Ep 36 | 2024 Teacher of the Year

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, also if you think about it in the subject area that I teach, um, I'm actually many different professions because I'm teaching animation. So all of a sudden I'm an animator and I'm making cartoons and then I also teach web design and all of a sudden I'm a web designer. So and then we have to investigate things. So all of a sudden I'm an investigator with the students. I put on my Charlie's Angels detective outfit from the 70s and I'm like, let's go find these criminals. Or actually, it's find the answers to our questions, not the criminals. Unless the answer's not the right answer, then it is a criminal.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Pensacola is often called a boomerang town. People leave only to later return and settle down here. My next guest could be called a boomerang teacher. After graduating from Woodham High School, she returned and has been teaching there since 2009. Of course, now it's called West Florida High. She is also a second-generation Escambia County educator and taught for 26 years, now teaching some of her students' kids business and multimedia. Today she's going to share her perspective on learning and teaching in Escambia County and the moments that have inspired her the most. Dedicated educator, perpetual pupil, teacher of the year, Angela McFarland. Thanks for being here. Oh, thank you for having me. And congrats on being Teacher of the Year.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

It is such an honor for this recommend recon recognition, I should say. Were you totally surprised? I was totally surprised and shocked. Yes. Especially after 26 years of teaching in the county.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

That's a long time for any one profession. But I find that teachers are kind of that profession where it's more than your job. It's sort of like who you are as a person.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Well, also if you think about it, in the subject area that I teach, um, I'm actually many different professions because I'm teaching animation. So all of a sudden I'm an animator and I'm making cartoons. And then I also teach web design, and all of a sudden I'm a web designer. So, and then we have to investigate things. So all of a sudden I'm an investigator with the students. I put on my Charlie's Angels detective outfit from the 70s, and I'm like, let's go find these criminals. Or actually, it's find the answers to our questions, not the criminals. Unless the answer's not the right answer, then it is a criminal.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Is that a metaphorical outfit or an actual? No comment on that one.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I did have the the Angel lunch box, the Charlie's Angels lunch box for many years.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

I'm gonna need a follow-up interview in a physical outfit, please. Well, your business and multimedia, and that's under the umbrella of career and technical services. So I guess what you're saying is that's kind of a a broad umbrella.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Yeah. Career and technical is such a broad umbrella because you have to sit there and think, um, like I said a couple weeks ago at the Teacher of the Year Gala at Washington High School, the career and technical umbrella used to be called vocational. And so um they even used to be called workforce education. So these are individuals that um some people would call blue-collar workers in the county. And so we have business teachers teaching business and computers and marketing, and the students that we are teaching are going out and starting businesses. They are working in businesses, they're working in retail jobs, they're managers of retail stores, um, they're working in the marketing business, they're making websites even for real estate companies. And then we have um family and consumer science teachers who are teaching students how to prepare and cook food. So those students are working in restaurants, they own restaurants in town, they own food trucks, which are a lot more popular apparently. Then we have um the auto mechanics. So anybody who has had an oil change lately for their vehicles, you know, these are students that were teaching under career and technical students, um, the career and technical educators. Um criminal justice. So when you get pulled over by a ticket, thank a criminal, thank a career and technical teacher because we had to teach those students who are now officers of the law that are making you follow the law and follow the speed limit. And then on the other end, we have new programs like the aviation mechanics. And that's an ode to my dad who was in the military and was um uh an aviation mechanic engineer, even has a degree or had a degree from Troy State. He's passed on, but um, you know, I want those teachers that are teaching those students recognized as well, because you know, if you've ever flown somewhere, you want a mechanic who has worked on these planes and can get these engines up in the air and landing correctly. So, you know, the funny part about that is that there was is now a retired ROTC teacher in the county, and he and my dad met when he the the ROTC teacher was a fighter jet pilot, and he refused to fly unless my dad okay to his plane. So it's kind of neat that you know I'm under career and technical and I'm trying to recognize that as educators we work hard trying to get these students out there. And some of the students go on to college, a majority of them do, but some of them, you know, college is not for them. So they are learning the skills to enter the workforce right after edge after high school. And so I even had a female student years ago, she was into fixing cars because she was around her dad and her brother who fixed cars all the time. And so she's like, Look, I'm not going to college in SmackFarlane, but I will fix a car. Just let me know when you need an oil chain. And I'm like, What is that?

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Okay, that's fine. I'll call you one day. That's so sweet. Well, I I don't believe that taking a different path other than college is a consolation prize. It's not. It's it's an you know, everyone plays an important part in society. And it is such a uh giving teacher move that when I asked you about you, you're like, hold on, let me recognize these 12 other people real quick in this department. Yes. That's very telling of you. But I had no idea that there were so many categories under that umbrella. So I understand why you want to shine light on that because it's uh an important, I would say probably critical part of um, you know, how our community works. Because we have to have people who have that hands-on knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Very much so. So, you know, yes, you want to say thank you for recognizing me as Teacher of the Year. And I am saying thank you to everybody out there that voted for me, who visited my classroom and observed me. But I want to recognize those of us that work so hard in the career and technical field because, you know, it is a lot of what I say behind the scenes. And even though that is a multimedia term, a lot goes on for a production, and I don't just mean a film production, video production. I mean for you to get in a car and be able to drive. A lot is going on in the background. And um I'm just excited to represent all of us that are there and put some light on what we do. And, you know, as a teacher, I thank God for you know, the family and consumer science teachers that I can remember in high school at Woodham High School that taught me recipes that I still follow to this day. You can hardly read the ink on there from because it's from an old-timey copier. But hey, the blueberry pies are delicious, you know, and I can still remember the business teachers that taught me typing and thank God they did because I wouldn't be here if they didn't inspire me first. But also, you know, not just my career in technical teachers, but you know, I was inspired by so many other teachers too. And I gave an example of fourth grade at the teacher Gala, and that I went to three different schools in fourth grade, not because I was bad, but because my dad had different duty stations in the military. And so I had many teachers. So if you think about it in elementary school, they may have one teacher, but then they might have a visiting art teacher, a visiting music teacher, or might be a visiting science teacher for them to do an experiment. So I had several different teachers at one school, several different teachers at another, and several different teachers at the third. And and most of them let me go up to the chalkboard and write on the chalkboard, and that was like the coolest thing as a fourth grader. So was it these teachers that inspired you to be a teacher yourself? Oh, yes. If I got to write on the chalkboard every day, and then this magical thing called an eraser, that was so cool back then. You know, you make a mistake, and then one teacher even had different colored chalk, and that was even cooler because I could use blue or pink and not just the white chalk. So, you know, and then when my parents bought me a chalkboard at a garage sale, a local yard sale, and I actually sat on the front porch and or I would stand at the front porch with my chalkboard, carry it out there when it wouldn't raining and lightning and thundering. And I would teach my stuffed animals, my dolls, and my sister just told me recently, she says, Oh my goodness, you would have me sit in a chair in the front porch too, and I'd have my doll, and she you would have me doing math problems and diagramming sentences. You were destined to be here. I was a teacher from fourth grade on, is what I say.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

It was in your heart. You had practiced the art of classroom teaching with the stuffed animals and the squirrels.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

And the classroom management, because those stuffed animals never said anything back. They just did their work.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

And virtual is a whole new ball game now. And you've been teaching virtual, I think, since 2020, right? Escambia County Virtual.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

For Escambia County, I think this is my third year, ending my third year, and then previously before that, for Florida Virtual School, they had something called graders. So I never actually taught. I just graded for all the other business teachers. And it was just a little part-time job. So I did it for the first year and just graded their work. And you know, that's behind the scenes again. So I got to see a lot of behind the scenes with Florida Virtual School. And then the second year I graded for their global. So I had students from all over the world. They were Florida students, but for some reason, family necessity, they had to move quite a bit or be in different places, countries. And so after the two years, they revamped their system. And then I took a few years off, and then I got to work for Iskambia virtual. And so it is a different concept out there.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

How do you tweak your teaching style for virtual?

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Um, it is a lot of on air at nighttime, on the phone tutoring, and you really have to know the software programs because the students having to open it up as well. So you really have to say, go to the left or go to the right. Do you see this blue button? Do you see the red button? Click twice. Now do you see this? Okay, you don't see it. Well, let's go back. We missed a step. So it's more very, very instruction followed as far as the instructions are concerned. You've got to do it step by step. It sounds like tech support. It in a way it is tech support, but then you know, I teach uh three different classes, and so it can it can be some tech support, but it might also be that the student doesn't understand how to do an Excel spreadsheet and the formulas are not coming out right. And so we have to go back and say, well, did you even type an equal sign in front of the formula? Because Excel, every formula starts with an equal sign. And apparently I just gave an answer to a test question out loud. If anyone's listening out there, take note.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Well, since fourth grade teaching with the squirrels to now teaching virtual, how how do you feel like your teaching philosophy has has changed over the decades? How has it adjusted to your students and just as you've you know fine-tuned it? Well, first of all, oh my goodness, the word decades.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Oh Lord. That really ages a person. Not sure really what that means. I'm sure that's a math question somewhere in there. Sure, yeah. Okay. So my whole philosophy on that is don't stop learning because things change. Embrace the change. As far as software is concerned with my subject matter, it changes all the time. So, you know, you tell a student, click over here on the left, and all of a sudden it's no longer there because the latest update has it on the right at the bottom. So you're just gonna have to adjust to the change. Embrace the change, is what I said. It's coming, it's gonna happen. Don't worry about it, just keep going. But then my mom and dad always said, whenever a um learning opportunity is given to you, take the learning opportunity. My dad was big, of course, in the military, they would have courses that they would take. So he was all the time taking courses, taking courses and learning something new. My mom is constantly studying, studying. And uh in in the evenings, we can see her with books and pens and highlighters. So I watch what they have done over the years and what my mom continues to do. And so I say, okay, what's around the corner? Let me see what I can learn. But also I want to be able to learn it so that I can share it with the students. And then again, the students show me things that I did not even discover, and that's always a lot of fun too. And I'm like, okay, I have a saying in my classroom, um, how did you do that? And they would say how they did it. And I'd say, Okay, you didn't copyright it, so now it's mine. And so even today, we were doing something with a rabbit and a software program called Toon Boon, which is an animation software. And somebody did something, and I heard another student say, You better copyright that before she steals it. So I'm sure they were talking about me, but I just smiled, and the smile had a double meaning because one, they're learning something new, but then they have heard what I have said over the years and they're repeating it. And that was like a huge compliment.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

It is. What's something that you see yourself learning in the next few years? Maybe something you've always wanted to learn, or something you feel like because of changes in technology or maybe in society, that you'll be forced to learn.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Well, I'm gonna take it out of the software program because um, as a teacher of the year, one of the gifts I got from the local Pensacola Junior College is a free course. And I have said for years, I want to take a pottery course. And again, it's embrace the change. I I might not be able to do it, but you know what? If the bowl comes home crooked and the pitcher comes on with the handle on the wrong side, I don't care. I did it. And I'm excited to embrace that. And plus, it does bring back memories to an art class at Woodham High School, and the students were so talented in that art class, and we had to, we were required to take the half-credit the semester course. And I was not talented like everybody else. And that was the one time that my mother ever was called up to the school because I was not a bad child. And the art teacher said to my mother, I want you to see all the art projects that the students did. And my mom was so impressed. I mean, one kid turned it into a cookie jar and everything else. And then when she showed my mom my art project, my mom's like, Yeah, okay, she tried. And the teacher was very uh another inspiration because she had said to my mother, um, she did try, but obviously it was not the assignment. But I'm going to grade her on her glaze technique because if she gets an F for this project, it would devastate her because she does she does not make Fs or D's or C's. And my mom said, Yeah, if she saw that on her report card, that would be sad. And so my glaze was perfect. So I did make an A on glaze.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

I love it. It sounds like your students have really inspired you. I think every question you've weaved in a student story. Can you think of any one particular student, no naming names, of course, um, that really left an impression on you?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

I'll go back to the first year of teaching in Escambia County. I had a female student and um she is now a a doctor, PhD. And even when she came back to town, she took me out to dinner. She paid for the she didn't have to pay for the mill, but she paid for the mill, and we have still kept in touch over the years. And I still have her number, her her texting number in there. Um so you know, that's twenty six years ago for someone to be a professor at a college and still keep in touch. And she was one of the first students, and you know, she was absolutely the perfect student back then. And, you know, I have read some of the comments that students have said about her, and and I just think she's an inspiration to this day. But, you know, after 26 years, I have so many students. And, you know, you think about I've got at least three families that I have taught all three of their the kids over the years. Wow. And foreign exchange students, when we had those programs in full force, I taught one student and then eight years later taught the sibling, and the parents had requested. So, you know, little things like that. They it's it's an inspiration. Teaching is something that um you get what you put into it.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

I would agree. As we wrap up, what do you want people to know about Escambia County public schools?

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Um we are working hard for the students, and so I'm gonna take that back to career and technical. In the career and technical education, we have industry certification exams. These exams are tremendously rigorous. Uh they are the same exams that are given to adults, and we are having high school students take these exams. And um, you know, it is absolutely wonderful how many industry certs our students are achieving and the number that is coming out. And the good thing about that is the students that are graduating from high school are contacting the schools and contacting us and saying, I'm at college and I was just told that if I prove that I passed an industry cert, I will get credit for this class. And so we are running the reports, giving them their certificates, showing them how to log back into their accounts so they can prove to their colleges that they've achieved these industry certs. So they're off at college getting basically quote unquote free classes from their industry certs. And the on the side night for those that didn't go to college that achieved industry certs, we have heard from those students saying, I will get a raise at my job if I have can prove that I have an industry cert. So I can remember a female student when we were at our old location of Longleaf Drive, a student, a female student said, I will get a dollar raise at my job if I can prove that I do have industry certification in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint Excel, or any others. And you know, you think dollar raise is nothing, but when you're working at a local place that has a nickel 25 cent, 50 cent year raise, a dollar is a huge amount. And so we were able to get her her certificates and get her her login information again after being out of school for two years, and she got her dollar raise, and that is absolutely a success for a Scambe County school system.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

That's amazing. Thank you so much for being here today, and thank you for um yeah, just being an awesome teacher, and congrats again. Well, thank you very much. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.