The Bookish Bee

Where I Started

I never planned to be a teacher. Actually, I always swore I would NOT be a teacher. My mom is a teacher. My grandpa was a teacher and principal. My ex-step grandma who I’m still very close to (long story) was a teacher and principal.

Then I was chaperoning a high school service learning trip in New Orleans and there was a shooting. I was trapped, lying on the floor in lockdown, with a group of high school students. To pass the time and distract ourselves, we talked about everything under the sun.

That evening, I applied to my first teaching job. Why? I was depressed, stuck in a consulting job I didn’t want, and being with those students was the first time in a LONG time that I felt a spark.

It was April 2020 when I started teaching, covering a maternity leave for a 7th grade ELA teacher at a charter school in Boston. I was finally happy.

Everything Changed

Until I wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong – I am so grateful for my charter experience. I learned how to teach. I got so much training in not only teaching, but my content area, PD creation and facilitation, coaching, and much more. I am the teacher I am because of my charter experience.

The summer of 2023 I was on my honeymoon, unable to sleep every night because I was so stressed. Teacher burnout had caught up with me. I was supposed to be a 5th grade ELA teacher (a new grade), Instructional Coach, Lead Lesson Planner, and Dean of Curriculum and Instruction Fellow that year – and we were trying to have a baby. Not to mention the up to 2hr commute both ways. It was too much. I started applying for non-teaching jobs.

Luckily, nothing came up that made me want to interview and even more luckily, the town next to mine had a last minute opening in 6th grade ELA. I got that job the week before school was supposed to start and it’s honestly been the the best thing to happen to me professionally.

How does UDL fit into this?

Have you ever gone to a PD and said, “wait a minute, this is going to change my life”? That’s what happened to me when I attended my new school’s first PD with Novak Education.

Is that dramatic? Yes. I am a dramatic person and I like to drink the Kool Aid and jump all in.

This was the first time I was hearing about Universal Design for Learning and it all made sense. Katie Novak is an amazing facilitator that reminds me so much of my favorite teacher from high school that it’s scary. More than that, UDL makes sense. Why wouldn’t we want all of our students to gain the skills to be master learners? Why wouldn’t we remove barriers so that all students can access success in grade level standards? Why does the ideal classroom have to look like little robots all doing the same thing, at the same time, in silence (that’s what I had previously been taught and that fact alone can probably account for 90% of my previous burnout)?

That day I decided to go all in. I started small – class work in my classroom can be done digitally or on paper 95% of the time. Students choose. Of course, if their choices aren’t working for them there are conversations to be had and alternatives to be offered.

Then I went a step further. If we aren’t focused specifically on reading as a skill, why can’t kids listen to the audiobook? I prefer audiobooks and so do many of my students. This small change was HUGE for engagement.

So I thought about more barriers and made more changes, always focused on firm, standards based goals and flexible means for getting there. Am I perfect? Of course not. Is my classroom 100% UDL, 100% of the time? Nope.

The changes I have made are working. They take trial and error. They take lots of frank conversations with my students. But, they’re working. I’m happier and I think my students are too.

What now?

Now I have 2 main goals

1. Continue using the UDL Framework to lesson plan for my own classroom
2. Share what I’m learning with other teachers

I truly believe that UDL is the way that we overcome so many of the issues we face in the classroom today. It’s not always easy and it’s not always quick, but it’s the right thing to do. ALL students deserve access to success. They all deserve to be held to high standards. They’re also all people with different preferences, skills, and interests – that’s where UDL fits in.