Fueled by Coffee and Love: The Refill

By Mari Venturino

Fueled by Coffee and Love: The Refill will engage your heart and mind as you peer into the lives of these inspiring educators. This second collection of real stories by real teachers shines a light on the joys and challenges of education in 2018. Time to refill your coffee cup, and fill your soul with these phenomenal stories!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mari Venturino
• Release date: Jul 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463750520

Mari Venturino

Mari Venturino is a 7th grade science and AVID teacher and Blended Learning Specialist in San Diego, CA. She is a Google For Education Certified Trainer and Innovator, and is Leading Edge Certified in Online and Blended Instruction. Mari was awarded the CUE Outstanding Emerging Teacher of the Year and ISTE Emerging Leader in 2017. When she’s not teaching, she enjoys reading, cooking, and playing with her dog Ollie. Find Mari on Twitter (@MsVenturino) or on her blog (blog.mariventurino.com).

Book preview

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Fueled by Coffee and Love:

The Refill

Real Stories by Real Teachers

Edited by Mari Venturino

Copyright 2018 by Mari Venturino

First Edition

Book design: Y42K Publishing Services

http://www.y42k.com/bookproduction.html

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Praise for Fueled by Coffee and Love: The Refill

"The stories collected in Fueled by Coffee and Love: The Refill will not only fill your coffee mug, but will fill your soul with warmth. Educators who love students first and content second, who care about the whole child, and who want their students and their colleagues to succeed will inspire you with their journeys. Please enjoy these stories and then share the joy with others in need of a little pick-me-up!"

- Amy Illingworth,

Director of Professional Growth,

Sweetwater Union High School District.

One of the most powerful vehicles for igniting educational change can be discovered in the fine art of storytelling. Bringing heart to the teacher's craft and voice to those students who perhaps do not have one, the narrative from the classroom is compelling, inspiring, and undeniably ours. Thank you to Mari Venturino and her contributors for sharing your stories with us!

- Trevor MacKenzie,

author of Dive into Inquiry and Inquiry Mindset.

Don’t we all need a refill? Whether it is coffee or love in your life, you will find yourself filling up on both with this book. Mari and her contributors have once again hit home with us teachers. These heartfelt stories will take you on a journey of moments on mountain tops and moments in deep valleys. Along the way, you will find yourself stepping in on a journey of self-discovery and self-reflection that will inspire and empower you to continue to be the best educator you can be.

- Natalia LeMoyne,

District Coordinator of Educational Technology

Guilderland Central School District, NY

"Fueled by Coffee and Love: The Refill shares educators’ love and passion that is sure to fill your bucket. Mari has once again compiled stories that make you want to face the classroom with hopeful expectation again and again day after day. The stories will remind you of the importance of our jobs, how we can be just what others need, and even with our faults there are others that will surround us to be better for our students."

- Greg Bagby,

Technology Integration Coordinator

Hamilton County Department of Education

To all of us who pour our hearts out into our work,

may our coffee never get cold.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Teaching is a Journey

In Seeing is Loving

By Angela Aguilar Carrasco

I was a Relationships Second Teacher

By Gregg Bruno

How to be a Happy Teacher

By Louise Williamson

Helping Students to be the First

By Armando Leon

History, Herstory, Ourstory = HiPstory: Empowering Student Voices

By John Zingale

Relationships Matter More Than You Know

By Terence White

My Learning Journey

By Christopher Burke

When Love Doesn’t Look the Way You Want It To

By David E. Platt

Life Beyond the Vineyards

By Katherine Goyette

Out of the Woods

By Veronica Miller

Leading and Learning: Leaders’ Perspective on Education

The Importance and Benefits of Professional Learning Networks

By Mike Filipetti

From Selling Bubble Bath to Educational Technology Leader

By Natasha Rachell

The Power of High Expectations

By Ricardo Cooke

My Journey of Rejuvenation

By Sarah Kiefer

Fight the Good Fight

By Greg Bagby

Love is a Four-Letter Word

If You’re Lucky, Students Will Change Your Life

By Edward Dougherty

Finding His Beat

By Whitney Stangel

Ethics of Caring

By Melissa Rains

Jake’s First Words

By Sherry Hall

The Empty Desk

By Dee Lanier

Lucy is Different

By Lee Ann Bussolari

From Fearful to Fearless

By Kaylah Holland

Three Students, Six Lessons

By Desiree Alexander

Paw Print on Your Heart

By Ryan Read

A Special Reminder

By Vanessa Woof

Innovating and Iterating: Trying New Things & Learning from Mistakes

The Quit Before the Start

By Diana M. Albanez

From Dust to Dreams

By Chris Craft, Ph.D.

Learning to Put Students Before Content: The Journey of a Single Subject Teacher

By Cristina Jimenez-Shawcroft

Making Mistakes 101

By Ashley Prevo

Country Mouse Goes to the City

By Stacy Croushorn

The Silver Linings of a Tech Coach Playbook

By Adam Juarez

What If?

By Theresa Ducassoux

Chase the Leprechaun

By Jon Spike

Afterword

Discussion Questions and Next Steps

Acknowledgements

About the Editor

Foreword

My dearest, teacher-friends.

(With a comma after dearest...)

Thank you for picking up a copy of Fueled by Coffee and Love: The Refill. You are about to embark on a journey through the eyes of 33 fantastic and diverse educators from all over the world.

When I started this journey in February 2017, I had no idea anyone would actually want to contribute a story or even buy a copy. I was blown away with my friends’ excitement for the book! After Fueled by Coffee and Love was published, numerous people approached me wishing they had contributed. And thus, Fueled by Coffee and Love: The Refill was born!

Being a teacher is not an easy job. We pour our hearts and souls (and often a good chunk of our paychecks) into our classrooms. Each day brings new joys, laughter, and occasionally heartbreak. Each and every student that walks through our doors deserves individual love and attention. Through these stories, you’ll see the power of teachers impacting students’ lives, and students changing teachers’ lives.

As Lin-Manuel Miranda says, Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see (The World Was Wide Enough, Hamilton). We are working hard to create a legacy of empowerment and well-rounded education in our students, knowing we may never see these humans again. We put our faith in the ripples we create.

By reading these stories, you are entering a world where these ripples are brought to light, honored, and celebrated.

It’s time to refill your coffee cup, find your favorite reading spot, and dive in!

Love,

Mari

Introduction

Warning, I’m somewhat of a coffee nerd, and the following is a deep dive into my evolution as a coffee aficionado. You may not take coffee as seriously as I do, you may not even like coffee at all (shout out to my tea drinkers), but if you read closely, you will see the analogy between my growth in my understanding and enjoyment of coffee and my growth as an educator.

My journey in coffee drinking was a gradual one. I remember when I was a college student when I thought that a good cup of coffee was hazelnut flavored, sweetened with several teaspoons of sugar, and cut with creamer. Just the sheer aroma while stirring the cup of liquid gold heightened my senses and made me think that no matter what the day would bring, holding that cup of coffee and my Bible and journal would prepare me for whatever challenges I would face. I was right. Before I entered the real world, before I had a real job, had real bills to pay, or real responsibilities to take care of on a personal and professional level, a mass processed, stale, pre-ground arabica bean from whatever region, baked in artificial flavoring, and sweetened to a syrupy consistency was about as much as I could appreciate at the time. Coffee was just a fuel, with little appreciation, little love. It’s what I had to start my day.

When I first began teaching thirteen years ago, my coffee habit began to grow. I was a part-time barista at Starbucks, and a part-time vocational studies teacher at Crossroads Charter High School. I would wake up at 4:15am, get out my journal and my Bible to start my day, and be at the coffee store by 5:00am to turn

on the lights and fire up the machines. Over time, the sound of screeching steam, the aroma of over-roasted beans, and my first of at least four espresso shots became a part of my new routine. I would clock out at 10am, and replace my apron and shirt before racing to the school to start my first class of the day. By lunchtime the students were wired, and I tried to match their energy with a macchiato or mocha-latte-something-or-other brought from Starbucks. Coffee truly helped me survive.

I served fast-food coffee in the morning, and taught with similar efficiency in the afternoons. I stood in front of the class, and lectured from the textbook. I gave independent classwork, pop quizzes every week, unit tests every 3 weeks, graded papers, turned in my lesson plans in a timely manner, clocked in and clocked out. Like any young teacher, I was exhausted by the end of the day. I didn’t feel like my students or my colleagues respected me, and I really didn’t know if I was cut out for this teaching thing. What I did know was that I would go home to my family, grade papers, watch a show, go to bed, and wake up and do the same thing all over again. Starting with coffee.

Thankfully I was given a full-time teaching position the following semester so I didn’t have to wake up at insane times in the morning and get over-caffeinated just to survive the day. With the extra hour or so of sleep came a little more planning time for daily lessons, and my coffee prep! By my second year teaching I was a fan of dark roast whole bean coffees that I would grind every morning, froth my own milk, and make a latte for myself and my wife. I was replacing rest with caffeine, and a little more time for my prep.

I was still teaching in a very traditional manner- standing up front, lecturing, assigning quiet work, rinse, recycle, and repeat, but I wasn’t sleep deprived and overly-caffeinated just to get by. I was able to start building relationships with my students and peers. And, I had a real planning period, where I would spend half the time observing how veteran teachers taught their classes. I watched in awe as some students that were regularly distracted or disengaged in my class were attentive and seemingly focused in another teacher’s class. That’s when I realized that the problem was with my teaching practice, not the students.

My coffee game grew over time, and so did my teaching. I became enthralled with the art and science of coffee brewing. I read about how coffee beans were processed, and their flavor profiles were affected by not only the region in which they were grown, but how they were processed, when and how they were roasted, what kind of grind you used, the purity and temperature of your water, and your brewing method. The more I learned, the more I applied, and everything I used to say about coffee snobs became the statements I started hearing about myself. Who has time to do all that? or I’m too tired in the morning to go through all of those steps.

If that’s you, no worries, I’m not judging you at all--I’m more laughing at myself! I thought that I would never become one of those people that hand grinds their beans and uses a gooseneck water kettle to do a pour over. Although I also didn't think I'd be the teacher attending PDs, IEPs, SSTs, and 504's or casually rambling about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Bloom's taxonomy, or Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. Each group of people have their esoteric habits and acronyms!

Looking back at my days of Starbucks and first year teaching, I never thought that I would drink less espresso and sip slow enough to appreciate the subtle hints of fruit or earthy tones of different coffees from around the globe. My growth as a coffee connoisseur would mirror my growth as an educator. I needed to be calm and patient, and I needed to slow down. My daily goals, like my journal time, required more reading, less talking, and more question-asking.

There's a concept that Starbucks has that I have always appreciated--something they call third space. The third space philosophy is creating a space where people enjoy spending time. Many people live in two spaces, home and work, so the atmosphere Starbucks tries to create is a third place where people enjoy spending time. That's what I wanted to recreate in the classroom, a place where students didn't just have to be, but wanted to be. My teaching transformed when I started changing the mood of my classroom environment. It began by me changing my desks so the students could face one another and talk about their projects. I changed my class decor, lowered the lights, turned on jazz music, and encouraged my students to use art supplies and technology in my Intro to Business and Entrepreneurship classes. I stopped lecturing in favor of creating self-paced experiences for my students. Before you knew it, my class started to resemble a boutique coffee shop, where friends gathered to meet, share, laugh, and create together. Finally, I fell in love with the art of teaching.

Whether you are new to teaching or a veteran with many years of experience, I hope that this book encourages you in your practice and deepens your appreciation for the work that we do. I didn't get into teaching for the pay may be overly stated, but it's definitely not an exaggeration. We got into this profession, and we stay in this profession because we are fueled by something more complex and even more enchanting than coffee. Though coffee definitely helps at the start of the day!

Dee Lanier (@deelanier)

July 2018

Teaching is a Journey

Caminante, no hay camino. Se hace camino al andar.

Traveler, there is no road. The road is made by walking.

-Antonio Machado, Spanish poet

In Seeing is Loving

By Angela Aguilar Carrasco

Dear Teachers,

I want you to know that I see you.

I’ve been to a lot of schools - and by a lot, I mean