Raven Mayo

I would say being open to growth, like, not limiting myself. So when a principal or my coach comes in and says, hey, you need to work on this part of your practice, not taking it as a 'I got you,' but 'I want to grow you.' So just being committed to personal growth. I think that willingness to continuously improve and not be defensive when receiving feedback has been key to my success as an educator.

The best career advice I've received is 'be the change you want to see.' I know that's a common saying, but I will say that the morale of teachers in this day and age can fluctuate because the landscape of education is daunting. Even though the people around you are losing hope due to accountability of students, admin, parents, and all those factors, you have to make sure that you remember your why. So remembering why I came into teaching, remembering my why, and being what I want my students to see. I tell them I'm a lifelong learner, so if you're a teacher at 39, you could be a lifelong learner too. Never stop learning.

I would say that this is missionary work. Going back to remembering your why, first of all, have a why. And the why needs to be the foundation, because your day-to-day, you may forget. So you need to keep that in the forefront, maybe on your mirror at home, but constantly remember your why and persevere. Education is constantly changing. The landscape is constantly shifting. One minute, this is a best practice, the next minute, oh, we're abandoning that. I would say do what's best for your students. We as teachers, we know what's best for our students. And hang in there, remember your why. You don't see a lot of veteran teachers anymore. Most people are tapping out at year 3, year 5, but just hold up the banner. We need more people who are committed to equipping the next generation.

The biggest challenge I see is the accountability piece for students. I think that the pipeline to prison, we want to minimize that, and that's good. But we need to make sure that we're also creating or instilling values within our young people, like, that one day you won't be able to get away with everything. The accountability system is just a huge challenge. You can't take a recess, you can't really hold students accountable. They're like, well, I'm not gonna get suspended, so they'll fight. So being creative to instill values within them, even though they're not really being held accountable on any level, that's the challenge. The opportunities that I see are increasing my capacity as an educator, maybe outside of the classroom, and maybe doing social-emotional learning on a district-wide level, because I do think that's important. The district is really highlighting how SEL instruction can help, so if students have the SEL instruction, then they won't want to fight, they won't want to engage in some of these other behaviors.

I would say being reflective. Self-reflection and self-awareness is important. Knowing when you've made a mistake as an educator, and being able to apologize, or knowing when you need to make different decisions. And then being creative, I think that's crucial. If I'm bored, the kids are gonna be bored. So many times I'm doing project-based learning. I love project-based learning, so I love creating real-world scenarios for them to have access to it. I'll use the curriculum they give me as the entry point, but I'm going to build a real-world scenario that is fun and gets them engaged, gives them a role.