A Lesson in Transition: The Teacher Becomes the Student, Part 2

Part 2, by Regina McCurdy
University of Central Florida, School of Teacher Education

@teachcoachgrow

Making the change from being a full-time teacher to a full-time student comes with a shift in mind, habits, schedule, and perspective. I still feel like a teacher, think like a teacher, and will always be a teacher at heart. Teaching is my calling. And yet, I’ve recently entered a new season of work: doctoral student. While I will be getting used to this transition, and it will take some time to fully adapt, there are a list of things awaiting me in this new “being able to” season. 

Being able to walk my kiddos to school on their First Day of School…

Being able to chaperone my children’s field trip or volunteer in their classroom without needing to secure a substitute teacher for students in my classroom…

Being able to uncover, study, and research how to better develop students’ ability to think critically and creatively so they enjoy learning (especially science!)…

Being able to correctly pronounce phe-no-me-no-lo-gy and e-pi-ste-mo-lo-gy (Can I use epistemology in a note to my child’s teacher? Now, that would be interesting.)…

Being able to interact with, collaborate with, and learn from some of the most amazing professors, scholars, and educational colleagues who have been where I am and have a perspective that is enlightening and encouraging…

Being able to discover the number of article pages my brain can process while reading at various hours of the morning (It’s 4:45 am. I’m pretty sure my speed-reading superpowers will be activated even more if I hit the snooze button and get up at 5:00am. That sounds good. I’ll go with that!)…   

Being able to schedule hair appointments, doctor appointments, dental appointments (Starbucks “appointments”) in the middle of the day without worrying about getting back by the end of a planning period…

Being able mentor, support and instruct upcoming teachers in their undergraduate years and experienced in-service teachers in their pursuit to hone their practice…

In my experience thus far, doctoral studies (like teaching) is not for the faint of heart. Very different from the 3Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic, graduate work is full of the 5Rs:

Receiving critiques and critical reviews on a piece you knew was your best work…
Re-writing and editing that manuscript again and again…
Reading and Researching unassigned articles and studies as you start realizing your area of interest…
Remembering that APA is not a mere suggestion…

These are not easy processes to master or endure, depending on your perspective. But why then have I chosen to walk this path? Like the old Kung Fu movies, the inexperienced but eager pupil “grasshopper” was aware of something more profound and that something else quality that his master embodied, and he wanted it too.

I vividly recall attending a Notice and Note training session on close reading strategies about five or so years ago with other secondary teachers in my school district. The training developers and facilitators, Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst, were former K-12 teachers and accomplished university professors and researchers with doctoral degrees. They unknowingly planted a seed in me to one day take the step to pursue my doctorate. Their teaching experience, energy, insight, and ability to relate and connect with us as teachers while providing us with evidence-based research from their studies in the field and a new perspective about learning was eye-opening for me and very significant.

Fast-forward to 2018, listening to our cohort’s faculty advisor, wonderful mentor, and professor, Dr. Malcolm Butler passionately telling us to “keep your teacher hat on”, that a “Ph.D. carries a lot of weight and responsibilities”, and that we will be in that “sweet spot” where we can interact with and influence teachers, researchers, and scientists. We must not forget our charge to help teachers be successful in the classroom and help our children become successful learners and thinkers. His challenging but encouraging words remind me of that moment years ago in the that training…how I felt as a teacher being led and guided by those who had walked in my steps as a teacher before me and pursued doctoral degrees to widen the breadth and depth of whom they could influence and shape. This grasshopper has been and is being led by great wise masters, whose words and actions will be a source of continued motivation, guiding me on this journey I’ve chosen to pursue on the path they started carving ahead of me.

These are lofty aspirations and expectations for sure! But…regardless of the sleepless nights, the multiple revisions for journal submissions, the critique of colleagues pushing me to produce my best authentic work, the intersecting deadlines, and never-ending to-do lists…I am grateful for this season of transition and educational pursuit. I hope to be the passionate professor, reflective researcher, engaging educator, and memorable mentor to someone else who all of a sudden realizes, What do I do now that I’m a student again?

Regina is in her first year as a Ph.D. student in Science Education in the School of Teacher Education at the University of Central Florida. She has been married to her talented husband Michael for ten years, and they have two bright and beautiful children, Ellis and Elyse, and people-loving Labrador Retriever Sabra. While her research interests are many, as she is an avid lover of learning and teaching, she wants to gain more insight into how students’ social, economic, and cultural experiences and influences affect their learning and motivation of science in the classroom.