Ep 92 | Who is the 2025 Teacher of the Year?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Maybe they haven't been told, but they feel I'm not good at math or I'm not good at reading. Celebrating any chance for success where they get that feeling of attention and positive attention because some students want attention however they can get it. So they'll do whatever. But as soon as you can give them any little bit of positive attention where that's what they're feeling their happiness from, they want to crave that more and more. So the intrinsic motivation has to come from them feeling a level of success and then feeling the confidence that that can happen again for them, which is our job to make sure that we are giving them just enough academic struggle to where it is challenging for them, but also attainable.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

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 Itcambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. If you've been listening to this podcast for some time, you already know the teachers of the salts of the earth. Even so, some teachers stand out among the rest. My next guest is the 2025 Teacher of the Year who returned to her first love of teaching after working as a stockbroker. Now in her 21st year of teaching, the Pine Meadow fourth grade teacher is thriving in her element. Today she's going to share her path to education and her hopes for her students. Committed to kids, Tate High graduate, teacher for life, Casey McGee. I am so glad you're here. Thank you for having me. You always wanted to be a teacher. Right. Before the stockbroker thing happened. Right. Did you have a teacher in your life that made a difference or an impression on you?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

There are several, actually. I had some amazing elementary school teachers, and there's probably three or four of them that I loved. My fourth grade teacher, and I teach fourth grade, so you know I'm a little biased, but my fourth grade teacher really encouraged us to do a lot of writing, and I love that. And I can remember writing poetry with her and just feeling like it was something I could do well and really express myself. So I loved that. And then going into middle and high school, I've had several teachers who were just amazing in Escambia County. So I'm definitely an Escambia County teacher fan. And so I always kind of looked up to those people, those role models, and thought it just looked like an amazing career to have. When I went off to college, though, I took a different path. I decided to major in business. There was a lot of pressure, probably from the outside, of saying, you need to do something that's going to make more money or you need to do something that is more, you know, whatever. And so I decided to do business. I majored in finance. And once I got a job, I was a stockbroker for a few years. And it was fine. I actually enjoyed the teaching people part of it.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

How did you teach as a stockbroker?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

You know, you can take people that come in with their money and say, what should I do with this? And then you get to explain to them, well, there's all of these different options. And, you know, you could you could put your money here, and this is what this meant, and this is how much risk you would be taking, and this is potential reward for that. And, you know, these are things they need to know. And that was fun, but it wasn't really where my heart was. And I knew that once I got married and we were talking about having our own children, I just knew that where I needed to be was working with children. And so I was blessed to have that ability to just kind of quit, refocus, restart. And I was hired as a teacher in Tallahassee and had some amazing mentors there, which is one of the reasons I love mentoring new teachers because I think it's so important. Your first couple of years teaching is going to be rough, even if you have a teaching degree, you know, you definitely are going in with an advantage. But people, especially that are alt-certified coming from other areas, they definitely are going to struggle. And so having good mentors, having a place that they can go and ask a million questions, or some other room that they can go into and just watch and observe and see how the veteran teachers are able to control behaviors or explain things to students or just set their room up, do their lesson plans. It's such an important thing to have at each school.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

There's so many key people along your story that if they weren't there, you wouldn't be here. Absolutely. I I love that full circleness of it. And so you're a part of the, is it the start program?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

I'm not a part of the start program. However, I usually help teachers that are new, you know, at our school. So always a teacher at heart, then and we all do that. All of, you know, our school is amazing. Pine Meadow is amazing. We have a fourth grade team that we call ourselves Team Awesome because they really are. And all of the teachers are so interested in just making sure that they help the students grow as much as possible and whatever we need to do. Because if a student is assigned to my class or the classroom next door, they're still my student. You know, we love them all. So we're in it for all of the students. And so whatever we can do to help each other, that's what we do. And we've had new teachers that have come in and, you know, it's it's very challenging sometimes, but it's also very rewarding to see the growth they make, also.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

You are such a teacher. Like I can just feel the teacher vibes coming from across the table. I'm really having a hard time imagining you as a stockbroker. Right. But you would be such a fun stockbroker too. I'm I'm sure. Was there a moment while you were a stockbroker that was your aha moment that you're like, yep, this is not my path. I need to go back to my first love of education.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Right. So it was an interesting time. I graduated from Florida State in 2000 and there was a market crash soon after. And, you know, it wasn't really fun because there was more money lost than gained at that time in just history in general. And there's, you know, there's obviously opportunities there for investments and things like that. But for me, it was not the place I wanted to be. And I didn't do it for very long. Honestly, it's hard to remember. You know, that was what, 24 years ago when I graduated. So it was many years ago. And I've definitely been teaching a lot longer than not.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

That's true. So it's hard to go back and put yourself in that framework of your life before. Yes, definitely. Well, you've taught ESC and gifted. What do you see as the biggest factor for success for students across the board? Since you've, you know, taught the spectrum of classrooms.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

I would say definitely for any of the students, getting them personally involved in their learning, in their goal setting, in their understanding of expectations. So managing expectations as a teacher is huge. I always go in and preface every lesson every day with what we're going to be doing that day. And that's important for all students. I mean, I want to know what I'm doing in a day. I would love to, I don't want to go to a mooding, a meeting somebody else is in charge of and just be like, hey, we're here. No idea what I'm going to do. I don't know how long this is going to last. I don't know what I'm doing next. So I think making sure that the students understand where we're going with everything we're doing is important because then I have buy-in from them and understanding why it's important. So I do a lot of data analysis and goal setting with my students. They're fourth grade, so they're old enough to understand that. So they come in and they know exactly what their reading level is, they know what their fluency level is, they know their I-RETI scores, they know their testing from last year, they know all of those levels for themselves and we chart that together. And I have often with them meetings where we get together one-on-one and we talk about, okay, since our last meeting, this is where you are. And I've seen that you've done these other lessons and look how much you've improved. Or we took this test and I see in this one particular reading standard, you're really struggling. Let's make sure that we meet during our remediation time and get together so that we can practice that standard. And then that's their individual thing they need to work on. So they know that the time that we have together is useful. The time we have together is not just something, oh my gosh, I already know how to do this. Why is she explaining this again? Or this is so hard. Why don't I get more help in this area? So it's individualized. My students will often ask me, even, hey, I still am struggling with this particular thing. Can you explain it again? Because they know what all the standards for the year are. They know where they are ability-wise in each one of them, and they can keep up with that. So getting them involved in their own mastery and getting them to understand. I do a lot of, I call it like my little McGee TED talks. So I do a lot of my little, my, my little motivational chats with them where we talk about why this is important, why is education important to your future? And then we also have a lot of fun with it. So we play a lot of games. I love to gamify all of our, I was gonna say standards, can I keep saying that, all of our topics that we're doing, all of the content. So if we're doing, for example, we had a math test today. So then yesterday, when we were reviewing for that math test, we would make sure that we would play some games together to review for that. So that helps to also have fun. We have to remember that they're kids. And so we want them to think that school is fun, to understand why they're there, but then also to see their own growth because sometimes it happens so slowly that they don't really see from the beginning of the year to the end of the year how much they've learned. And so maybe they feel like, oh, it's such a waste of time for me to come to school, or I don't want to be here, or whatever. And I don't generally see that or hear that from my students because they want to be there. They see that they're growing, they see that they're learning, and they get excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

I feel sorry for whoever is nominated for teacher of the year after you. Oh, you're so funny. I do because what you're describing, first of all, is I mean, I at first I couldn't even picture you as a stockbroker because you have such a good teacher vibe. But then you started explaining these essentially what are business meetings with your students. And I'm like, oh, there's the stockbroker. I see her now. That is so cool because I would have never thought to have these sorts of really strategic meetings with fourth graders, but I can just envision how enrolled they are in their own success and in the process of their own success. And as I a student who asked why at every class, I can say I really appreciate you explaining the purpose behind the uh content that you're teaching, right? That's so cool. You have said that you want to make school a fun thing, right? I've heard you use the word joyful also. How do you plan for joy?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

So to plan for joy, we have to understand the age that you're working with. So all teachers would probably answer this very differently depending on their topics. And, you know, I work primarily with nine and ten-year-olds. So for them, there's a lot of movement involved, and there's a lot of wanting some kind of output. So we don't want them to be extrinsically motivated. We want them to have some intrinsic motivation. So we don't always want to offer, you know, toys and treats and things like that, but it could be anything like, you know, you get to pick your seat tomorrow or whatever it is if you make this goal. So fostering a communication or a community where they encourage each other is also important. I think a whole family team environment creates a lot of joy with my students. I have them cheering each other on because they know the strengths and weaknesses that each other has. And we have to be super comfortable with everybody making mistakes because that's gonna happen all day long. And we always have those students who want to answer every single question and then the ones who never want to answer a question ever, because if they get it wrong, they're gonna be embarrassed. And that's a big hurdle to overcome. And so if we're constantly afraid, then we have that in the back of our mind, then we're not open to learning anything. So we have to kind of get over that by understanding and making a lot of mistakes. I always point out to them when I make a mistake. So anytime I say something wrong, or if I do a problem wrong, I always point it out, or I'll come in and say, Oh my goodness, guess what I did last night? And, you know, we'll talk about it and they'll laugh.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

And that's so brilliant because right at that age, that self-awareness really starts to ramp up. And they're comparing, you know, it's natural. It's like a part of their childhood development. But then they start to compare. And, you know, we all know that kids now are also using social media to compare. So to be able to use your position of authority as a way to normalize failure is such a it's such a brilliant leadership move.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Well, and they have a lot of opportunities to see that with each other. And so most of my students know the strengths and weaknesses of the others, you know, because we're together all day. And when somebody does have sort of a breakthrough, then they'll clap for each other, they will encourage each other. It's just, it's a really fun thing to see.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

When I'm having a bad day, I think I'm gonna show up to your fourth grade class. Come in.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Like, hi kids, can you clap for me? Oh, they absolutely will. They'll clap for you in several different ways. We have all kinds of fun clapping methods that we do. They'll cheer for you, they'll give you a million hugs. Oh, I love that. So they're very sweet.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Now, you mentioned intrinsic motivation earlier. How do you tackle tapping into the intrinsic motivation of a group? Because it's so personal to the individual.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Right. I don't think you can do it as a group. I think you would definitely have to do it each individually personally. It's all about creating. I have a separate relationship with each student. And that's what a really good teacher will do. They will have a specific relationship with every student. I have a little inside joke with every student. I have, I probably shouldn't say this because they might be listening, but if you ask any of my former students, they would say, I was Miss McKee's favorite student. Oh. Because I will tell most of them that. I'm like, oh my gosh, I love what you're doing right now. You're my favorite. So just all those little opportunities to give them any little bit of encouragement. And, you know, especially with having some students who maybe have had academic struggles in the past or they've been told that they weren't good at whatever, or they feel maybe they haven't been told, but they feel I'm not good at math or I'm not good at reading. Celebrating any chance for success where they get that feeling of attention and positive attention because some students want attention however they can get it. So they'll do whatever. But as soon as you can give them any little bit of positive attention where that's what they're feeling their happiness from, they want to crave that more and more. So the intrinsic motivation has to come from them feeling a level of success and then feeling the confidence that that can happen again for them, which is our job to make sure that we are giving them just enough academic struggle to where it is challenging for them, but also attainable. And that comes from for me making sure that I've explained things in such an explicit way to where they are going to definitely understand it. And then I expose them to that again and again and again in the exact same way. Because for ESD kids, you asked me about the difference maybe in teaching an ESD kid or a gifted kid. It's just the amount of exposure. So all of my students can learn the same material. It's going to take some of my students longer than others, depending on how many exposures are required for them to fully master that skill. So there's some students who I will have to pull separately and revisit something more times, where some other ones are going to understand it immediately. And they what they need is maybe to be challenged where they take that skill and do something more creative with it or in a higher level way. So having an academic struggle means that they are going to sometimes not know the answer and they're going to have their brain hurt a little bit, kind of like if you're reading, even if you're a great reader, if you read a technical book, for me, if I am, if something's wrong with my car and I pull out the manual and I try to figure out how to look under this, and my brain will start to hurt because that's not something I'm familiar with at all, even though I know how to read, I know what these words are. So I would have to really sit down and focus, maybe draw myself out a little diagram of what I'm doing, look at the things that I'm that I'm reading about under the hood and see some sort of picture of them. And that's exactly how the students are. So if it's something that is newer or more difficult to them, being able to have that academic struggle is so important for us to push through and not just give out an answer for them. And that's something I would, I would say. You asked me before in our pre-interview about what I would want parents to know. And that's what I would want them to know is your kids coming home and saying, This is too hard or I can't do this. It is difficult. It's supposed to be difficult, but we are giving them that because they can do it.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Well, and you pointed out that the intrinsic motivation comes from emotion. And I've never thought of that. But you're right, when we leverage emotions, positive and negative, it creates some sort of spark in our in our brain that goes, ooh, I want more of that. Yes. And more of that is the simple way of saying I'm motivated. Right. So I I love that. That's that's so brilliant. Is there anything else that, since we're talking about parents and what maybe you wish that they would know more, is there anything more that you would want to see from parents?

SPEAKER_00 18:37

The biggest thing I would say is to make sure your children are prepared to learn when they come to school. I think that, you know, helping them at home, getting a tutor, helping them with their homework, encouraging them to do that, encouraging them to study for their test, all of that is very important and that's wonderful. A lot of what we see is, and I know teachers across the board would tell you this, is kids just not being prepared to come to school. What does that mean? That means they're late or they are tired or they are hungry or they maybe were stressed that morning. So I think all of that makes it so that when they get to us, we have a 30-minute kind of debriefing time of having to, okay, let's settle down. I know that maybe you had a stressful morning, something happened on the bus, something happened at home, you were running late, you couldn't find your shoes, you got an argument with your sister, the dog ate your homework, whatever it is, you stayed up too late last night, you know, all of those things. You forgot something, can't find your water bottle, all the things that could have gone wrong that morning. And then that takes them some time to kind of get over and be like, okay, we're in this different environment. Now I need to do this, I need to settle down, I need to like be mad about this for a minute and then get over it. And then we just lose a lot of time in the morning. So I would say the biggest thing that is contributing right now to make one child being successful over one not is maximizing every minute they have when they're at school so that we have as much time possible to get through all of the demands that we're expecting them to get through. Because when their mind is on something else, it doesn't matter how good of a teacher I am or what I'm saying to them. They are not going to be open to learning it at that moment or hearing it or trying to understand it if their mind is somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

That's such a good point. You're right. This has been such an amazing insight into behind the scenes of what goes on in a stellar fourth grade classroom. I really appreciate you taking the time and I wish you the best of luck. Thank you. Uh, in Orlando at the ceremony. So, is there any final words you want to share before we sign off?

SPEAKER_00 21:04

I would just say thank you to all of the parents if they're listening, and students and administration and other teachers, you know, keep pushing through and trying your best. And we all have to remember that we are all here for the students and for as much gains as we can get from them, as much progress as we can get for them, because in the end, we want them to have choices in life and we want everyone wants the best for them. We want everyone to be able to reach their potential and to be able to have a successful, happy future. Well said.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Thank you again. This was fantastic. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Scambia County Public Schools.