Guest Blog: Kyle's Journey

Thank you to Guest Blogger, Kyle Anderson, for sharing a piece of his journey with us---

Everybody grows up having a dream, proclaiming what they want to be when the
grow up. I was no different. I wanted to be a firefighter. I wanted to be a doctor.
Because it was the 1980s and 1990s, I wanted to go up in the space shuttle as an
astronaut.  It seemed as if I changed my mind every other week. However, you
eventually get to high school and college and have to finalize what you want to focus
your energies on, and some people still struggle, changing their majors several times
before deciding.

I was lucky. I knew by my sophomore year in high school that I wanted to teach.
Maybe it was the great teachers that I had. Maybe it was my love of learning.
Maybe it was my love of being around kids (my mother ran a daycare in our house,
so there were always kids around). Whatever it was, I was set early on that education
was where I wanted to be.  

I was lucky. In college, I didn’t have to change my major several times. I changed it
once. I initially declared Secondary Education/Biology with a Chemistry minor.
But after one semester, I decided that I loved science, but not enough to want to
make a career of it. I decided I wanted to teach history. However, a very smart man
by the name of Dr. Nichols convinced me that a history major was a death sentence
in teaching and that social studies was a much better option. So, in the second half
of my freshman year, I declared Secondary Education/Social Studies with a minor in
Physical Education with a coaching emphasis.  

I was lucky. After 5 years of hard work, I was able to get a job right away. I packed up
my belongings and moved 2,000 miles across the country from Michigan to Nevada.
I knew that I had made the right decision in my career---working with teenagers. They
can be tough at times, moody, defiant, but at the end of the day, they just want to live
life and be successful, and I was there to help make that happen.  

I continue to be lucky. I have worked in education for 13 years, and while there have
been trying times, and even times of thinking that maybe I don’t want to continue, I
always think about those that I have influenced over the years, the amazing educators
that I have worked with, and the new technology and teaching methods that come each
day. I don’t know what the next chapter of my journey is going to be, but that is the fun
of it. I get to write my own chapters and continue to do what I love and what I feel I was
made to do.  

Kyle Anderson is a 13 year veteran of the teaching profession, teaching social studies for 11 years before stints as a technology coach, a school administrator, and a physical education teacher. Kyle has B. A. in Secondary Education/Social Studies, & a Master’s of Education, an Educational Specialist in School Leadership, and is currently working on a Master’s of Science in Special Education. Kyle is married to his wonderful and beautiful wife Mary and has a daughter, Elsa, and a son, Reed.  

Appreciate the Journey

In January of 2001, I started my first full time teaching job. As if being a first year teacher wasn't hard enough, I was a first year teacher who started in 2nd semester after the kids had had a string of substitutes. Oh, I was also at a year-round school and I was teaching from a cart. For all those not familiar with "cart teaching", it means I didn't have a classroom. All my teacher things were neatly piled on a rolling AV cart, and every four weeks I moved to whatever room was empty due to track break. The journey began, literally.

My first few months were rough. My husband started teaching the August prior and told me to stick it out until the start of the new school year. It was hard; I doubted if I was cut out for teaching.

Fast forward a few years...I found my stride. I moved from 6th graders to 9th graders, and finally thought that teaching really was my thing. They say it takes at least three years to start feeling like you know what you're doing. After 3 years of teaching high school, I took on Student Council and moved on to teaching 10th and 11th grades. I was getting there.

Every year was a new adventure: new students, new courses, new experiences. My students made me laugh every day, and going to work was fun. Where else but a school could you line the halls with colorful drawings, make puppets, have dance-offs at lunch, and celebrate it all by wearing pajamas to work? Teacher Life was good.

However, some journeys have unknown destinations. Let's fast forward again--add two children, a Master's Degree, and a hankering to make a more far-reaching difference. With one foot in the classroom and one foot in the world of teacher leadership, I was looking for a way to take both roads at once. Presenting at conferences, writing, and learning from inspirational leaders, led me to the U.S. Department of Education as a 2016-2017 Teaching Ambassador Fellow. This experience introduced me to the inner workings of the educational system. Pause and think about the moment you see behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Yes, it felt like that.

Equity. Elevating the Profession. Social Justice. Policy. 

The Fellowship was the most amazing, yet surreal experience of my professional life. I came back from Washington ready to take on the world, or maybe just Nevada. This Teacher's Journey has been traveled on an ever winding road, and on Monday, April 30th, I took the fork.

After 17 years in the classroom, on a warm Thursday afternoon, I left. It was difficult and bittersweet, but it was also time. My career as an educator, paired with my own unapologetic ambition, had afforded me opportunities to not only teach creative, smart, wonderful students, but to build a professional learning network of equally amazing educators, leaders, and advocates. This network aided me in finding my leader's voice.

So, here I am. The inaugural Teacher Leader in Residence. If I could have invented a job just for me, this would be it. An chance to organize, to elevate, to advocate, to represent, and to gather--I am honored to be given the opportunity to serve Nevada teachers and to elevate our voices.

If all my years in education have taught me anything, it is that educators are amazing. They sacrifice, they empathize, they work tirelessly. They give so much and ask for so little in return.

I am proud to be a teacher. Whether in the classroom or working on behalf of those who are, I will always be glad that I stuck it out. It hasn't been easy, but it has been worth it. Here I go--I invite you to join me on the next iteration of #thisteachersjourney.