Skip to main content

Inspiring Idaho Teachers



My dear friend Simon Miller, tech guy extraordinaire, innovative teacher, dedicated husband (and father of four), and one of my honorary brothers, was interviewed two weeks ago for a podcast dedicated to honoring inspiring educators/unsung heroes. Anyone who knows Simon would agree that he is most definitely an inspiring educator, whether he's teaching high school students, the faculty and staff of the Kellogg School District, or his many friends (like me), who turn to him in times of technological need. You can enjoy his interview here:

http://www.inspiringeducators.net/2016/02/ie72-simon-miller-flyhighfri/


Coach Miller then nominated the brilliant Tammy McMorrow to be interviewed the following week. If you don't know Tammy's blog and you're an educator or a parent (or just alive), you should check it out: Forever in First.

Tammy and I go back a few years, too . . . to the day she was born. She is my cousin, my second-best friend, the best singer I know, and my CD-making partner in crime. Tam's inspiring interview is here: 

http://www.inspiringeducators.net/2016/02/ie73-tammy-mcmorrow-flyhighfri/



And finally, Tammy generously nominated me to be interviewed this week. You can hear my interview here:

http://www.inspiringeducators.net/2016/02/ie74-laurie-roberts-flyhighfri/


Comments

  1. Oh well, I'm not so sure I was being generous. You were simply the obvious choice.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On This Day

It was a very busy, long morning. I had back-to-back-to-back conferences with kids and parents and my principal that filled every break. Still, classes went mostly well, and I felt like I sort of knew how to teach. Then I went to cnn.com just as lunch was starting--just 5 minutes to spare before I had to meet parents. Wow. Just wow. I struggled to keep myself together. I didn't want to be crying when I met with the parents. But children--little children--shot and killed . . . . The parents were lovely, by the way, asking great questions about their son and telling me how much he likes my class, which really surprised them, because he's a math/science guy. Turns out he thinks I'm funny. I went straight to the church after work to continue working on our Christmas program. It's a huge undertaking, and I don't know how anyone could do it alone. I left feeling grateful for many hands and heads that make light work. And then I went to the Hungry Onion

Believe in Your Seed

Twenty-five years ago, she was a student in my 10th-grade English class in Kellogg, a small mining town in Idaho’s panhandle. Now, she is an educator herself  — an elementary teacher in the same large district where I teach high school English. And today, she stood in front 3000 employees of the Boise School District and delivered a keynote address. Her speech was, to say the least, inspiring. It was expertly crafted — full of story, wit, insight, and charm. Her delivery was seamless, vivid, funny, and, quite frankly, better than any such talk I have heard in 31 years of opening meetings. (I say this as someone who is particularly passionate about public speaking. In fact, public speaking has become one of my greatest passions — both as a teacher who helps students craft presentations, and as someone who dreams of doing exactly what Sonia Galaviz did today.) As she spoke, I experienced her speech on several levels. I was the veteran teacher inspired by a somewhat younger t

Love: the Ultimate Pedagogy

I did not intend to love them; I did not particularly want to love them. I was never the bright-eyed rookie teacher out to change the world, one student at a time. I thought my job was to do the serious work of scholarship and academia. I was a professional — a high school English teacher. I was Miss Roberts, not your cookie-baking, kid-loving aunt.  But against my will and what I thought was my better judgment, I began to discover that I did love my students. At first I thought it was a surprising, pleasant side-effect of hanging out with the same people every week for nine months, but I did not consider it a valuable part of teaching. It seemed too flaky, too silly to even say out loud. The pivot point came after I changed schools, 15 years into my career. I loved my first job at Kellogg High School, my beloved hometown, but for a variety of reasons, in year 16 I made the move to the big city of Boise, 400 miles away. The transition was excruciating. I might as well have been