Jacqueline heller: ensuring high levels of learning for all has always been my mission. Heller: my professional heroes are Marie clay, Jan Richardson, and Rick and Becky DuFour. She says teachers must be purposeful, observant, and have a vision for the future.
Jacqueline heller: ensuring high levels of learning for all has always been my mission. Heller: my professional heroes are Marie clay, Jan Richardson, and Rick and Becky DuFour. She says teachers must be purposeful, observant, and have a vision for the future.
Jacqueline heller: ensuring high levels of learning for all has always been my mission. Heller: my professional heroes are Marie clay, Jan Richardson, and Rick and Becky DuFour. She says teachers must be purposeful, observant, and have a vision for the future.
My principal often says, Get comfortable being uncomfortable. It may
sound off-putting at first but we make decisions at our school based on what is best for students, not what is comfortable for teachers because we know nothing great ever came from comfort zones. Two and a half years ago I left my comfort zone to join the ranks of educators who have had the rare opportunity to launch a brand new school. Opening the latest elementary school in Fairfax County and being part of an amazing leadership team has been the turning point of my career. Our leadership team shares a common vision, and we have crafted a school mission that ensures high levels of learning for all, students and adults. As I look back on my career, I realize that ensuring high levels of learning for all has always been my personal mission. Throughout the years Ive merely found myself redefining who is included in my all. At first my mission was to ensure high levels of learning for all the students in my 4th grade class. As I changed roles it became all my Reading Recovery students and then all the teachers I coached. As a new school we have strategically built an amazing community of learners who work toward our school mission in such an authentic way that we attract many visitors and have been asked to present and write about our process. The experience has inspired me in so many ways and is now changing the course of my professional plans. I love my job and pictured myself staying in a school setting long term, but I recently realized I want to affect change in a bigger way so I am again redefining my all. I am pursuing doctoral studies in order to expand my platform and deepen my knowledge so I can work to ensure high levels of learning, not just for the students and teachers within the walls of my school, but truly for all learners everywhere. I plan to consult, present, mentor and teach at the college level. My career has been shaped daily by my students and staff but also by my professional heroes Marie Clay, Jan Richardson, and Rick and Becky DuFour. I am beyond privileged to have met and been inspired by each of these legends in education. Marie Clays research on early intervention in literacy literally saved the lives of untold numbers of children by teaching us how to reach the most struggling readers. From her I have learned to be purposeful, observant and reflective in my teaching. She has helped me accelerate the literacy learning of my students and made me strive to continually improve my practice. Jan Richardson brought Clays principals mainstream so that not just reading teachers, but classroom teachers across our nation had the tools to differentiate reading instruction to meet the needs of their students. I emulate her passion, insightfulness and resourcefulness when working with teachers so that I can build their capacity and empower them to be reflective
Jacqueline Heller - Literacy
practitioners. She has taught me to be steadfast in creating a common language around reading instruction. The DuFours built the umbrella under which my ideal school would operate. They taught me how to create a culture of collaboration where teachers work together and are transparent in focusing on the learning results. Thanks to their guidance we have created that ideal school and I wouldnt want to teach and learn anywhere else. After meeting with Rick and Becky DuFour and their associates at a conference in San Antonio this summer I knew I couldnt just go back to my school and blithely continue the journey we have started. Its not that our staff doesnt have much to do, and learn, and improve as we continue on our journey, but when so many teachers, schools, and districts across the nation are just trying to figure out how begin that journey I feel compelled to share the benefit of our experiences. By the time my plane left San Antonio I had watched the orientation video for George Masons PhD program, took the GREs at the end of the month and began a class as a non-degree student last week. I am blessed to be the mother of amazing twin teenagers and had been thinking about what challenges I wanted to prepare myself to take on when they leave for college. Now that I see the path I want to follow I cant wait to move forward. After being a Reading Recovery teacher for eight years and a Literacy Leader for the last four years I am ready to pursue a major in Literacy. As a Mentor Resource Teacher and coach for beginning teachers at our school I realize the importance of building the capacity of teachers so I also plan to minor in Teacher Education. My own education has taken an unusual path since I graduated from the University of Virginia with a finance degree. After a few years in the business world I wanted a change and thought Id use my finance skills as a middle school math teacher. I enrolled in George Masons innovative Professional Development School because it offered a full year internship rather than the traditional few weeks of student teaching. The PDS program prepared me so well for that epic first year of teaching that most people did not believe I was a new teacher. Much of who I am today as an educator is still a reflection of my cooperating faculty. The job embedded professional development I received as a fully integrated staff member during that internship set me off on my new career with great confidence. I am now seeking a PhD in Education from GMU because I am certain the experience will give me that same sense of confidence when I defend my dissertation and am fully prepared to again step out of my comfort zone and begin this next venture in my career.