Season 1, Episode 6
Teaching is advocacy, starring Missy Testerman
Today on Beyond My Years, host Ana Torres learns from the best, sitting down with 2024鈥檚 National Teacher of the Year, Missy Testerman. Missy talks about always being open to new ideas and perspectives, offers tips on building relationships with families, and discusses the importance of slowing down. She also shares the story of being the 鈥渂ossy鈥� kid in the classroom, because she wanted to help her classmates learn. Today, she feels that being a dedicated teacher means advocating for her students, because she believes that showing up means creating a vital safe place. Missy does not shy away from tough topics, such as knowing when it鈥檚 time to step away from teaching, and managing the 鈥渨ho knows best鈥� struggle between administrators and teachers, parents and teachers, etc. Taking all those lessons back to the classroom, Ana and her Classroom Insider Eric Cross discuss understanding your community, being more flexible and present in your lessons, and seeking mentorship and continuous growth.
Meet our guest, Missy Testerman.
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2024 National Teacher of the Year Missy Testerman is a kindergarten through eighth grade English as a second language (ESL) teacher who is a staunch advocate for students, teachers, and families. Missy prioritizes instruction that ensures her students have the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve. She served as a first and second grade teacher at Rogersville City School in Rogersville, Tennessee, for three decades before taking advantage of the state鈥檚 Grow Your Own initiative and adding an ESL endorsement three years ago.
She plans to use her year of service as National Teacher of the Year to empower teachers to advocate for students and fellow educators by using their voices and sharing their experiences with those outside the classroom.
Meet our host, Ana Torres.
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Ana has been an educator for 30 years, working in both the K鈥�8 and higher education sectors. She served as an administrator and instructor at various public and private colleges and universities and as a bilingual and dual language teacher, dual language math and reading interventionist, dual language instructional coach, assistant principal, and principal in K鈥�8 schools. Ana is currently the bilingual and multilingual specialist on 猫咪AV鈥檚 product specialist team, and delivers literacy and biliteracy presentations across the nation. Ana鈥檚 passion and advocacy for biliteracy and multiculturalism has led her to educate leaders, teachers, and parents about the positive impact of bilingualism and biliteracy in our world.
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Meet our Classroom Insider, Eric Cross.
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Eric Cross is a middle school science teacher who hopes to someday be a lifelong educator, like the guests on Beyond My Years! In each episode, Eric connects with host Ana Torres to discuss her guests鈥� best insights gleaned from their long and rewarding careers in the classroom. Then, Eric talks about bringing some of their wisdom into his current classroom and busy life.
Transcripts and additional resources
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Quotes
- 鈥淔ind a mentor. Someone you trust. Listen to that person, watch that person, ask that person questions. You know, you don’t have to figure this out on your own. People want to help you, and you have to take that help. It’s not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign that you want to be better.鈥� 鈥揗issy Testerman
- 鈥淚 want them to be proud of where they came from, always, because that’s part of their story. It’s always going to be an important part of their story.鈥�
鈥揗issy Testerman - 鈥淚 had a mentor who said, 鈥楽ometimes you have to slow down teaching to speed up learning.鈥� Slowing down, allowing those spontaneous moments to happen, allowing it to interrupt your plan, and then going there and diving into that, because you got the engagement. You have these natural phenomena. You have this natural curiosity. And that’s true learning. And that’s what’s memorable.鈥� 鈥揗issy Testerman
- 鈥淚 have no magic answers. I have some experiences and I have a little bit of wisdom from three decades of time spent in the education field, but I absolutely do not have it all figured out.鈥� 鈥揗issy Testerman
- 鈥淭he reality is that the journey toward wisdom in any career, especially in education, has to be slow and steady.鈥� 鈥揗issy Testerman
- 鈥淲e have to help guide our younger cohorts with our wisdom, but we also have to take pointers from them. They know lots of things that I do not know, things that I never learned how to do. They also were students more recently than I was, little students 鈥� they remember what it feels like when this or that happens to you.鈥� 鈥揗issy Testerman
