NIU College of Education alumni featured in the new documentary, “A Teacher’s Shoes,” spoke about their work during a panel discussion held after the Nov. 12 debut screening.
Educators Grace Desmsedt, Ashley Manor and Dominique Yackley told stories about creating routines that enable students to feel comfortable, safe and cared for in ways that make them “open and ready to learn” and “more vulnerable with you but also in their personal lives.”
They also spoke of practicing self-grace to “accept that not everything is going to get done,” and of being sponges to soak up knowledge and experience from every situation and every encounter, including observation of colleagues in action and then asking those fellow teachers to return the favor and with constructive criticism.
Dean Mary Earick moderated the conversation, which began with what educators need to thrive and also included prompts on critical moments in the classroom, how to balance student needs with teacher needs and more.
“I think the most important thing is to just have a supportive administrator. That changes the game. I’m lucky enough that my principal, Donna Larson, is the most understanding person I know,” said Manor, who teaches geometry at DeKalb High School, “and the same way I my students, as people first, she treats me as a person first instead of a teacher first. Having that support is life-changing.”
Yackley pointed to “freedom to be human and to be professionals.”
“Trust us in our skillset,” said Yackley, a fifth-grade teacher at Founders Elementary School in DeKalb, “and know that we’re showing up to be the best we can be for our students and their families.”
For DeSmedt, a sophomore P.E. and freshman health teacher at Oswego High School in her third year, success comes in “opportunities” – watching colleagues in action or asking them to watch her while providing “any feedback possible” and participating in professional development.
DeSmedt dove deeper into the potency of feedback while reflecting on moments that prove critical to her growth and validation as an educator.
She spoke of her Student of the Month program in health class, which includes an email to the parents of the honoree with not only the good news but the reasons behind it.
“The student last month – his mom actually reached back out and thanked me with a whole long email about how I’ve created such interesting lessons in health, because usually you think about, ‘Ugh. I have to take health. It’s going to be all notes and movies. It’s so boring,’ ” DeSmedt said.
“But I like to create lessons that they will enjoy, that they’re going to understand more and get more out of,” she added, “and she told me that her son came home and told her the things that he learned about health and how excited he was. That reminded me of why I keep looking for engaging lessons and why I keep trying them out and taking risks.”
Meanwhile, a P.E. student recently made her day.
“I had a girl come up to me and say, ‘I won! I won the game!’ She actually said that she hasn’t won something – like a game – in a long time, and to start her day off winning something felt so great,” DeSmedt said. “That reminded me that we need to give students a reminder that they are successful and that even the small wins are the big wins.”
Manor knows that feeling.
She spoke of a former student with autism who was enrolled in a program that doesn’t result in a diploma but a certificate of completion instead.
“Right away, I realized that wasn’t really the best fit for him. He was quite a bit more advanced than that,” she said, “so I advocated to get him in our Life Skills program that we have at the high school, which does get you a high school diploma.”
Next, she pushed the school to allow her student in driver’s education.
“He went on to get a license and graduate high school,” Manor said, “and now he is in college.”
Yackley helped the audience understand how she balances the need to build trust and connection in the classroom with the public’s high expectations for teachers in equipping students to achieve academic proficiency.
“I put it on the students,” said Yackley, who has taught for more than a dozen years and was a 2023 finalist for a Chicago-area Golden Apple award.
“If we ask them, ‘Hey, if I provide you with the answers to this, are you going to learn?’ – they’ll respond with ‘no.’ When they know that you believe in them, and when they know that you expect them to be just as responsible for their learning, if not more, they come through,” she said.
She further engages her students “by teaching from a non-sugarcoated way.”
“Make the lesson about them. It’s really that simple,” Yackley said. “It has to be their background. It has to be honest. Kids can read you. They know when you’re being fake or you’re lying.”
