Alum making a difference in education with Bham City Schools

Constance Blaylock started at Jefferson State and now works as a District School Improvement Specialist for Birmingham City Schools, with a belief that every child deserves access to quality education and support.

#communitycollege #podcast #publiceducation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hi, welcome to the Pioneer Voice. I'm Danielle Collar, your host, and we're in our brand new painted studio here at Jefferson State Community College, and we have a very special guest with us, Const Dr. Constance Blaylock. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story with us. I'm really excited to be here. Um so you recently just graduated from Vanderbilt, correct? Yes. And you got your doctorate in education, correct? Yes. Um, but you started here at Jefferson State. I did. Um, and we um I'd like to say you are very first um story to highlight as an alumna, a success story. I'm excited about that. Um could you tell us a little bit about your background growing up, like what high school you went to, and uh just just where you started.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Okay, so I was born um wasn't born and raised, but I was born in um Birmingham. I went to Garywood Christian School for elementary school and then went to Homewood for Millen High School. So I'm a proud patriot. Graduated from Homewood High School in 2009. Um, as you said, a little bit about education journey. I did start at Jeff State. Um currently in my work, I've been in education for 11 years. I taught second grade reading. That's a sweet spot. Currently, I serve as the district school and pre spo school improvement specialist for Birmingham City Schools. That's wonderful. Um, and so what did you study here at Jefferson A when you came? So when I came, I wasn't really sure what I was doing with my with my life. I knew that I wanted to be in education, but you know, it's like that typical like teenage. I mean, I hate to say like rebellion that seems so cliche, but that typical, like, I'm just trying to figure it out. Um, so I think my major, and I think because my memory is not it might have been early childhood education, is what I started in. But I was taking basic core content classes. Um in high school I did really well in like the English and the histories, like a typical girl. And math and science is just were not my thing. And so I made a deal with my dad, was like, hey, because the summer after I graduated, he said, You're gonna go to Jeff State and we're gonna try this out before I send you off and you waste my money. And so I came to Jeff State, didn't really go well, um, taking like introductory math classes, so I think it was just a general major at first when I very first started.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Okay. Yeah. Um, was there anybody here at Jeff State that you remember?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Like, um So I'm not great with names, but I do remember someone who worked in the admissions office who helped me with like the financial aid part. My dad was uh a veteran, and so I had veteran benefits, didn't really know how to use those or um how to apply them to classes, and so there was a nice lady in the office who helps me get through all of that, which was really important because I took it with me through my education journey. Right. Um, so that was a bit one there was a teacher that I had for several classes, English classes specifically. I remember her well because I was working at Jefferson's, which is on Valley Dale, and she came in one time and I met her um face to face. So I can't remember those names, but I do remember those moments, the teachers that I had, um, and the lady in the office who helped me with my paperwork. What was it about Jefferson State that helped you throughout your journey? I just wasn't ready. And so I think during my when I graduated, you know, college was the big push. Uh 2009, it was, you know, they were that's when they started doing like whether you were athlete or not, like you're signing on to like colleges and you know, you're showing where you're going, and that was a thing. You know, your parking spot at school might have been your where you were going, right? And where I went to school here, I was all running around Alabama, like you know, that was that was a thing. I just genuinely was not ready. Not academically, I don't think emotionally, like college is a big deal, absolutely. Um, and that's why I'm a big advocate, like shameless pug for alternative pathways. Like, I understand like college is super important, but I think there are so many pathways to you know getting it done and being productive in society. But for me, I just was not ready to go off. Okay. I think if I had gone off to school as planned after the summer when my dad said, You're gonna go to dress date, you're gonna take two classes, we're gonna see how you do. I don't think I would y'all would probably be having this conversation with me. Um, because I just genuinely was not ready. I think academically I was still struggling with just even it's not always about content knowledge, sometimes it's just about skill. Right. And so I needed that smaller environment to get started where you didn't have 80 people in a stadium style class, and your professor, you can't get in touch, you know, with the person. Um, I needed a professor I could walk up to at the end of class and say, Can you help me with this? I I don't know how to do this. I needed that smaller environment, and not saying that other places don't have that, because you do, you know, Vandy was tiny as far as you know, those classes, but a lot of them are not like that. The larger universities, especially core content classes. I know at one time you had places where it was fully virtual for all of your core content classes, but I needed access to the people for me to get ready, like just getting the skill together socially, getting myself together. Like that's a thing. We don't think that's a thing um when students are going off to school, but it is like prioritizing partying and doing your work, and so those were things that I need to needed to learn and establish. So I think Jeff State was a good starting point for me. Right. Um, I may not have always felt like that unless in full transparency, because you know how sometimes you're like, did I miss the ship? Like, you know, because you hear people they went off to school and they did, and I and I didn't have that experience, and that's just full transparency. I went to I transferred to UAB. I did not transfer to somewhere away where I lived away. I lived home. In fact, my first apartment was on Valley Dale Road, like down the street from um this campus. But I think I needed this for me. I needed this for my journey. It was a second chance for me. I'd I'd mucked up. It's no point in lying. Like I um I needed us, I needed this second chance to start over. And so by the time I left Jeff State, I think I had wasn't perfect, but I think I had a lot of skills needed to go to UAB and go on and grow and progress. Yeah. And even like I talked about before, I I needed to learn how to use resources on my own, like, you know, without my mom having to call for me. And Jeff State did that. It was accessible. You could walk in an office, you could see three people at the same time on the same day, and that's rare. And so I would recommend it for any student who's starting out. There's a lot of alternative programs and pathways here, right? You know, that I like I encourage. Um, you know, like I know y'all have dual enrollment programs and things like that. Right. And that's really important for students getting started. And then now with the cost of school, why not? Like, I'm also kind of like, why not? Yeah, you know, you get as many credits as you can out of the way before if you choose to complete. My sister completed at Jeff State. She was a radiology, she's a radiology tech. She completed at Jeff State. And so it was an alternative pathway for her because that's not where she started. So I I think you probably wouldn't be having I can't bet on it, but I think everything happens for a reason. Everything is divinely aligned. So I think you probably wouldn't be having this conversation with me if I hadn't started at Jeff State.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Okay. That thank you. Yeah. Thank you for sharing. Um, and when you left Jeff State, where did you go after that?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

I went to UAB. I transferred to UAB. Um, so I took my credits and I transferred to UAB, UAB School of Ed. Um, I'd finished most, if not all. I think I maybe had two core classes left when I went to UAB. Um and then most of my UAB studies were in elementary, early child in elementary education.

unknown 7:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Did you have uh like a strong upbringing in education? What kind of made you go towards education?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

No, my parents are pastors, they worked in ministry. Um, I always say they've lived a couple of lives. So they also worked at the IRS, retired from there, and then they went into full-time ministry. Um, and so my mom actually still works full-time. My dad is now retired. I would say maybe teaching, because I think pastoring is like teaching. My goddad was our senior pastor, um, and he was very into study and learning. But as far as like educators, I won't say no educators in my family, but immediate in my view, there was no one. I always so I was a little weird as a kid to the point where my dad was like, Does she need therapy? Which was like, that's a hot word in the 90s. But I had like imaginary friends that I talked to every day after school. So much so that I remember one Christmas, and I don't remember a lot of childhood, my parents set up a full classroom in the basement with like desk and all the things for me to teach to my imaginary students. So it was always there. I feel like I'm very lucky. You know how people are trying to figure out what they're supposed to do. I might have been running from it at first when I first graduated high school, you know, because you hear the things like it doesn't pay well, or there's other things you can do, but I always wanted to be a teacher. You knew that that's what you wanted to do at the game.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

That's incredible. Um, did you have anybody at UAB like along your way that was an influenced you?

SPEAKER_01 9:03

I think all of our professors, all of our professors, especially in the School of Ed, had been teachers before. And so that I think that's always great when someone can give you like an inside view of what it's like because they can mentor you in that way. Right. Um, when I got to UAB, I was working full-time and going to school. I was working full-time and going to school when I was here. And so that that was different because I was always kind of that um off-campus student, not which which is a different experience. And I'm sure Jeff State has a lot of students that that's their experience. They're working full-time and living at home. Um, so that was my experience through Jeff State and UAB. So having professors that understood what that was like, I remember, um, and I can call her name. I remember Debbie Fly. She was my um like the one who did the ed TPA when you're in student teaching and all those things. She actually had been a teacher at Homewood. I never had her before, but I did graduate with her son. And I remember when I was going through internship and things like that, she said, Hey, you're gonna stay with me and I'm gonna place you close to home because I know you work full time. Um, she knew I worked at a restaurant at night, and so I was like bucking it to get to student teaching in the morning. Um, so having people who understood that, but then also having people who would critique your work and say, Yeah, that's not very good. Like, do that again, or your mindset about that. Like there was a professor, Dr. Loder Jackson, who who helped me to see um the environments that I was going to be going in and working in and seeing the student and also seeing the challenges they may encounter, I think was important because you know how you have your mind made up about what something is, but if you haven't experienced it, then you really don't know what it is. So having professors like that was really critical, I think, in my journey.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Right, help mentor you, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

And then so what was the next step after that? So after that, I started in Birmingham. I uh always knew I wanted to work in Birmingham. I think once I got to UAB, and you know, you have so many great schools, Birmingham City Schools that surround UAB, so you do a lot of internship because you can walk there, like you can walk to Glen Iris, you can walk to Epic, you know, from campus. And so I applied in Birmingham City Schools. I started at Oliver uh elementary school, that was my first teaching job. Um wild first year. I started off in first grade, and if anyone's familiar with how it works when you're counting heads in your units, uh-mm. You're gonna have to move to second grade because we have more students here. So that was my first year of teaching. Um, and then I transferred to Wylam that very next year. Reason being, our local churches in Wylam, they were doing work there, and I just wanted to be connected to the work the church was doing. Right. That's where I met my mentor for life, the principal that I had there. She encouraged me to get my master's degree. Don't want to quote dates because the years are running together, but I got my master's around three years into teaching, finished that. Um, and then I went right back into school. I taught for four years before I got my first leadership position. Um, I was an instructional coach, uh, ELI coach at the time, which is similar to an ARI coach. Um, so I got my first leadership position. I think I'd finished my master's, and I was starting on my master's add-on in uh administration. And so that's kind of where I went from there.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Wow. Yeah. Okay. Um and then and then you went to Vanderbilt, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:19

No, so I did some other, so I'll give you the rundown. So I did instructional coaching. I uh taught at a charter school during COVID. I thought it was a bright idea to start my life over during COVID. So COVID hit. I was an instructional coach at the time in a local elementary school in Birmingham City schools, and then I saw, oh, it's a new charter coming. Like I know these people, this will be great. So I went to the charter school there, was finishing up my admin certification there. Uh, taught, went back into the classroom for a year, got back, went back out of the classroom into coaching and all the things because we didn't have administration, so it's anything that landed in that pile. Uh, shortly after COVID and COVID response, I went back to Birmingham City Schools. That's when I started my EDS. So I did my EDS. All of this, the Master's Masters ad on EDS was through the University of West Alabama uh through their online program, which a lot of teachers do. It's just easy. Right. Um, because you're able to do it in like these short cohorts and it's fully uh virtual. While I was at I3, I uh met some met our the chief academic officer. We became close. She had gone to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt had never crossed my mind ever in life. Like you're talking about a girl who was like practically failing math for most of most of high school, and thank God uh I didn't need it for um second grade reading. So I didn't think that that was like an option for me, and she just casually said, like, you should apply. This is you know, when I'm in Ram, I'm thinking she's nuts, you know. So I'm finishing up my EDS, and this was like March of 2023 or maybe February of 2023. Don't hold me to the dates. Um, but I said, okay, if I get in, because I said I wasn't gonna get a doctorate, I said I was done after my EDS. I've been in school forever at this point. Um, but I said, if I get into Vanderbilt, I will go in. So I was like, that'll that's what I'll do. So I started like shopping schools because I of course I'm thinking I'm not gonna get in. So I'm like looking at other places, taking those interview calls with their admissions counselors, and Vanderbilt just felt good. Like it was really weird. I'm like, y'all want me? Like, that's what that felt like when I was you know talking to admissions counselor, like you know, you should be here, you belong here. And he gave like tips on like your resume, what you need, you write in your you know, admissions paper. And um, so I said, I'm just gonna write an admissions paper that's like from the heart, like where what I really feel about education and just see what happens. So I I don't know what the timeline was between like submitting my application and getting decision, but I got in. And so I'm telling God, like, oh, I wasn't expecting that. It was this was a Hail Mary. I, you know, whatever. And then I then I give another caveat. I said, they have to give me some money, like you gotta give me something for me to come. I'm thinking that's definitely not happening, happening. And so I tell my admissions person, like, you know, I'm gonna need scholarship, like to be able to come. Like, and he's like, Okay, I understand. We can't guarantee these. We only it was one in particular that was the largest, it was the dean scholarship. And he said, you know, you only give a few of those. We have some other smaller scholarships. So in the meantime, I got a smaller scholarship. I said, Hmm, that's you know, that's not enough, that's not gonna work, you know, anything. And I'm finishing up my EDS at the same time, right? So this is part of the timeline. So I can't remember if it was April or whatever. I get the Dean Scholarship. Wow. And so then I'm like, I have to go. I feel like Elwood's and Legally Blonde, like you have to go. Um, so I literally graduated from the University of West Alabama with my EDS, I think like May 5th, and I started at Vanderbilt May 8th, um, of 2023.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

So wow, that's incredible. Yeah. So you finished, you've got your doctorate. Yes. And now, um, I know you shared a little bit about it, but what are you doing now?

SPEAKER_01 16:00

So currently I serve as the district school improvement specialist for Birmingham City Schools, um, which I love. I love my job. I love Birmingham City Schools. Um, I support 43 all 43 of our schools in different ways, whether it's through um our tutoring partnership programs that we have, or our overage at risk youth programs that we have that also come into this office, or I work in close partnership with other departments who support schools that may just need some help with uh their ACIP or figuring out how to use their resources well to do really good things with students. What makes you passionate about public education? I think what makes me passionate about public education, which some of this has come from my own education, specifically my time at Vanderbilt, is that every child deserves, and we hear this is so cliche, every child deserves equal access to quality education that has interventions that they need for them to be successful. And so what makes me passionate about it is I think uh public education specifically is one of the ways that we combat systemic issues in our society if we do it well. So if we provide children with the necessary interventions, and that's layered support, that's not everybody's the same, that's not everyone needs the same thing. If we provide students with the necessary interventions to be successful, successful, we can really see a real change in our society.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

So that's what makes me passionate about it, is because I think from my lens, and we've talked about my faith and my background a little bit, from my from my lens, like doing this work well is super important because I think it's a part of what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to be um you're in service to other people. And so to me, I'm in service to children, the smallest people amongst us. And there's this quote um that I like, and I'm not gonna quote the author because I might say it wrong, but the quote says the opposite of poverty is not wealth, it's justice. And I think that starts in education and doing it really well. Public education, doing it well for children, seeing the children, seeing their families, seeing their families. Because sometimes we just see the child, but we don't see their family as well. And so I'm passionate about providing interventions to everyone. I think that's what makes it do well, bringing families alongside. That's some of the work that I think we do in Birmingham or and starting, you know, starting to do even better. Um, is bringing families alongside to support students um really well. And I always used to say as a second grade uh teacher, academic achievement is a big, big part of it. Right. But the kid is before that. Like that's first. And so what do they need first before we start just talking about testing and test scores? And that's really important. So that layered support. Um, and we're seeing that in our legislation now, even with organizations like A Plus Education Partners rallying for us to have equitable distribution of um per pupil allocations that do look at what we need to layer student intervention than support. But why I'm passionate about it to me is more of like um, I don't know, I just think that to me, if I say, hey, like, you know, my faith is this, then I'm passionate about it because I feel like I've was given a lot kind of in my upbringing and my background. So, what can I give back to other students? Like I talked about the people who helped me. So, how can I be that person in my space? How can I make the biggest impact for students? How can you rally other people to see the student first and what they need? So I think that's probably why I'm passionate about it.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

That's incredible. So, do you have any um students that maybe you feel you've seen that impact? Um that you might could share a little bit about.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

So I can't say share their names, right? But um, I've had some wild cards that I loved. I was always that teacher that loved the ones that gave the hardest time because I was the hardest time. So um I kind of get that. I got the most demerits when my demerits were a thing, like I got demerits all the time. Um, and so I had students who got demerits all the time. I remember at Wylam, it was we always talk about this golden year. It was the last year, my last year in BCS before I I went into um uh school-based leadership as an instructional coach. And it was like all the stars aligned. It was like this amazing year. Uh, my mentors, I think I told early in the conversation, like the principal at the time there, she's my mentor for life. Um, the instructional coach at the time, he's a chief academic officer for a local nonprofit. Now we were all there together. And I remember all the stars aligning. My kids tested really well. That was the first thing, but it was the first time I think because I've, you know, I wasn't great at first. So if anyone's watching this, we have learned along the way. But that year, I think it was the first year that I just moved like out of test scores and in relationship. And the thing that followed was the test scores were amazing. So I felt like that was a lightning bolt year for me. But then when I went back into the classroom, because you always learn more, it's odd when you're in structural leadership and you see people and you're side-eyeing, and then you come back and you always have learned more. So when I went back into the classroom, the very last year that I taught, and in for the foreseeable pure future, probably will teach. I sobbed for probably two weeks. And I have people who can verify this when I left that class because that was my COVID class, it was the most innovative I think I'd ever been. Um, I was in love with those kids. Like, I will probably cry thinking about them too long. Um, so those students, just like the relationship that was built that year. Um for me, I think it was my best year ever teaching. I think that I've ever had. Um, but they came from all different places, all different backgrounds, and we just really bonded. COVID was scary, and I think it was scary for adults, but it was really scary for students. You're talking about they're coming back into schools, they're behind plexiglass, you know, and these kids were really brave. They came to a new school in the middle of COVID that had never, you know, this their first year and Existence and so they came to a new school, totally new environment in the middle of COVID. They're behind plexiglass. We got this crazy schedule. One day you're home, one day you're here. You're on Zoom. We're teaching from Zoom. Like I'm on Zoom. Some kids are in the classroom. It was a wild year, but it was the year I feel like I was better. And so I think the kids are were a reflection of me. And so that was a really good class because I think I was at my best as a teacher. And so I think that class was at best. Not that we didn't have challenges, but it was it was an amazing, it was an amazing, amazing class.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

That's that's that's powerful. Thank you for sharing. Um so it sounds like you started at Jeff State, you you know, may can maybe struggled a little bit, I did, but you persevered. Yeah. And you had people inspiring you along the way that continue to encourage you. Um, do you have any encouraging words that you could give to someone who maybe doesn't know what they're doing or starting at Jeff State, and you can, you know, share that you can you can go all the way. I think the biggest thing, and this is cliche, it's not how you start, it's how you finish.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

And so I think sometimes um, you know, you kind of sh shun like starts that maybe aren't less ideal. Like you didn't get that college send-off, you know, the big college send-off they do now, um, where you're going to maybe your dream school or you didn't like get the scholarship, or you're just trying to figure it out. Like I was the student who was just trying to figure it out. I was a hot mess express. And so I was not, you know, the student who was starting, you know, here because it's like, oh, I'm just gonna start and then I'm gonna transfer. I had no idea what I was doing. Like, I'm like, I'm gonna take a gap year. I don't know. I mean, I literally was working in medical billing and coding at Princeton Hospital at first when I first graduated, because I'm like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I am so off the beaten path. And so I think um just it's not how you start, it's how you finish. I'm a firm believer in that. Like, I also think you said like my perseverance, but it's the people. Find your people, like people who can encourage you, who can give you something else to look at. I am really big and it's always been no, not to the men, but I met some incredible women on my journey from the professors that I had to the financial aid counselors that I had, um, people helping me fill out paperwork or just saying, you know what, you should apply, like you're seeing something in me that I'm possibly not seeing in myself at the time. Right. And so I think just seeing the people finding your people who can help you on your journey, I think is critically important. Not letting anyone knock your small beginnings. I can remember at Banderbilt, I kind of sometimes like you don't want to be that person that says, I s every, I mean, these people went to Tulane for undergrad or like Harvard for undergrad, and then there's me, you know, and you're thinking in your head, like, oh, we do we will don't do any intros where it's like, what's your educational journey? Because I don't want to talk about it. And so I got to the point where I was so confident in my journey that I could probably say, no, this is where I started. Some of the best people, this this is where they start, and I think that's really important because I met incredible people um on all of my educational journey, like everywhere I went, from the person people who helped me, who encouraged me, um, and even like my writing, I think it got better because of my educational journey. Like, I look back at stuff that I wrote and I'm like, y'all give me a B on this? That's wild. So, like, you know, you look back. So even having that buffer, like when you the skills that I needed to develop, I got them here. Like study skills. I didn't have it like from high school. I didn't. I had an amazing mom, and she won't mind me saying that she's gonna wash this pot, but she is a definition of a helicopter, so there was no failing in high school, right? Because I had a mom who was looking. So when you're on your own and you're trying to figure it out, this was a great place to like get those study skills. I didn't have any. Like, I didn't have any coming out of high school. I developed them here, and I do think I carry that with me, even knowing how to use resources in a smaller space, like when you're in these larger colleges and there's 30 buildings and you can't find parking, it can be frustrating even figuring out how to use resources. I learned how to use resources here, and so I think that's important, but I think the biggest thing is it's not where you start. You got a long way to go. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

That's that's great. Um well, is there anything that you would like to you know share with us that we haven't discussed?

SPEAKER_01 26:13

I think that's always the question that I get wrong in interviews. So, do you have any questions for us? And I'm like, No, I don't have any questions. I don't have any questions. Um, I appreciate you all having me.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Oh, we appreciate you so much for being here. We're very proud of you. It's so nice to highlight, you know, just exactly like you said, it's not where you start but where you finish. So thank you, Dr. Blay Like, for being with us today. We are very proud to have you as alumni at Jefferson State Community College, and thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for having me. I had a great time. Absolutely. And if you want to learn more, hear more success stories, please tune in, subscribe to the Pioneer Voice. Thank you.