Before They Capture Kids’ Hearts, GMSD’s Newest Teachers Experience It Themselves

There is a lot to learn during your first year in the classroom, from curriculum and lesson planning to new technology, grading and classroom management. And then there are all those public education acronyms to figure out along the way.

For approximately 20 of GMSD’s newest teachers, two days of professional development this week focused on fundamental relationships. The district’s first year Blue Chip teachers gathered for Capturing Kids’ Hearts training, experiencing the same foundational work that GMSD employees completed districtwide last year. Led by CKH trainer Trish Douglas, the two days gave these new educators a chance to connect not only with the principles behind CKH, but also with one another. And at times, that connection got emotional.

For Dogwood Elementary fourth grade math and science teacher Amari Lipscomb, one activity asked participants to be vulnerable with people who, only weeks ago, were strangers.

“Being able to be open and very vulnerable about something that was so sentimental to me, and sharing that, and then being affirmed right after was just an amazing feeling,” Lipscomb said. “I feel like I grew as a teacher and a person today.”

Her Dogwood colleague Katie Massey, a first year fifth grade ELA and social studies teacher, came to GMSD from Knoxville knowing very little about schools in the Memphis area. As she considered where to begin her career, she kept hearing the same advice.

“Everyone kept telling me, ‘Germantown, Germantown, Germantown,’” Massey said. “They said, ‘It’s just the people. The people who work there are such good people. You’ll see.’”

A few weeks into her first year, and after sharing an experience like this with her fellow Blue Chips, Massey said she understands what they meant. The people she met during the interview process, she said, have turned out to be the same people supporting her now.

GMSD Professional Development Supervisor Megan Gaschler organized this first training as part of the district’s Blue Chip program, a multiyear support system for new educators. While taking first year teachers away from their classrooms for a full day is no small ask, Gaschler said giving them the full CKH experience was important.

“We knew it was hard for them to be away from their classroom, and we appreciate that time,” Gaschler said. “But we knew that the expense of them being away was worth what they’re going to gain from the training.”

“Relationships make the rest of teaching easier,” said Gaschler. “It’s not just relationships with their students, but relationships with their peers and with their parents. It’s not just a thing we say or a mantra that we have, but it is who we believe we are at our core.”

For a new teacher, that foundation can be especially important.

Lipscomb moved to the area from Kansas to begin teaching in GMSD. She had heard that Germantown was a place where teachers could be themselves, try creative ideas and make the classroom their own.

Now, she says, she is experiencing it.

“I came from Kansas, and it has been a completely different ball game, in the best way possible,” Lipscomb said. “Just being able to be the teacher that I want to be … I see that daily. I love it.”

That sense of belonging is also growing among the Blue Chips themselves.

The Blue Chip cohort first met during new teacher onboarding in July, and Lipscomb said she can already see how much she has grown since then. During the training, a fellow teacher even pointed it out.

“She told me, ‘You seem so different from the first day,’” Lipscomb said. “I do feel like things have changed just since then, just being more open and being able to be myself as a teacher.”

Gaschler watched those relationships deepen throughout the training. Unlike last year’s districtwide CKH training, when employees experienced the program alongside colleagues from their own schools, the Blue Chips trained together as one group, bringing new teachers from across GMSD into the same room.

“They got to experience it together,” Gaschler said. “Seeing them be able to build off of what they started at that onboarding experience, and then today continuing to grow those relationships from all the different buildings, I think was a really cool, unique experience.”

They will return to different classrooms and different schools. They will teach different subjects and different ages. Over the next several months, each will have successes, hard days and plenty of firsts, but they will not be doing it alone.

And when the inevitable noise of a first year in education gets loud, Lipscomb said the training gave her something simple to return to.

Her why.

“Sometimes when it’s so overwhelming, I feel like I forget,” she said. “Today was a good reminder of what’s actually important, and making sure that students also feel welcomed and safe, and that they can just be themselves.”