In May 2020, Clackamas ESD honored Kate Fisher Hedeen, an AP biology and biology teacher at Oregon City High School, as 2021 Regional Teacher ofthe Year. Kate is a National Board-certified teacher who has spent nearly all of her 20-year career at Oregon City High School. As we learned when we talked with her in fall 2020, she has a lot of insights to share about the role of teachers, the importance of honoring excellence, and the need for multiple voices in education discussions. Excerpts from our conversation:
One of your students set your nomination for Teacher of the Year in motion. Why is that particularly important to you?
It meant so much more that a student had taken the time to acknowledge my work. One of the things I love about working with adolescents is that most of their responses are really authentic and genuine. And on top of it the student who nominated me is not pursuing a science career. Alex is an amazing artist and she is going to study art. So first of all that a student would take the time, and then that it would be a student who doesn’t see me as a means to an end, but really sees me as a person who comes in every single day bringing my best quality work, my best attitude about trying to make people feel safe and included and welcome. That represents what I hope to be as an educator.
You told us you put in about 40 hours completing your Teacher of the Year application out of respect for the person who nominated you. That’s a lot of work. What was the value in it?
I appreciated that the application asked me to reflect on my practice on a lot of different scales: What’s a specific activity you do in the classroom that represents you as an educator? What are you doing to make your school system and community better and stronger? That is hard to do. It requires a lot of introspection, and it also requires a breadth of experience. Anytime I have to be clear and concise and reflective it helps me narrow and prioritize to show, “I did all of these things, but here’s what was really important from this work.” So that was a benefit of the process.
We’re glad you went through the process, because you clearly are deserving of a shout out!
The honor itself is just such a nice recognition. To have gone through the process, and to have won the award for the county – it’s very reaffirming, because there are so few ways that we acknowledge the excellence of high-quality educators in our profession in general. I think that’s something we’re really missing in education. The standard way that people acknowledge professional excellence is to move out of teaching. That’s a big problem, in my opinion. In school circles, you are successful if you leave the classroom and go into administration. There’s something profoundly wrong with that approach. Administrators aren’t the only leaders in schools. Teachers can be leaders in their schools and they don’t have to leave the classroom to do it. I strongly believe that teachers, who interface with students all day, every day, have the clearest picture of how to positively impact learning in a school. But often, their voices are not invited to the conversation, or they are compartmentalized into leading their schools in very narrow ways.
You received the Teacher of the Year award in a surprise announcement at your home, back in the early days of distance learning. You were clearly very moved.
It’s hard to talk about what the award means without talking about the context of COVID. We were living through really hard times of a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of isolation, and all of the things that now are part of what we do were still pretty new at that point. Every member of my science department was here, which was so powerful for me. And then Chris, my partner and teaching colleague, had contacted a handful of students and invited them. And just to see people, and feel their joy in this space – it was super emotional for me. I think that it has a special meaning for me because here were all of these people I hadn’t seen in months, and they were all there, and the reason they were there was for this celebration. And then on top of it the reason they were celebrating was because of something I have given 20 years of my life to doing. So it was really lovely.
You’ve been refreshingly candid about your desire to “be heard” as an experienced educator who has a lot to contribute beyond the classroom.
I think in general what we do is silo people in education. There are great thinkers with great ideas saying things should be different, but we keep people apart and systems don’t change. It’s very frustrating. I would love to be having policy conversations about what’s going on both on a regional and a state level. If we are really focusing on education and the daily work of being in front of kids and working with kids, you’re missing a huge part of the picture if you’re not talking to teachers. And it doesn’t have to be me. But if there’s no teacher there you’re missing a huge slice of the pie, because you’re basically having someone else speak for you. And that person is bringing their own lens to the discourse. Teachers can give you angles on what it means to work with kids every single day, to help them become better versions of themselves.
What does it mean to receive the Regional Teacher of the Year award?
There are many amazing teachers in our county and our state who are doing the daily hard work of challenging students, and they don’t all get recognized for that work. It was very affirming for me to have spent 20 years doing the daily duty of teaching, which is so demanding, and to be recognized for all of those additional things that I’m constantly adding to my plate. And knowing that way beyond any award and any recognition, there are lots of really important reasons to be an excellent educator, and they look at you every single day – those are the reasons. When kids come to your class, you have an opportunity to really connect with them both on a personal level and on an intellectual level. You can meet them where they are, and then help them see that they can go farther and learn more – they can do harder things, they can push themselves. So I think, as an educator, to be acknowledged for that hard work is really rewarding.
How can all of us better recognize teachers making a difference?
Genuine thank-yous are meaningful. When you see great teaching, or see your kids working with great teachers, be sure to tell those teachers you see and appreciate their work!
