Teach Wonder
Teach Wonder
From Theory to Practice: Sara Fitzpatrick (STEM Education Scholar Series 3)
In our series, "From Theory to Practice," we're thrilled to reconnect with some of our CMU Alumni, who we got to know through out STEM Education Scholar Program. Today, we shine the spotlight on Sara Fitzpatrick, a former math teacher and current school counselor.
Links:
From Theory to Practice: Bailey Birman (STEM Education Scholars Series 1)
From Theory to Practice: Ryan Stevens (STEM Education Scholar Series 2)
Intro Music: David Biedenbender
Music by Artem Hramushkin from Pixabay
Music by Jeremiah Alves from Pixabay
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How do I blend those together and support my students in becoming the best best version of themselves but not force my ideals of what success is onto them?
Ashley O'Neil:Okay, now we're recording
Introduction:Welcome to Teach Wonder. Welcome to teach our podcast hosted by Ashley O'Neill and Julie Cunningham. Welcome back to teach wonder.
Ashley O'Neil:We're in our third episode of this series from theory to practice, where we interview CMU alumni who are now teaching in schools across Michigan, we find out how their teaching experience compares to what they expected when they were students here at CMU. All of our interviews feature students that we got to know through our STEM education scholar program. You can learn more about that program and earlier episodes of this series or at the link in our show notes. I was talking to Julie this week about the series. And she asked if there were any themes that were coming up for me. And initially, I said no, but that wasn't quite true. You know, I got into education because I saw myself as a people person, I wanted to support kids, I wanted to help them grow. And along the way in the classroom, as a formal educator, I think that part shifted to the background for me a bit. Not that I cared about the kids less. But it was that a lot of my time and my energy was put into other places, if you made a pie chart of my mental energy, and the time I spent doing school stuff, the biggest portions were planning, grouping kids into literacy stations, committee, work assessments, sight words, fluency, math groups, all of those portions of the pie chart kept growing, until I saw building student relationships more of a means to an end, then as a primary catalyst of my work, the mechanics of school made it easy to see the lessons as my job, the committee's were my job. And I know that that may not sound all that different to working with children is my job. But for me, it was. And that's not isolated to K 12. Only a good friend of mine was on sabbatical this semester. And when I asked him what has been significant for him, he didn't hesitate before he explained this, I noticed a difference between having a positive impact on my students. And on the institution, I had gotten myself into a place where I was saying yes to every committee, every extra thing, I was everywhere in my department, I was the go to if there was something that needed to be done. When I go back, I'm going to be more selective with my committee work and what I say yes to the cost of all that time came from myself and from my students. But it's not always an easy choice. And it is a tension that I've heard in all of our interviews, relationships with the kids versus classroom management, relationships with the kids versus grades and planning and admin relationships with the kids versus all of it. I'm not sure it's a theme. But you can hear how each of these CMU alum have been challenged by holding space for their primary work, working with kids, and all the other stuff that's important, but sometimes is in conflict with that primary goal. Our interview today is possibly the most striking example of this tension.
Julie Cunningham:Sarah was in the original cohort of STEM education scholars and instrumental in helping to shape the program it has become. She's always been a strong person with big plans and an interest in meaningful outcomes. This was true in her work with the scholar program and with children at the MakerSpace. She wanted the best for all involved and was willing to put the work in for the outcome she desired. Although I can hear how much she has learned and grown as a classroom instructor when she reflects on her position, I can also hear her passion and commitment to those she works with. And this takes me back to our time together at CMU. I invite you to listen to Sarah's journey and to appreciate her passion for the students she works with. I also invite you to consider that in leaving the classroom. She has become even more invested in the well being of her students.
Ashley O'Neil:Okay, so my name is Sarah Fitzpatrick, once Sarah Fisk. I was, well I'm currently now school counseling and a high school. And I got here by starting in a high school teaching math in health and wanting to get more of an education and decided that counseling was something that I would enjoy doing. So I started my master's and then a position opened in my school and I needed to do an internship so I kind of just thought, why not hop into a job position while my internship was happening, so, and here I am. And I'm really happy in the position. And I have currently. So
Julie Cunningham:you're interning and counseling at the same time. Yeah, I actually just
Sarah Fitzpatrick:So I got done in December. So I just actually graduated with my master's. But yeah, this whole fall semester was my internship and working full time doing that.
Julie Cunningham:Congratulations.
Ashley O'Neil:Thank you. That's fantastic. That's busyness? Yeah, it was great. Yeah,
Julie Cunningham:well, and you, and you always have been one to do more than one thing at a time.
Sarah Fitzpatrick:Yeah, I always said that, you know, like, I'm ready for my master's to be done and to take a break. And now I'm like finding little projects in the house to do and I feel like here really soon, my husband's just going to tell me to go back to school again, because we can't afford we can't afford my habits. I guess I have to keep myself busy.
Ashley O'Neil:You were in the classroom for how many years before you started your masters? And then you just you took the counseling position this fall? Is that right? If I think about the timeline,
Sarah Fitzpatrick:um, technically, I started the position last March. But I was still teaching. I was like, part time teaching part time counseling in March. I started my master's, two and a half years into teaching. And then just finished. So our counselor that we had, prior to me left last November, and I had applied for the job then. But it was really quick, it was right at the end of our trimester. So my principal had to make a decision not have a counselor and not have a teacher. It's easier to not have a counselor than it is to not have a teacher. So throughout the second trimester, we did what we needed to to make adjustments to our third try so that I could, I was teaching one section of health and then counseling the rest of the day, so and then I was full time starting in the fall. Nice.
Julie Cunningham:I would think those two things kind of fit together a little bit teaching health and being a counselor like I could see overlap and that,
Sarah Fitzpatrick:yeah, the only thing that was a little tricky is I have to try really hard to not have anything to do with discipline, right? Because my role is really supportive. students, students shouldn't see me as a disciplinarian, otherwise, they won't want to talk to me about things. And so then being Switching gears, and being a teacher and trying to have more of a, you know, control role with students and then flipping that off, and then being more of like a, on your counselor, I'm here for anything type of a thing. It was, it was kind of hard. But the conversations I was having with students who were very similar to what I do as a counselor, so yeah.
Julie Cunningham:Do you miss teaching math?
Sarah Fitzpatrick:I miss math. I don't necessarily Miss convincing others to love math.
Julie Cunningham:If that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Either an AI or you can answer this either or both ways, like in your role as a teacher or in your role now? Or maybe just the answer, maybe just the question is in education, what challenges do you face?
Sarah Fitzpatrick:Um, I think? I think that's a big question to answer, because I think it has to do with demographics of people. But I also think there's a layer of that, where we bring our own biases to what we expect people should be. So the way that I was raised in my life experiences is very different from what I see our students experiencing. And so, I've been struggling with trying to figure out how do I blend those together and support my students in becoming the best best version of themselves, but not force my ideals of what success is on to them, especially in a very rural area. Students, I mean, getting a high school diploma is very important. But when they leave here, and they're going to work on their family farm for the rest of their lives, you know, that sort of support looks very different from getting a college education or something like that. So I think just in terms of my own biases, and my own judgments based off of what I think people should be, and challenging my own worldview has been has been a challenge.
Julie Cunningham:That's a really, really thoughtful response. Not that I didn't expect that from you. I'm just That's my comment.
Ashley O'Neil:I think it takes up some people a long time to get there to think about the fact that I'm really proud of where I've gotten, but someone else may not want the life that I'm living, and then I'm happy to be living on that. Tired and especially difficult when a lot of teachers tend to be people who liked school, and did really well at school, and have fond memories of school. And so then we keep going to school, and then we go back to school professionally to convince more people to like school. And some students just haven't had that experience. Yeah, for sure. So you can think about this in your teaching role, your counselor role, both roles, but what have been some highlights for you working in the school system.
Sarah Fitzpatrick:I would just say students in general, in any capacity, teaching, I mean, it was always really great when you saw a student, especially student who had struggle, usually, but then find success, or even just students who are always successful. So being successful was always really fulfilling. I have to tell my students all the time, you know, whether it's teaching or counseling, I'm like, I'm not here for the money. If I was here for the money, I would not be working in a public education like. So I'm really here because I enjoy seeing in helping others have good lives and feel successful in their lives. And I think that was one of the reasons why counseling seemed better to me than being in a classroom, because the classroom environment can really take away from a lot of those relationships. Because even though you want to have those relationships, at the end of the day, you still have a job to teach your content. And sometimes that can really get in the way of building good relationships were now in a counseling role. That's really just what my job is, is I don't have to worry about whether or not they know what y equals mx plus b means. I just need to make sure that they feel safe in this building and have the resources that they need to be successful.
Julie Cunningham:I'm just curious, and this doesn't even need to go in the podcast necessarily. But I was really curious how a counseling position works like currently, would you? Do you see all of the students in some capacity? Like it, like going into their classrooms? Or? Or is it only students who come to see you?
Sarah Fitzpatrick:That's a good question. And I'm going to answer it in a reality versus what I want, I guess. So right now, really, because I've been just trying to figure out my role. Because through my program, I learned to be this thing. But then once you actually get into the position, you realize all of the things that hold you back from being able to do what you want to do. A huge portion of my job is scheduling. And I hate that because scheduling doesn't really have that much of an impact on our students. But I probably spend 70 hours or trimester scheduling students, so but it's something my school requires me to do. Right. So that is something that I've been working on this year is really figuring out how to have a comfortable balance, being one counselor with 460 students, and being able to see all of them and support them in the ways that they need to. So ideally, yes, I would work with every single student in some type of capacity. Realistically, right now, other than seeing them in the hallway, or popping into classrooms or whatever, talking about schedules. I don't I haven't really sat with each kid individually and talk to them.
Ashley O'Neil:Were your expectations met when it comes to teaching education? Why or why not? And I think that's a big question.
Sarah Fitzpatrick:It is, and I think I kind of I think I said it about counseling, and I think this is true for any profession, right? You go to school to learn how to do the job, but the reality doesn't set in until you actually start doing it. Right. So my expectations becoming a math teacher was that all of my students were going to love math, and they were all going to get A's because that was the teacher I was going to be right. And then I hit a brick wall. And I said, Oh my gosh, why are my students getting C's? And it took a teacher explaining, you know, something that I said earlier where my ideal self success is not everybody's ideal of success and really challenging my thinking and that, for me to realize that my role as a teacher shouldn't be making everybody loved the content, but rather, making people feel like they can be successful in a school setting and making them feel safe here and giving them some relationships. Which again, I felt like teaching was getting in the way of that for me. So that's why I think I feel so much more fulfilled being in a counseling role over an educator.
Ashley O'Neil:Sarah was the first one for grad students I met when I started working at CMU, our physical Makerspace was still in progress. So Julie, Sarah and I spent the summer using this small study room as a shared office and prep space. We spent a lot of time together that summer, and I remember how Sarah spent literal days meticulously organizing all of these Lego robot kits. Each kit comes with approximately 4,000,012 pieces. And Sarah repeatedly had to organize each and every one. I grew into my role at the makerspace while she was here learning how to be a teacher. And I watched her flourish here at CMU. And I've loved this interview because I got to hear how that determined undergrad has continued to grow in her school setting. Thank you for listening along. This has been another episode of teach wonder if you're interested in the rest of this series. Make sure you don't miss out follow our lark, like our podcast on your favorite podcast app. You can find show notes and a full transcript on our website. And if you're listening to this live, summer is right around the corner. If you have kids, or if you're an educator, come spend the summer with us. You can find our teacher professional development options on our website, and our summer camp list is coming out on March 11. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to catch those updates.