Ambassador For Education: Award-Winning Teacher Shares Her Passion

By Marsha Nelson

Who ever heard of an Ambassador for Public Education? Don’t we already have enough of them? After all, the state of Wisconsin has 60,000 outstanding teachers who, every day, promote the excellence of public education to students, parents, and community members.

Marsha Nelson

The Department of Public Instruction, under the direction of State Superintendent John Benson, has created this unique community outreach position. As the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship recipient, I have been named Wisconsin’s Ambassador for Public Education.

I am a 25-year experienced educator from the Kenosha Unified School District. For the first semester of the 1999-2000 school year, I have the opportunity to work at the Department of Public Instruction, speaking about the strengths of our public education system with the media, student teachers, parent groups, the business community, and service organizations.

I wrote a proposal titled “Project Connect” to receive the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship. I stressed my belief that open and honest dialogue about education, policies, and research can facilitate a positive connection between the public and the educational community.

This “ambassadorship” enables me to connect the passion I have for teaching and the interest I have in educational reform with all members of the community.

Author Neale Donald Walsch wrote, “A true teacher is not the one with the most knowledge, but the one who causes the most others to have knowledge.”

And Christa McAuliffe said, “Teachers touch the future.” I believe they also make the future.

I would like to continue the dialogue about the impact of effective teaching and encourage you to contact me at the Department of Public Instruction: (608) 266-5199. You also can reach me by e-mail at: marsha.nelson@dpi.state.wi.us.

The five Bs of teaching that make a difference

From the examples of outstanding educators and mentors in my life I have compiled the “Five Bs of Teaching That Make a Difference”:

Being: A teacher’s being is crucial to effective teaching. It’s not always what you do, but who you are that fosters the spirit of success. Encouraging, motivating, positive, accepting, creative, friendly, committed, and understanding are a few of the describing dynamics incorporated into a personality that can be successful with children in the classroom and parents in the community. Because teaching demands the use of the self, effective educators possess exceptional personal strengths and leadership skills.

Believing: Teachers not only know subject matter well but believe strongly in the material, its importance, and what they personally are doing for the good of their students. They have a positive belief system that is based upon how they view people. Effective teachers believe students are able, friendly, worthy, internally motivated, dependable and helpful. They believe that everyone – themselves included – can get smarter, better, and brighter.

Bonding: Effective teachers identify with people rather than remain apart from them. They authentically connect with kids by looking them squarely in the eye and actually listening to them. They thrive in atmospheres of collegiality and teaming.

Building: Effective teachers are experts at building. They know how to build upon children’s core knowledge. They build positive relationships with students, colleagues, and communities. They work at assisting, releasing and facilitating students rather than manipulating, coercing, blocking, and inhibiting them.

Belonging: Effective teachers are more concerned with students as human beings than with objects, events, and regulations. They tend to see life from their students’ point of view rather than their own. They make a point to know students and help each of them believe they really belong in their classroom.

Posted January 18, 2000