Blaire Penry makes it clear: Online learning isn’t for everyone. Yet, some students absolutely thrive and excel in the online environment. That’s a lesson that came out of the COVID pandemic for Washington’s 2024 Teacher of the Year, who works for the Auburn School District. The pandemic challenged students, and it challenged her. “It forced me to be creative, it forced me to do things differently,” step back and re-evaluate her curriculum, everything she’d done in the classroom. She found some students flourished online, where they hadn’t done well in a traditional classroom. And, some unexpected benefits emerged: “…there’s also this added element where I am in their home. These families can hear what we’re teaching. And so when I go and I’m connecting with families, they know what’s going on in the classroom then a different way than they have before…”
Penry says diversifying the teacher corps is a critical, but often overlooked, ingredient in student success. “When there are more educators of color, then all students do better. Students who identify as white do better, and students who identify as students of color do better, test grades go up, discipline goes down, creativity, critical thinking skills, all these things increase.” But it can be a hard sell to recruit young people into a profession she says has become very politicized in recent years. Penry says the profession often doesn’t offer good work-life balance, nor does it financially value the experience of people from other professions who want to transition to teaching. One solution: “Pay student teachers.”
How concerned is she about student achievement and test scores? “I have opinions on testing, I wonder if sometimes we get hung up in the numbers … I am more concerned about gaps between scores than about the actual scores.”
Is the proliferation of social media affecting the social emotional health of kids, especially young girls? “It’s very clear to me that they are struggling in a way that past generations have not … Yes, I do believe that this generation is in crisis.” She thinks schools must teach media literary, tech literacy. “If we’re not teaching, if we aren’t leading them through that journey, how are they supposed to know? That has to be a part of our curriculum.”
What about student cell phone use in schools? “I do recognize they are incredible distractions in classrooms. What I think is important is that districts have uniform policies that stretch to all of their schools, and that schools have uniform policies.” Teacher A having one policy and teacher B another doesn’t work, says Penry.
Other topics: The lasting impacts of COVID on kids; chronic absenteeism; K-12 funding, both broadly and the problems caused by funding volatility; what teachers need most – “the gift of time”; her advice to state policymakers, and her fellow teachers; and more.