Frank Conversations
What happens when you sit down and have a real conversation?
In Frank Conversations, Superintendent Frank Schofield sits down with the people who make our schools and community special. Teachers, students, coaches, staff, and others, to hear their stories, experiences, ideas, and perspectives.
These are honest, sometimes funny, and always personal conversations about education, school, and the people behind it all. No speeches. No talking points. Just frank conversations.
Frank Conversations
Episode 1: Why did you become a teacher?
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In our first episode of frank conversations, Superintendent Frank Schofield sits down with seven educators and asks a simple question: Why did you become a teacher?
Their answers are personal, funny, unexpected, and honest. Hear the stories, experiences, and people that first led them to education.
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What a beautiful sweater. And she even walked me to the next class to show my sweater to them. I was like, at that moment, I was like, oh no, but I felt special, you know. I felt seen and I felt like a movie star. And uh since then I think I wanted to be like her, and I want the children to feel like special and seen.
SPEAKER_08Hi, I'm Frank Schofield. I'm a former teacher, school principal, and the current superintendent of the Logan City School District. Every day in our schools, remarkable things happen. Thanks for joining with me as we share some of those stories. Welcome to our first episode of the Logan City School District's Frank Conversations Podcast. As a district, we regularly share celebrations of our students and staff through social media, in Parent Square messages, and through local media outlets like the radio and newspaper. As we enter a new school year, we wanted to try something different that would allow us to go a little deeper and tell more complete stories about the people who make our school district such a positive place. So we decided to try a podcast. In these episodes, we will celebrate the accomplishments of our students, the work done by our teachers and principals and support staff, and our partnerships with parents. In addition to celebrations, we will talk about challenges in education and the creative ways in which community members, both in and out of our schools, are coming together to address those challenges for the benefit of all of our students. We all know there are dozens of influences on a child's success in school: their home life, their relationship with friends, how they feel about school, the success they've experienced up to this point, and even how they're feeling on that particular day. But the most important element at the school level is the quality of the teacher working in the classroom and the relationships the student has with that teacher. Over the next couple of episodes, I'm going to introduce you to some of the outstanding teachers we have working here in the Logan City School District. We'll talk about their backgrounds, why they chose to go into education as a profession, and why they choose to stay after several years of working in the classroom. You'll learn more about what motivates them and the mindset they have as they perform the essential work they do in their classrooms every day. Tell us your name, where you teach, and what you teach.
SPEAKER_02I'm Ali Cortes. I teach at Hillcrest Elementary and I teach first grade ELI Spanish in a dual language immersion program.
SPEAKER_08What originally caused you to want to be a teacher? Why did you become a teacher all those years ago?
SPEAKER_02I since I was a child, I wanted to be a teacher. Well, I wanted to be a teacher or a movie star. Were the two things that I wanted to do. That um I had a special teacher. You know, we all have kind of special teachers, but this one I still remember her. Her name was Anna. She taught me in first grade. And when I was a child, I was super shy. Even right now, it doesn't look like that, but I was super shy. I just want to be invisible in the classroom. And I remember one day my granny uh got me like a sweater that she made for me, and I felt like really embarrassed to wear that kind of handmade sweater. Because all my classmates they have like fancy sweaters, body in stores, and I was with my sweater hiding behind the class. And that day my teacher kind of did these kind of things. That day she said, What a beautiful sweater! And she even walked me to the next class to show my sweater to them. I was like, at that moment, I was like, oh no, but I felt special, you know, I felt seen and I felt like a movie star. And uh since then, I think I wanted to be like her, and I want the children to feel like special and seen, and you know, because if you're a movie star, you're a celebrity, but I'm a super celebrity right now. When I go around the street, they say, Hi teacher, hi Cortes. So it's kind of it's even better.
SPEAKER_08You can that is wonderful, Ali. First of all, I had a I had a professor once who said all teachers are frustrated actors because they didn't they couldn't become movie stars, so they figured they'd be a teacher. That's true, but I love that example of that teacher who who was aware enough to notice you. She noticed everything the sweater, notice and know you well enough that you might need something a little different, and then change her routine to do what you needed as an individual. She must have been amazing.
SPEAKER_02She was amazing. Not only that, that was an example that you know, 40 years, you know, I just still remember that, and I'm sure all my classmates remember her. She was kind of a special one. Something that she put something on my heart, like a footprint.
SPEAKER_08I can tell. Yeah, it's obvious.
SPEAKER_03My name is Amy Cox. I teach at Wilson Elementary School and I teach fifth grade.
SPEAKER_08When you, I mean, first graduated, first went into education, what was it that drew you to be a teacher?
SPEAKER_03I never even really had to think about what I wanted to be. From the time I was little, I would line my dolls and stuffed animals up and read books to them because I loved to hold the book the way the teachers do and show the pictures, and um I just really enjoyed that. And just about every school I participated in, I was some sort of a tutor or a helper to teachers. And so I think that also developed a love for helping others to learn. Um, in high school, I was able to do the work study program and go back to my fourth grade teacher, who was Sue Sornson, who's a legend in the district, and work in her classroom. And so uh graduating high school and going to college, I it was just elementary education, was where I was gonna be.
SPEAKER_08Well, you had some amazing experiences with some incredible people. Yes. I mean, Sue is I mean, she's a legend for the right reasons.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_08She's amazing, right?
SPEAKER_03She was actually my inspiration for coming back too. I would see Sue. We moved away for a few years. Um, like I said, I taught school down in Jordan School District, and then when I started having my children, uh, we moved back to Logan. Before that, I actually, as a young, young teacher, only five years in the profession, got a job with Utah State University as a student teacher supervisor while I was pregnant. And that was really fun being young and being able to go in and kind of inspire, especially having such recent and newly developed experience in the profession to kind of relate with those student teachers. But after I had my kids, Sue would see me throughout those years in the grocery store and say, It's time for you to come back, and I'd say, I don't know about that yet. But uh then she had some openings when she was a principal at Wiltson School and said, Now it really is time for you to come back. I have two openings, I need them filled, and you're the person. So my last child was going into kindergarten, and I thought, what better time to go back and try? And I've been back ever since.
SPEAKER_01I'm Shaylin Nilsen. I teach at Logan High School. This year I'll also be serving as CTE coordinator part-time and teaching part-time. I teach family consumer sciences that include subjects like human development, um, fashion, sewing, design, and teaching as a profession.
SPEAKER_08What drew you in initially to be a teacher? Why did why did you want to go into education?
SPEAKER_01We joke in my family. It's the family business and it's like in our blood. So my parents are teachers, my brother, so many of my aunts. I'm actually a fifth generation educator, which is kind of cool. I learned that in talking to my my grandma through my my mom's side of the family. There's five generations of teachers. So that's kind of what maybe got me interested initially. I had a front row seat growing up and seeing the education career and the impact it can have um on people's lives. And then I chose Family Consumer Science specifically just because it's so relevant for everyone and their life and skills they can use in their future.
SPEAKER_06My name is Nicholas Catafides. I teach at Mount Logan Middle School, and I'm the band teacher.
SPEAKER_08What is it that drew you to education? What is it that made you decide you wanted to be a teacher?
SPEAKER_06I guess it started in high school and I really loved music and taking music class and playing my instrument and uh being in the ensembles and uh advice from teachers and counselors and stuff was if you're not sure what you want to do, follow what you love to do. And so I really loved music. So I went and I studied a music degree with a music major. So it wasn't a music ed, it was straight a bachelor of music. I knew I wasn't gonna be a performer, but I still wanted to study music. But then generally, uh people like me, then they kind of just fall into teaching as a way to get a job on the side. Schools are always looking for music tutors or other school teachers, so we found work that way, and then I just kind of I was good at it and I enjoyed it. I kept doing it. And I guess because I still love music, and you know, what's the saying they say about you know, find a job that you love and it's you never work a day in your life. Yeah. So teaching music is my job, but my hobby is also music.
SPEAKER_00My name is Angel, Angel Gonzalez, and I teach at Hillcrest Elementary, uh, where I am known as Maestro Gonzalez, and I teach third grade Spanish. This year is my 24th year.
SPEAKER_08What originally drew you to teaching? What made you decide to be a teacher?
SPEAKER_00I got I have to be honest, I teaching wasn't a calling for me at the beginning. It became one. Uh, but when I finished high school uh in Spain, uh I I didn't know what I what I wanted to do professionally. But I grew up in a family of teachers, and my mom saying that I would be great at it, but you know, I was young at that age and I wasn't convinced. Um but eventually I I decided to to give teaching a try. And I started studying education, and right away I found out that they what I really loved.
SPEAKER_05Okay, Ryan Mueller. I teach US history at Mount Logan Middle School. This is my 21st year of teaching, so 11 years at Mount Logan, and then I taught 10 years of high school before Mount Logan in Nebraska.
SPEAKER_08In Nebraska. Yep. Okay. I almost said Kansas. No, that's not right. Close. Plains. Play in the planes. In the plains, Midwest. Yeah, exactly. It all blends together. Yep, yep. That's fast. And when you were at high school, did you do primarily US history?
SPEAKER_05I did US history and American government. So I taught um juniors and seniors, and I used to take students to Washington, D.C. every year when I taught high school. So I'm part of a close-up program, yeah.
SPEAKER_08So what what initially drew you to be a teacher?
SPEAKER_05That's a good quote. I I think I've always really liked history and civics and politics and government and democracy. Like that's what I think that the subject matter initially is what I think brought me in. And then when I got into college and I started studying that and I thought about the impact I could have with that, that's why I got into education because I loved the subject material. And then when I got into education classes and I started doing some practicum work and actually working with rural students, I loved the idea that I could spend my career like trying to educate and inspire a generation to be civically engaged and like historically like knowledgeable, and just like knowing that I was like part of this larger project of democracy, of like the American experiment, right? Like I was just I and that I think that's the part that really got me hooked and uh why I've enjoyed it a lot.
SPEAKER_08That's awesome. I had a I had a really similar experience. You know, I've told you before my degree was history teaching and and I did ESL social studies here. So teaching US history to uh uh kids who had recently immigrated to the United States.
SPEAKER_05Oh incredible.
SPEAKER_08And yeah, and looking at their their understanding of political systems and social systems, and most of them came with really pretty sophisticated understandings of how different systems of government and political systems work because of what their families had experienced in their home countries. Sure, of course. So talking about the structure of US government with that additional perspective really is just an incredible learning experience for me as a teacher.
SPEAKER_05I can imagine.
SPEAKER_08But I loved, I mean, I got turned on to it because I loved you know the content. And then I just remember thinking how impactful and relevant this content could be, and how so many kids don't really view history as you know the most relevant subject. Right. Go back to Henry Ford, history is bunk.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_08It's like no, it's not. It's not at all. Understanding history and understanding the systems of government and the society that we live in.
SPEAKER_05And every generation has to like learn those things, and like there has to be people committed to teaching those things to the next generation, like to for that to continue on. Like, that's just like a fundamental core part of a functioning democracy, is like an educated populace.
SPEAKER_08So I love that. That the generational recommitment has to be that comes from a generational renewal of understanding.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. What did Ronald Reagan say? Like, we're only one generation away from like democracy, like ending something. I paraphrasing that, but it was like it was like kind of something like that way. So, and it's true, like we're only one generation of, you know, so it's important for us to like people have to carry that torch every generation.
SPEAKER_04So I'm Sandra Knutsen, I teach at Adams Elementary and I teach kindergarten.
SPEAKER_08And how long have you been a teacher?
SPEAKER_04Oh my goodness, this is this is my seventh year teaching, but I've worked in the district. I think this is my 17th year of being in the district.
SPEAKER_08In various capacities. And previous to those those seven years, uh, you were working in preschool?
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_08Right? What else?
SPEAKER_04So I I worked for eight years as a kindergartn aide at Woodruff, and then I moved over to Adams and taught preschool for two years, and then took a year off, finished my degree, and then came back and taught first grade for two years, and then kindergarten.
SPEAKER_08What, I mean, especially where you came to this a little bit later, it wasn't something you did when you were 7, 18 or whatever. What made you decide you wanted to be a teacher?
SPEAKER_04So I just I think back on moments. We have those moments in our life that define, like, you know, who we are. And that moment for me happened actually when I was in high school. And I went to Cypress High School, and one of our classes in our junior and senior year, we could go over to the elementary school, Magnet Elementary, and volunteer in the classroom over there. And so I was assigned to go to a second grade teacher. Her name was Mrs. Ericsson, and I was in her classroom for every day for a class period. And I just remember sitting in the back of that room watching her and watching her make those connections with kids and how much she loved them and cheered on the their successes and just the difference that she made for students. And I just had that, you know, click for me that that's what I want to do. I want to make a difference for kids. That's what I want to do. And so that was what you know, I I made that decision. I wanted to be a teacher.
SPEAKER_08That is awesome. Tell me more about this experience you had at high school. What can you can you identify a moment? You talk about life being a series of moments. Can you identify a moment in that experience that that threw the switch for you?
SPEAKER_04So actually I can. It was which was so crazy. I remember exactly. I remember what I was wearing, I remember where I was sitting, I remember where she was. Um there was a little girl who would come in and um with second grade, they were doing an assignment, and I don't remember what the assignment was, but she was doing the assignment, and Mrs. Erickson just went over and knelt down next to her and put her hand on her back and told her that it was okay, that she's here to help her learn. And for me, that was when I was like, she loves these kids. She genuinely loves these kids. And to see the interaction between the student and the teacher. I mean, that little girl, like, you know, she sat up, she wiped away her tears, and Mrs. Ericsson helped her on that assignment. And so just to see that was when I was like, that little girl trusts Mrs. Ericsson. Mrs. Ericsson loves her enough to help her and to take time to spend that one-on-one with her. And so that was that moment when I was like, I want to do that. I want to be that person that influences someone else enough that they trust me and love me.
SPEAKER_08That's fantastic. That you the experience that Mrs. Erickson and saw her through that expression of love and compassion have that impact and made that difference. And even the impact that it had on you just as a a passive observer.
SPEAKER_04Right?
SPEAKER_08Not even the one who was.
SPEAKER_04She doesn't even know that this high school student sitting in the back of her room was influenced this much. Like that's I don't even think she knows it, but she was a great teacher. And a lot of the things that I do, I learned way back from her. Just watching her and that one-on-one time and attention that she gave to students. Like, I just really focus on that in my own classrooms.
SPEAKER_08As I visit with these teachers and with others who you'll meet throughout the podcast, I'm continually impressed by both their passion and their compassion. They're passionate about their profession, their belief in the capacity and the opportunity that each child has to learn and to grow and succeed. At the same time, I'm struck by the compassionate way in which they work with individual children, recognizing the unique needs of each child and identifying how they can work in their own classroom, both by themselves and in collaboration with parents, teachers, and with their classroom community of students, to make sure every child gets the experience they need to thrive, to move forward, and prepare themselves for whatever comes next in that child's life. Thanks for joining us for our conversation. Mr. Fred Rogers used to say that anyone who does anything to help a child in their life is a hero. So with that, take care of yourself and go be a hero today.