got more and the experiences I received from the community and the kids than they probably ever got from me. I spent four years out there and loved every minute of it. I've retired twice and now work as a contracted special education teacher through an agency, though I still put in way more than the contracted 8 hours a day because I'm devoted to these kids and want to see them accomplish what they need to accomplish.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Luanne
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say it's putting all that extra time in for the kids. When you teach a classroom, you teach everybody basically the same, but when I teach my classes, I make sure that everybody has individualized work for their needs. I may have 5 or 6 different groups going on at one time. I care so much more for these kids and want to see them do well that I'll put extra time in it. I'm devoted to these kids and want to see them accomplish what they need to accomplish. That's the last thing I do. I'm really devoted to making sure they get what they need, even if it means working 12 hours a day instead of the contracted 8 hours.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I received came from my department chair who defended my teaching style to my principal. I'm the person that works in piles and is project-oriented, so I have everything I need to be able to reach each student that day. My principal wanted to write me up because my room was messy, but my department chair told her that if you go in and ask Luann for anything, she can put her hands right on it. I saw this thing that came through on an email about Einstein and his desk the day he died, and it looked about like my desk every day. I guess what I learned was that we are all different learners, and we learn different ways, and you need to stick to the way that you learn best. Even though my lesson plans maybe start one way, sometimes I have to drop and punt and go to something else, so I have everything I need to be able to reach that student that day.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say be prepared. Be prepared for something new every day. And I don't mean just the students, I mean the teachers, the administration, the expectations from the state. It's a constant changing environment. They change the name of some things, but it really means what it was 20 years ago. You have to be ready for constant change and adaptation in this field.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in education right now is not finding teachers, but keeping them. They get into it, and it's much more than what they thought. The administrator at your school holds your career in their hand based on evaluations. I've never seen an evaluation that has as many components to it as a teacher's, and they can put down things based on their observation and what they feel like. There's really nobody you can go to because that's the top of the line for your school. Most of the evaluation is just opinion, and one person might view something one way while another person might view it differently. It's all about perception.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I would say honesty and trustworthiness is probably the top of that. Hard work and respect are also very important to me. Respect goes both ways, teacher to student and student to teacher. I expect hard work out of the people I work with, and I expect it out of the children as well. These values guide everything I do in my professional and personal life.
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