S2 E2 - Welcoming New Educators to the OSD!

Dr. Bergstrom talks with three of our new educators to hear about their experiences so far and what they're looking forward to for the 2023-24 school year.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER1: The Oregon School District has long been known as a destination district for educators. (00:04):
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In other words, it is a place where educators want to be.
We continue to be grateful to our amazing community for supporting ourcollective effort of retaining and attracting the best possible educators for
our students.
Today, I am thrilled to talk with some of our educators who are new to the OSDthis year.

SPEAKER2: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids. (00:31):
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Here is your host.
Lifelong educator, and our superintendent, Dr.
Leslie Bergstrom.

SPEAKER1: Welcome to all of you. (00:45):
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Just so our listeners know, you have all just wrapped up your first week withthe OSD in the New Educator Orientation program.
As a matter of fact, you're, like, four minutes off of wrap up, right?
This just happened and so I'm excited to hear about it.
But before we start, I'd love it if you'd please introduce yourself, yourbackground and your new position for this school year.

(01:11):
Whomever wants to start.
Sure.

SPEAKER3: I'm Ben Anderson. (01:13):
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My history -- my undergraduate degree is in forestry.
I worked in forestry and other natural resources industries for a while andthen went back to school to get my teaching certification.
I've been teaching for five years.
I taught at Stoughton for the past five years and now teaching at Oregon.

(01:34):
I'll be teaching biology, environmental science, and earth and space science.

SPEAKER1: Welcome. (01:39):
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SPEAKER4: I'm Jackie Shore and my teaching background is in English. (01:40):
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I was a high school English teacher for nine years, most recently at MononaGrove High School.
And then I took a little time off to stay home with my kids.
And then a little pandemic hit, and I decided to try out library school, and Idid my library practicum in the Verona School district.

(02:04):
And now I'm really excited to be here.

SPEAKER1: That's wonderful. (02:05):
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SPEAKER3: Great. And my name is Evan Bonsall. (02:07):
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I am originally from Marquette, Michigan, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
I studied government and history at Harvard University, and I got my master'sin education just in December from Northern Michigan University in my
hometown. And I did my student teaching in Michigan, and I was a long term subteaching social studies courses at McFarland High

(02:34):
School this spring.
But this is my first full year as a teacher, so super excited to join the teamhere in Oregon.

SPEAKER1: That is very exciting. (02:40):
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So all three of you, what brought you to the Oregon School District?
Anybody who.

SPEAKER4: Yeah, well, it was a pretty easy choice for me. (02:47):
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I live just very nearby in Madison, and while I was in Monona Grove, I justheard over and over again how wonderful Oregon is.
So here I am.

SPEAKER1: Yay! Okay, that's really fantastic. (03:02):
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SPEAKER3: I think as far as the educator's experience, I think Oregon is making and has made a lot of incredibly positive decisions (03:05):
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and are are consistently supporting their educators so they can do their bestjob.
And I think that in a time when resources are limited, Oregon's putting theresources they have in the right places.

(03:31):
And that's important to me.
And the community support is obvious even for someone who doesn't live inOregon but has spent some time here.
It's it's -- you see it everywhere.
And I think that having that support makes our job much easier.

SPEAKER1: I'm glad you feel that and notice that because community support is really, really important here. (03:46):
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Our community is amazing.
How about you, Evan?

SPEAKER3: I would second that. I think it's really clear. (03:55):
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I mean, just from doing a little bit of research and having some of those earlyconversations with folks here at Oregon, when I was -- I was looking for a
permanent social studies teaching job, that there's really strong communitysupport for the district, but also I think a very strong culture within the
district of collaboration, reflection, innovation and and really trying tobuild a very strong, positive, supportive

(04:24):
school culture at OHS and in the district more broadly.
And definitely one of the things I've been learning as a new educator isculture and leadership is so important.
And so I wanted to be part of a district that was really strong in both ofthose areas.

SPEAKER1: You are so right. (04:40):
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The culture and the leadership throughout all portions of the system from theclassroom all the way through is really makes a big difference.
And we have some fabulous school leaders and classroom leaders here.
It's -- you're right.
But you're already starting to talk about our values, right?

(05:01):
The community and family partnerships, the idea of caring and professionaleducators.
What about the values do you find particularly important?

SPEAKER4: One thing that I believe is at the center of the apple, but I have only been here for four days, so I hope I'm not wrong, but the -- the teaching to the (05:13):
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whole child.

SPEAKER1: Thank you. That's at the center. (05:24):
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You are right! All right.

SPEAKER4: Okay. Um, I have I -- like I said, I taught high school English for nine years, and I loved getting to (05:27):
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know my students then and getting towards the end of those nine years, I wasgetting better and better at getting to know them outside of the classroom.
And now I have two kids of my own and thinking about them going to a school, Iwant their teachers to see who they are.

(05:52):
And so I love that Oregon recognizes the importance of seeing the whole childand not just the English student in the seat.

SPEAKER1: Thank you. (06:03):
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SPEAKER3: Yeah. And I think to build on that, you know, I think the base of the apple is is equity, right? (06:03):
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And and I thought that it was really great that the district -- one thing thatimpressed me this week as we were having this professional development for our
new educators was that the district has the humility and the degree of likeself-reflection to say, "Hey, we're a really good school district.

(06:28):
We are serving most of our students very well, but there are students who wecould serve better and who we could educate better." And I think that there are
a lot of districts that don't have that level of self-reflection or don't valuethat, at least as explicitly and then actually follow through on it,
right? It's -- I think equity is not just a buzzword in the district.

(06:51):
And that that was something that I thought was really cool.

SPEAKER1: I appreciate that you picked that up because I believe you had some students come and talk to you on the first day, right? (06:54):
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And I think it is important to keep in mind how much better we need to be, right?
And we're always striving for that.
Yeah. So that leads me to ask you to tell us a little bit about your experiencethis week.
You had two full days and two half days in preparation for the new school year.

(07:18):
So what have been some of the highlights?

SPEAKER3: I think the fact that it exists period is incredibly helpful. (07:22):
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So having this as a whole has allowed us to go step by step, or at least me togo step by step and organize the pieces.
And now that I have many pieces organized, next week feels -- I feel much morecomfortable to be able to really dig into what I need to do.

SPEAKER1: Well, I'm glad I was hired on Friday to teach high school on Monday, so I had that sink or swim experience and I'm really glad that this (07:39):
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week helped you feel more set up for success.
It's hard not to have that.

SPEAKER4: One thing that I appreciated about the week is it seems like the district is very thoughtful about the organization and so we got the whole district (07:55):
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overview on Monday, and then on Tuesday we were at our individual schools andthe -- I'm at the middle school.
So the middle school echoed some of what the district had.

(08:16):
I had already learned about the district.
But then I was able to like learn how it's going to look where I'm actuallygoing to be.
So having the broad view and then the narrow view and then coming back with theother new educators for the next two half days, I thought the
structure made me feel very comfortable and ready to start the school year.

SPEAKER1: Glad to hear that. (08:38):
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SPEAKER3: Yeah, I really enjoyed just getting to know some colleagues who are also new to the district. (08:40):
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Getting to know my way around the school a little bit.
It was convenient because it's taking place at the high school, which is whereI'll be teaching.
And I also thought it was today actually, we learned about the AVID program atthe high school, and I was really inspired by

(09:01):
that. Just, you know, I grew up in a working class family.
My mom never went to college.
She actually grew up in Fort Atkinson, not that far from here, but grew uppretty low income situation on a small farm.
And her goal for my brother and me was that we would always get the educationalopportunities and the ability to go to college.

SPEAKER1: She she did a great job with that then. (09:23):
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SPEAKER3: Well, I mean -- and so I just think it's really cool to see a school that even at the secondary level is already starting to (09:24):
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think about how do we serve first generation college students or students whohave faced other challenges and help make sure they're in a position to succeed.
And the district is very intentional about that.

(09:46):
I thought that was really cool and unique, really to this district.
I haven't seen many other districts making similar efforts, even though it's soimportant.

SPEAKER1: Well, you know, the fact that this took place at the high school for both you, Ben and Evan, that must have been really nice because then you get to be right (09:54):
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in the building you're going to work in.
And the high school has a very large crop of new teachers this year.
I attended your building specific day on Tuesday for a portion of it, andaltogether I think that circle of educators was close to 20

(10:17):
people. Now, they weren't all new.
Some of them were people who were there to support you, but it was a really biggroup.
It'll be fun to have that sort of inaugural freshman class of educators allworking together this year.
Absolutely. Yeah, it'll be great.
So what are you looking forward to?

SPEAKER3: The kids coming in. I don't know. (10:33):
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Like, I'm excited to teach again.
I feel like, you know, summer is great, but I'm excited to teach.
I feel -- I think I feel most in my element when I'm doing it and it is nice tohave a break, but it's nice to get back into doing something that you enjoy and
be fulfills you as much as teaching.

(10:55):
Yes.

SPEAKER4: I'm -- this will be my first time with my own library. (10:57):
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And I did get to meet with the five other librarians in the district and I feelvery supportive and supported and it's a
little overwhelming to have your first job in your first time being responsiblefor something.
And with that, I'm so excited to choose books, new books for kids.

(11:23):
As a former high school English teacher, obviously I have a passion for readingand I'm just really excited to get to know the kids so that I can order books
that they will love to read.
I really hope.

SPEAKER1: Oh, that's fantastic. (11:34):
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That's a fun thing to look forward to.
Book selection.

SPEAKER3: Yeah, I think that I'm just really looking forward to, of course, meeting my students and also getting to work more with my colleagues in the social studies (11:38):
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department here at OHS.
It seems like it's a really top notch group of people.
There are some really cool things going on.
I mean, I'm mostly going to be teaching US history.
So excited to be welcoming 100 plus freshmen into my classroom every day, butI'm just looking ahead at our schedule and

(12:06):
super excited to start talking about the Spanish American War and all thatstuff the first couple of weeks.
But one of my favorite periods of history to teach.
But also I'll be teaching a political science elective class.
Oh, that'll be fun. Yeah.
And that will be really kind of the first time bringing in a new curriculum,the legislative semester curriculum, which is like a simulation of essentially

(12:30):
on day one, the students come in and they're sworn in as like senators and theylearn about government because they have to to do their job, right?
So it's a really authentic and unique way to teach civics.
And so hopefully we can continue to scale that up in the coming years.

SPEAKER1: Oh, I can't wait to visit that classroom. (12:46):
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That sounds so much fun.
All three of you are going to absolutely love our students.
They are full of so much life and so much curiosity and they're just reallygreat people that I think you will enjoy day in and day
out. So any final thoughts?

(13:07):
Anything, anything you wish you would have mentioned?
Did we cover good ground?
I think we did.

SPEAKER4: I think we're all just. (13:14):
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SPEAKER1: Really excited to start. (13:15):
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SPEAKER3: Yeah, really excited to be here. (13:16):
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Excited to go to the football games on Fridays.

SPEAKER1: That's right. There's one this Friday night. (13:20):
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SPEAKER3: I played soccer in high school. (13:21):
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I heard that we've got a pretty decent soccer team.

SPEAKER1: Pretty decent. That's a very humble way to say that. (13:26):
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We have a really, really good soccer team, both our boys and our girls.
So I think you will all really love being a part of this community.
And thank you so much.
Thanks for tuning in this week.
We know you're getting ready for the school year and want to remind you thatthere is a wealth of information on our website, such as details on school

(13:50):
meals, school supply lists, school safety, school pick up, drop offinstructions, how to talk to kids about a wide variety of topics and much
more. Just go to OregonSD.org And look for "for families." We can't wait towelcome you to the 2023-2024 school
year and we will see you soon.

(14:13):
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(14:34):
We'll see you next time on Inside the OSD, where it's all about the kids.