Turn and Talk

Turn & Talk Meet the 2016 Maine Teacher of the Year

One of the fi rst things you’ll notice about the 2016 Teacher of the Year’s 3rd grade classroom is it’s not overly quiet. In fact, the students in here talk—a lot.

In her own words...

On being the 2016 Teacher of the Year, goals and hopes for the future

I had to keep reminding myself that it was actually true that they had selected me to represent teachers and students in Maine. I was very emotional, just incredibly grateful to everybody who has supported me throughout my teacher career. I'm really excited to have this honor and I hope that I can represent teachers and children well and that I can be a really clear voice.

On teacher leadership

In terms of teacher leadership, I would like to bring a focus on models of teaching and learning that do work. There is so much focus in the media on what's not working and I would like to bring to the forefront what is working. I also would like to tap into each school—there are so many leaders and experts in contents and certain teaching skills. I think there are a lot of unsung heroes and I would like them to build their capacity for sharing their expertise. I would like to incorporate more inter-class visits, maybe using technology to build a stronger network of teachers in a county or a region.

On addressing all student needs

Every single teacher of the year has had an experience about buying a backpack for a kid, buying clothes for a kid. Addressing what poverty looks like for kids should be part of every conversation in terms of policy and education for kids—it's something you can't ignore. I want to hear more from other teachers across the state and certainly I want to make sure I am representing kids and different schools, and I hope to connect with teachers and see what their schools are like.

Why do you think you were selected?

I really think what came through was the strength of the relationships I have with students and my colleagues. I think those relationships have carried over to my students. (At this meeting, she had just finished mailing a former student, and current babysitter of her two children, Rice Krispy treats)

“My assistant principal told me I was talking too much—I was giving them too many ideas. That was a real learning experience,” said Tayla Edlund who is still settling in to the reality she’s been named the state’s top teacher. After the feedback several years ago, Edlund, at Cove Elementary School in Cape Elizabeth, now uses a new way to engage her students in reading lessons. The process involves clipboards, postit notes, a fl ip chart and a whole lot of discussion. “I want all the kids to bring their thoughts to the table. I want to build these great conversations because these conversations allow them to have thoughts about reading,” said Edlund. The structure of the reading conversations are brilliant in their simplicity. Edlund reads a passage from a book; students sit on the rug with clipboards placed gently in their laps—stuck on the clipboard are a few post-it notes. After fi nishing a passage in the book, Edlund asks a question about the story and asks students to write their ideas down on their post-it—then it’s time to share their thoughts with the person next to them. The “turn and talk,” as Edlund calls it, creates a buzz in the room about reading and gives every student a chance to share their ideas.

“There are kids who will always chime in during class discussion and there are kids who won’t. The “turn and talk” opportunity gives them all a chance to listen to each other,” said Edlund. Edlund is taking the discussion one step further and is working with a technology coordinator to build in a way for students to share their thoughts electronically through an app with real-time discussion features.

“I use technology as much as possible. I am really focused on building a 21stcentury classroom where kids can collaborate as often as possible, where kids can create and kids learn to take risks and work with what they have,” said Edlund.

While students share ideas with each other, Edlund is quick to get down to their level kneeling next to the sitting children on the fl oor to listen to each student and ask more questions which fosters even more discussions. The ideas generated from the smaller discussions are then shared with the whole class, for those who choose to speak up. Edlund uses her own postit notes to write the students thoughts down and sticks them to a fl ip chart where she always gets back to the original question—how do parts of the story travel across the book?

“What I'm hoping the kids learn to do as readers—I want them to come up with their own reactions and ideas about the text. I also want them to have great ideas about what they're reading,” said Edlund.

Based on all the chatter, it’s pretty clear her students are making good on that goal.