Category: Education

MTOY Essays – Student Needs

~ Kyle Shack ~ 1 Comment

In the fall of 2023 I was honored to be nominated for 2024-2025 Michigan Teacher of the Year (MTOY). As part of the nomination process, each nominee submitted a collection of essays responding to various prompts related to their career, experiences, key educational issues, and Michigan schools overall. While the audience of each essay was the MTOY committee, it felt inauthentic to keep my ruminations private, languishing in a forgotten folder on my desktop. The opportunity to reflect on these questions and formulate my ideas was a wonderfully rewarding experience twelve years into my career, and one that I would like to share if for no other reason than to push myself to keep these ideas, and the process, at the forefront of my mind while I continue to engage in the deep work that is education.

Formatting note: Each essay was limited to no more than 2 pages, double spaced, size 12 font. My original drafts exceeded this by several multitudes, but I appreciated the exercise in concise expression.

MTOY Essay #3:

Share an instance when you observed a student need going unmet. What was that need, and how did you work to address it?

Students come to our classrooms each day as complex individuals with unique experiences and emotions. It is crucial for educators to understand their students’ emotional states in order to provide the necessary support and intervention. Just as formative assessments inform instructional interventions, they can also be used to address students’ social-emotional needs.

Utilizing formative assessments to improve instruction is widely recognized as a best practice in education. Consistently implementing formative assessments in the classroom brings clear benefits to students’ learning and depth of understanding. However, it is equally important to assess students’ emotional well-being. To address this unmet need, I have designed a simple, student-centered self-assessment.

At the beginning of each class, students are prompted to assess their emotional state on a scale of 1 to 10 by answering the question, “How are you feeling?” This numeric scale allows for quick reflection without sacrificing valuable instructional time. By checking in on their emotional well-being, students have a moment to truly consider their emotional status, while providing me with real-time insights for potential interventions.

The immediate and honest nature of this check-in enables me to connect with students who may be experiencing extreme emotions or displaying consistent patterns in their responses. These conversations foster deeper relationships and allow for in-the-moment support. Furthermore, the emotional formative assessment influences my instruction in real time. We know that creating a safe and supportive learning environment is crucial for deep and meaningful learning. By acting on the feedback provided by students regarding their emotional state, I can modify my lessons, scaffold their experiences, or provide moments of support that help students feel safe enough to fully engage in their learning.

The purpose of this check-in is not to judge or correct their emotions but to provide a platform for honest self-assessment. From there, decisions on how best to support their needs can be made with trust and a potential for positive impact. By making the emotional check-in a routine part of our day, students develop the habit and culture of reflecting on their emotions amidst the chaos of teenage life. This practice allows them to identify their needs and address them before breakdowns occur.

Implementing this emotional formative assessment has had noticeable effects in our learning community. It helps prevent potential outbursts or disengagement from students who may be dealing with larger issues, allowing for a safe and supportive learning environment. Furthermore, it builds relationships and trust, creating meaningful opportunities for deep learning. By recognizing and addressing students’ emotional needs through the use of formative assessments, we can better educate the whole child and support their overall well-being.

MTOY Essays – Equity in Education

~ Kyle Shack ~ Leave a comment

In the fall of 2023 I was honored to be nominated for 2024-2025 Michigan Teacher of the Year (MTOY). As part of the nomination process, each nominee submitted a collection of essays responding to various prompts related to their career, experiences, key educational issues, and Michigan schools overall. While the audience of each essay was the MTOY committee, it felt inauthentic to keep my ruminations private, languishing in a forgotten folder on my desktop. The opportunity to reflect on these questions and formulate my ideas was a wonderfully rewarding experience twelve years into my career, and one that I would like to share if for no other reason than to push myself to keep these ideas, and the process, at the forefront of my mind while I continue to engage in the deep work that is education.

Formatting note: Each essay was limited to no more than 2 pages, double spaced, size 12 font. My original drafts exceeded this by several multitudes, but I appreciated the exercise in concise expression.

MTOY Essay #2:

What does equity mean to you in the context of education? How do teachers factor into equity? What have you personally done to ensure all students receive an equitable education?

In the field of education, teachers are faced with the challenge of providing high-quality educational opportunities to students with unique backgrounds, experiences, needs, and abilities. Regardless of the teaching context, educators often grapple with issues of equity and the potential negative impacts of inequities. It is essential to recognize the inherent inequalities in the learning journey and to implement systems that support individual student needs in an equitable manner.

Teachers play a crucial role in directly impacting the learning experience for each student in personalized ways. While they cannot single-handedly solve societal inequities, they can create an educational environment that fosters student growth and meets their individual needs. By keeping the focus on learning as the central mission, teachers can design pedagogical approaches that minimize barriers and maximize student success.

The increase of student reading skills has been a focus of our School Improvement Team, particularly for our non-white student population. It was this goal that led me to a conversation with our building librarian about how to more authentically cultivate a culture of reading within our student community. We identified a deficit between the text that students are assigned to read, and the culture, background or interest of some students. To address this we created an independent book project that focused on connecting student learning and student interest authentically, as opposed to prescriptively.  At the start of our course, students choose a book that is of interest to them, and then are given protected reading time in class each week to read. The goal is to address the potential inequity that might exist with the materials traditionally provided within school, as well as student time after school in which much of the student reading is expected to occur. This takes place consistently throughout the course with the culmination being a project where students need to create an artifact that illustrates the connection between a theme from their book and a theme from our Civics course. While it may seem as if those two are disconnected at first, it is actually that perceived disconnection that enhances the rigor of this project. By using student interest, and protected classroom time to facilitate this connection we are able to address multiple inequities that may exist but could have potentially gone unaddressed – that of cultural relevance of the material, and the imbalance of time outside of school to read. 

Providing high-quality education to students with diverse backgrounds and needs requires acknowledging and addressing inequalities. Teachers can make a significant difference by focusing on individual student needs, reevaluating assessment practices, and incorporating student interests into the learning process. Through these efforts, we can create more equitable educational environments and maximize student success.