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Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor. And with me today is Aly Thompson and Daniel Giddings. Aly Thompson is a biology teacher at Washtenaw International. And Daniel Giddings is lead teacher and diploma program coordinator. Welcome to both of you!
Aly Thompson: Thank you!
Daniel Giddings: Thanks for having us!
Caroline MacGregor: So, Aly, you were recently surprised in the classroom with an outstanding award, and this was the Jean Ramseyer Award for Excellence in Approaches to Teaching and Learning. And this is part of the statewide program, International Baccalaureate Schools of Michigan. First of all, tell me: Were you surprised? What was your response in the classroom?
Aly Thompson: I was completely shocked and thrown off. So, Dan had walked in and asked, "Hey, can we just do a quick observation in your classroom?" This was during my seventh hour chemistry class. And I was like, "Yeah." And as he's saying that, there's people filing in. And some of them I knew, some of them I didn't. When my husband walked in, I was like, "Okay, something is weird. Like, he's out of context. He's not supposed to be here. So why would he be here?" And then it became very obvious that it wasn't just an observation, and I was getting this award. So I was completely shocked!
Caroline MacGregor: I'm sure something mentally was saying, "Something's not right here. What's going on?"
Aly Thompson: Absolutely!
Daniel Giddings: Yeah, that was the goal. We know Aly and checked in with [her husband,] Nik [Thompson,] ahead of time. We're like, "What can we do to make her cry?" And just the fact that we came in there, we knew that would be enough, but then bringing in Nik involved in it as well. I'm part of the IB Schools of Michigan board. And so we've done this for now for our third year of going to the schools to recognizing teachers. We've done the award for many years now, but we're trying to get it bigger and better every year. So, we're like, "All right, let's try to surprise them." We already had instruction around, so we're already going into classrooms. So that's why I came in there. I'm like, "Oh, we just got some more people to come see you today, Aly." She already opened up her classroom earlier in the day, so it just kind of all fit together well and went to perfect effect.
Caroline MacGregor: And Dan, you've been praising her leadership skills and the positive impact she's had on students. Tell me a little bit quickly about why you nominated Aly.
Daniel Giddings: Just because Aly goes about everything she does with such joy and such a team player and collaborative and everything that she does, and she doesn't ask for thanks. She just does it because she loves doing it, and she loves being at Washtenaw International. And this has been her home and both of our homes now for going on 16 years. And so I've known her and seen her doing all that work. And when it came to this award, I knew I couldn't be a part of the selection of it, but I'd never nominate anyone for it. And I'm like, "You know what? I'm going to throw in the best teacher I know that I work with," and that's Aly. And it was so easy to write, and I was like, "Okay, let me tell you all the amazing things she does." Never gets recognized in that way. Should be. I mean, all teachers in general should be recognized for all the great things they do. There's numerous great teachers at our school, but when it came to nominating Aly, I was just like, "All right! This is easy! Let's share out the things that she does every day that Aly's just a natural at it and rated everything she does."
Aly Thompson: You're going to make me cry again!
Caroline MacGregor: So, Aly, you've taught at Washtenaw International now since 2011. Is that correct?
Aly Thompson: Yes. Yes.
Caroline MacGregor: How did you feel when you were first presented this award?
Aly Thompson: As the shock wore off, like Dan said, I think, as a teacher, you do a lot of work that goes unnoticed. Most of your work goes unnoticed, right? And working with teenagers, teenagers are the best people on the planet. They're the ones who are giving you that daily feedback. But, like to be recognized, especially by like the IBSOM [International Baccalaureate Schools of Michigan] board and the IB Schools of Michigan, knowing that when I got into working at WIHI, I didn't know anything about what the IB was. To kind of grow up with this program and to grow up as an educator with Dan and to really immerse myself in the IB curriculum and the IB ways, to be recognized for that was such an honor because it has been something that, once I understood the IB way of doing things, it felt so natural to what I normally do in the classroom. But, yeah, to be recognized for that work through an IB schools of Michigan, that was the coolest honor!
Caroline MacGregor: What inspired you originally to become a teacher? And how would you describe your teaching philosophy?
Aly Thompson: Honestly, and I tell this to my students all the time, like, be open-minded about what you want to do in life because if you would have told me when I was a college student at Eastern [Michigan University] that you're going to be a teacher one day, I would have laughed at you. I would've said, "You're insane!"
Caroline MacGregor: Really?
Aly Thompson: Yup. And once I graduated, I had my bachelor's in biology. I didn't know what to do with it. My husband and I moved to China to teach English. It was his idea.
Caroline MacGregor: It was his idea?
Aly Thompson: And after a week, he said, "I'm never going to be a teacher." And I said, "Actually, I really like this. I think I want to do this when we go back home." So we came back home, I got my certification done and it's been what I've been doing ever since.
Caroline MacGregor: That's so interesting! And, of course, yes. You were a student here at Eastern Michigan University.
Aly Thompson: Yep. I did my bachelor's here, and I did my certification for teaching here. So Eastern is also my home.
Caroline MacGregor: How do you build meaningful relationships with your students in the classroom?
Aly Thompson: I think it's just treating them as you would any other person. They are teenagers, and I think it's such a blessing that I get to work with them and to get their perspective every day. I think just reminding yourself of who you were as a student helps to see them for where they are in the classroom. With respect, I treat them as the valuable resources of understanding and knowledge and perspective that they bring as a unique individual. I think I don't really know how to describe it. I just treat them as people.
Daniel Giddings: You've always described like how you were as a student, and I think you have that perspective of "How would I react in the situation? How would I react to how a teacher interacts with me?"
Aly Thompson: Right.
Daniel Giddings: So I think that is huge in helping you as well.
Aly Thompson: Yeah.
Daniel Giddings: Similar but different to how and why I got into teaching, too.
Aly Thompson: Yeah. I think it's like remembering that you're a partner in their learning. I am not the authority in the classroom. I mean, technically, like everything's going to fall back on me, but I'm their partner in this. It's a partnership that we're going in together. It's not me knowing everything. I'm the person with all the facts. I know the biology, right? So it's about helping them along this journey of where they want to go.
Caroline MacGregor: What has been the biggest challenge that you've faced as educators, especially today? Because there's teacher shortages. But tell me, from your perspective, what some of the biggest challenges are, not just for you as a teacher, but, of course, for students.
Daniel Giddings: For students, it's a whole new ballgame to get into college.
Aly Thompson: Yeah.
Daniel Giddings: So the preparatory stuff to what they have to do and who they have be to get into their goals is definitely different than what we were applying for college. I tell the story of like, I filled out a piece of paper. And then, I was in the school a month later.
Aly Thompson: Like an actual piece of paper.
Daniel Giddings: Yeah. And that was it. So, it's a different world for them in terms of the pressures that they have to face every day. If they want to do something after high school that involves college and universities, just not even the money factor but just how they have get in and pressure they feel from, oftentimes, themselves, sometimes their parents and stuff like that. It's a different world that we haven't experienced, in terms of what we were doing when we were growing up. And in terms of teaching, knowing that aspect of it, like knowing what we know about how all that they have to go through and just, as Aly said, like working with them and empathizing with them in a way that understands the pressures that they're facing every day and then having to teach them and making sure that they are learning and still making sure that they were growing and finding their leadership skills, finding who they are, finding their voices in this, especially in today's world. And I hate saying all the time "post-COVID," but it is a different world than when we started teaching as well, in terms of not in the college application process, but the students that we're working with now are completely different. The world changed after that, and it's a different kind of student we're working with now.
Caroline MacGregor: And now we've got artificial intelligence to contend with.
Aly Thompson: Yup! Absolutely!
Daniel Giddings: Oh, that's a whole other factor.
Aly Thompson: I think it's also just like as a teacher, increasingly throughout my career, I feel like I've had to wear so many more hats. I am not a mental health practitioner or professional, but I do have to attend to students' needs that are completely varied. It's like me just being a master of the curriculum, that's like a baseline. It's like there's a mountain on top of that of what we are being asked to do. So sometimes it feels like this never-ending journey with just obstacles. I mean, I know Dan and I joke about being like a zombie apocalypse, and we're like constantly fighting zombies until we get to June. And then you just collapse, right?
Caroline MacGregor: Right, right.
Aly Thompson: So I think that's the hardest thing is just being asked to make so many decisions, answer so many questions, wear so many hats every single day, all of the time. Like, when I go home, I'm like, "I don't want to answer a single question. I don't want to make a decision." You get that decision fatigue.
Daniel Giddings: Oh, yeah.
Aly Thompson: So I think that's the biggest challenge today.
Daniel Giddings: The zombie metaphor is always so great because you have the one that's right in your face. You have to take care of that, but then there's the one crawling in the background. No legs, but it's still there. And I'm like, "Yeah, I can handle that one later." So, it's like a rating aspect or dealing with the students or parents or other things. Like, what are you dealing with? What's in your face right now? I have to deal with it. There's always something. And then, yeah, until you get to June.
Aly Thompson: Absolutely!
Caroline MacGregor: That's quite the visual--zombies. So, Aly, just in closing, given the pressures that we've touched on in teaching today, it's not an easy world for teachers or students. But you obviously are known for bringing joy and energy into the classroom. How do you continue to do this, in spite of the difficulties that we just discussed?
Aly Thompson It's literally the people that I work with: Dan, my department, the science department, I mean, my admin. The people I work with are the best! And being able to collaborate, and I work with my friends. And I've told my students when you find a job where you get to work with your best friends every day, you hold onto that job, right? So, it's not only that I get to work with the best students on the planet, I get to work with the best colleagues that are there to work hard, to collaborate, to share. That's what keeps me coming in the front door every day.
Caroline MacGregor: And Daniel, anything that you would like to add?
Daniel Giddings: Yeah. I 100% agree with that. And Aly and I have a pact that we have to give each other at least a year leeway before we either of us leave, so that we're able to....
Aly Thompson: Right. Like, two weeks' notice is not okay.
Daniel Giddings: Not yet. It's a year.
Aly Thompson: It's a year.
Daniel Giddings: So we have to prepare ourselves for that, and we have to find in the joy when we don't have that. Like Aly's right in all those things, but when we don't, we have to create the joy in all that we do in in the school. And she's such a great partner in making sure that we find our own joy, whether it's spirit week this week or bringing music out this Friday to play in the halls as it's coming down or just what else can we do to make even the mundane times or the times that are most stressful, where can we find the joy in bringing that out in things that are in the halls, or as students coming into class, and the silly outfits that we wear today. Like, Aly just came away from wearing--
Aly Thompson: I was wearing a Tigger costume today.
Caroline MacGregor: Really?
Aly Thompson: I was.
Caroline MacGregor: Oh, what fun!
Aly Thompson: It was storybook character day. So I took that off to come in here.
Daniel Giddings: Yes.
Caroline MacGregor: So you guys have fun. You know, we need more of that in media.
Aly Thompson: Yes. Yeah.
Caroline MacGregor: Come in in our Tigger suits.
Aly Thompson: Have your own spirit week.
Daniel Giddings: Yes.
Caroline MacGregor: Yeah. We should do that.
Aly Thompson: You should. We have ideas for you if you need theming.
Daniel Giddings: Oh yeah. We've got all the days ready for you.
Caroline MacGregor: All right, I'm going to work on that. Thank you so much to both of you for coming in today!
Aly Thompson: Thank you!
Daniel Giddings: Yeah! Thank you for having us! Appreciate it!
RESOURCES:
Washtenaw International High School and Middle Academy
MLive: "Ypsilanti teacher known for ‘rigor and joy’ surprised with statewide excellence award"
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