Tonya Gilchrist (she/her)

Senior Strategist at Erin Kent Consulting • Durrës, Albania

https://tonyagilchrist.com • @Mrs_Gilchrist

How did you get into teaching?

I first remember feeling the pull to become a teacher when I was in third grade. I had incredible primary teachers, and I wanted to grow up to be like them. Prior to that I had gone through many iterations of jobs I thought I wanted to do—nurse, firefighter, comedian, artist, author, veterinarian—but when I landed on teacher, it stuck. I just felt it. The idea continued to bloom in my heart as I grew up, and in high school, I worked part-time in a Montessori after-school program. I loved it. When I was in university, I had my first “real” teaching job as a part-time seventh and eighth grade Algebra teacher. I graduated about a year later, and began my first full-time teaching role as a sixth grade language arts and science teacher. It all grew from there. I served as a teacher, department leader, and instructional coach for several years in the US before moving abroad to continue as an educator and literacy coach—first in Thailand and then Japan. I’ve taught everything from second grade to tenth grade across math, science, social studies, and language and literacy. Now, as a consultant currently based in Albania, I work with teams around the world, across PK-12. I am so grateful for the opportunity this gives me to continually adapt, learn, and grow.

Who was the K-12 teacher who made the greatest (positive) impact on your own life?

It is way too difficult to choose just one—which is a beautiful challenge to have. I had incredible teachers throughout my K-12 years of education. When I think about my experiences with all of them, they were all so unique—and yet there was one key characteristic that stands out: they built a relationship with me. They were authentic and real, and they made sure to get to know the real me, too.

There were my first and second grade teachers who made sure I was included even though I didn’t celebrate many of the same holidays as my classmates. There was my third grade teacher who happily accepted my handwritten invitation to join my family for dinner. There was my fifth grade teacher who let me and one of my best friends design our own projects to show our understanding of the time periods we were studying in history. (Keep in mind, this was in the early 1990s; he was ahead of his time.) There was my eighth grade teacher who rode the roller coasters with us when on a field trip. There was my high school algebra and calculus teacher (I had the gift of learning with her for three years) who said exactly what I needed to hear when facing heartbreak and injustice. And those are just a few of the many, many instances with these incredible human beings.

I must mention that they were all incredibly intelligent as well and did a beautiful job teaching content in transferable ways—but that’s not what had the impact on me. The impact was from their hearts and souls. The impact was from the relationships.

What is a professional inquiry you are currently pursuing?

As a senior strategist with EKC, I am blessed to have the opportunity to dive into a variety of professional inquiries with educators around the world almost daily. Some of the most recent explorations with school teams have been:

• What makes for authentic, meaningful assessment for, as, and of learning?

• How can Workshop serve as a framework for responsive teaching?

• Why and how might we design concept-based inquiries?

• How might we authentically assess approaches to learning and make our learners’ progress visible?

• What makes for inquiry-rich, transferable Word Study?

• How might we leverage time when designing units of inquiry to truly reach the aims of transdisciplinarity—going between, across, and beyond the disciplines?

How are you pursuing it? (classes, books, podcasts, mentors, etc.)

It’s difficult to pick just a few books as there are so many great ones out there, but some of the titles in my stacks around the above inquiries include:

• Developing Assessment-Capable Visible Learners, Grades K-12 by Nancy Frey, John Hattie, and Douglas Fisher

• Reading to Make a Difference: Using Literature to Help Students Speak Freely, Think Deeply, and Take Action by Lester L. Laminack and Katie Kelly

• No More Teaching Without Positive Relationships by Jaleel R. Howard, Tanya Milner-McCall, and Tyrone C. Howard

• Start with Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Happiness by Katie Egan Cunningham

• Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond

• Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning by Peter H. Johnston

• Patterns of Power, Grades 1–5: Inviting Young Writers into the Conventions of Language by Jeff Anderson and Whitney La Rocca

• Between the Commas: Sentence Instruction That Builds Confident Writers (and Writing Teachers) by Martin Brandt

What is a personal inquiry you are currently pursuing?

What is the impact of regular Pilates practice?

Joyful movement has been a daily practice for me throughout my adult life. That being said, I tend to ebb and flow between different types of movement: kettlebells, calisthenics, pull-ups, handstands, Pilates, Tabata, etc.

A few months ago, though, I discovered a wonderful Youtube channel focused primarily on Pilates. I immediately loved how the sessions were simultaneously tough and relaxing. I wondered what would happen if I reduced my use of weight training and instead focused primarily on bodyweight Pilates. The results so far? My upper body and core have never been stronger. It’s been fascinating to see and feel the difference over a relatively short amount of time. Plus, I am having so much fun! I’m sure in time I’ll ebb and flow to more of a mixture of other things once again, but for now, I am definitely in a Pilates groove.

6. How are you pursuing it?

Move with Nicole

7. To improve teaching as a profession, what three things would you advocate for and why?

I. Honor Agency

The International Baccalaureate refers to agency as “voice, choice, ownership.” Psychologist Albert Bandura, known for his research in the vein of agency, self-efficacy, and more, said, “The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one’s life is the essence of humanness.” Bandura has also outlined four core properties of human agency: intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness. Isn’t that what learning and teaching are all about? Outgrowing ourselves?

While it is vital that we honor agency for our students, it is equally important that it is honored for educators, too. However, when working with schools on honoring agency for all, there is often hesitation—sometimes even fear— at what will happen if perceived “control” is lost. To quote Edward Deci: “Being free does not mean doing your own thing at the expense of others, however. Rather, it involves concern for others and respect for the environment, because those are manifestations of human connectedness...true autonomy is accompanied by relatedness—true autonomy involves respecting others.” Yes, honoring agency isn’t about chaos with everyone doing whatever they want with no concern for others. It’s about trust. It’s about respect. When you hire professional educators, you do so because you see the incredible gifts, skills, and research-based practices they can each bring to your school community. You then must entrust them to use those skills and practices to do what’s best for kids.

II. Seek Cohesion, Not Compliance

This dovetails with honoring agency. Compliance is not conducive to learning and teaching. And yet, we still see a push for it among far too many organizations. The excuse often given for strict compliance among organizations, schools, and districts is that alignment is needed. Alignment is indeed powerful, but true alignment comes from a place of cohesion, not compliance. Edward Deci shed light on this important concept in his trailblazing book, Why We Do What We Do: The Dynamics of Personal Autonomy. “When people feel pressured, compliance or defiance results. Compliance produces change that is not likely to be maintained, and defiance blocks change in the first place.” When educational organizations seek compliance, usually what they really desire is motivation. They want educators to be authentically motivated to live out the larger vision and mission of the institution. The irony is that throughout decades of studying motivation, Deci found that, in fact, one of the greatest factors in motivation is autonomy. True autonomy is characterized by relatedness—by trusting others. Rather than forcing compliance, honor your collective environment. What is living here? What do we believe? When working with many schools, our first steps to forming shared instructional agreements is to co-create a seemingly simple t-chart: This we believe...; So we will... Start with your why—your heart—and grow together from there.

III. Prioritize Time and Space for Reflective Practice

Reflection plays a key role in the inquiry interplay. Yet, far too often, it is overlooked or neglected. As educators, we rarely (if ever) feel like we have enough time—and for many, most of the professional time we do have is spent in the classroom teaching. In other words, we are continually in the “action phase” of the inquiry process with no opportunities for the essential interplay needed between doing, asking, and thinking. If you spend all of your time teaching, you do not have opportunities to reflect upon your practice, adjust as needed, and grow. Nor do you have the opportunity to analyze students’ work, reflect upon their progress, and consider ways to move forward with responsive teaching. You also do not have time for the collaboration and shared reflection needed to build collective efficacy. Andy Hargreaves, Michael Fullan, and many others have illuminated this point over the years when noting the ways the highest-performing education systems in the world invest in professional capital.

You gotta see this!

The Good News Movement

You will go down a beautiful rabbit hole of generosity, hope, integrity, and inspiration.

Thank you, Tonya! Who’s next?