Jason Scott Fulmer
South Carolina Teacher of the Year
Redcliffe Elementary, Aiken, SC
Grade 3, all subjects

My teaching philosophy
Commercial jingles, beach balls, and shagging. What do they have to do with educational philosophy? Creative lessons and strategies help students increase their mastery of skills and if it means taking a commercial jingle that students hear daily and rewriting it to teach a math concept, I try it. Tossing a beach ball with literature questions printed on it engages my students to participate in the discussion of a story we are studying. History comes to life when I teach my students about the rich culture of South Carolina and teach them to shag, the state dance.

Educators must be innovative and willing to try new approaches, and must challenge students to reach for their highest potentials. Students should actively participate in the learning process by experiencing, thinking, and exploring. No child, no group of students, and no day is ever exactly the same as another. I must tap considerable resources of energy and creativity to bring information to students at their level and really engage them. I function as a guide, encouraging all students to further their knowledge of material through attention-grabbing activities and experiments designed to enhance learning. I am the facilitator and I desire for the students to become the owners of newly found knowledge. Schools should prepare students for life situations beyond the textbook and help them connect concepts with real life experiences. The old saying, “Put your students in rows and do not smile until December,” is indeed out of date when we must seek to build community and foster collaboration among our young people.

My philosophy in action
My core beliefs about the integration of the arts in the curriculum have only strengthened since I began my teaching career. Students become excited and engaged when reached through the arts. I have witnessed the power of the arts in my third grade classroom as students comprehend challenging, crucial math concepts and other subjects through the power of music. A few students were struggling with rounding numbers to the nearest ten. Knowing that the use of music is a brain compatible strategy, I rewrote the television theme song Moving on Up from “The Jefferson’s.” “Well we’re moving on up, up the number line, if it’s five or higher we move on up the line.” The students became engaged, motivated thinkers. It opened windows of opportunity for each of my students to succeed. Teachers must know their students just as well as they know the material. The arts provide a means for each child to develop their own unique talents and gifts. Learning is not best achieved in isolation--it should be integrated among a variety of disciplines and I have built upon this belief in my classroom. I am a tough-minded originator, able to dare, risk, try and experiment. Using the curriculum standards, I saw the arts transform my classroom into a thinking lab. The students and I were orchestrating success together. For example, one student came in and said she loved “The Supremes”. We were learning about geometrical shapes and I rewrote the lyrics of Stop in the Name of Love. It became “Stop, I’m an octagon, I have eight sides and eight angles, think it over.” Teamwork, student ownership, collaborative efforts at work, this is my philosophy personified.

My greatest teaching accomplishment
Teachers are in the dream-developing business. As an educator, I see my dreams become realities as I help others reach farther than they thought they could. Doing what I can to help others be their best is perhaps my greatest contribution to education. I must give of myself, help students realize their value to society, and creatively relate subject matter to life. From my early days of student teaching, I discovered that bringing the subject matter to life sparks the magic. In portable classroom 15, I persevered in my induction year by first reaching my students and then teaching them to become examples for others. Today, I continue to try to make a difference in the lives of my students -- one child at a time. My greatest rewards are not receiving accolades; it is inspiring students to chase their dreams, celebrating their achievements and knowing that I have helped them to see that “they can.” It is seeing Shandora’s delight as she passed all of her multiplication quizzes, a daunting task that at the end left her with a sense of pride and accomplishment; Brandon’s courage to seek knowledge amidst the distractions he faced in coping with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Jessica’s smile as she was named most improved student, who had previously misbehaved to grab attention. I desire for my students to be bold with their dreams, aim high, and never settle for less than their best. The world is full of dreamers, but I am a dream seeker, one who will move ahead and take concrete steps to actualize my vision. Doing something that matters is the greatest of all achievements and knowing that one life has been reached is “the engine” that drives my life.

The most critical issue facing educators today
A summary report by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s future states, “Our inability to support high quality teaching in many of our schools is driven not by too few teachers entering the profession, but by too many leaving it for other jobs.” At the same time that societal changes are demanding more and more from our schools and teachers, recruiting, preparing and retaining the next generation of teachers presents us with major challenges. The National Center for Education Statistics found that approximately one third of America’s new teachers leave teaching sometime during the first three years; 46% have left by the five-year mark. Why the revolving door? This challenge means that over the next decade, we will need to hire qualified diverse teachers to match the enrollment in our elementary and secondary classrooms and keep them! Fortunately, many of those involved in setting long-range policies and practices emphasize quality before quantity as they recruit and seek to retain new teachers. To meet rigorous standards and ever-changing technology, our educators will need to be the best-prepared teachers our nation has ever known. Pride in our profession is essential. We must be dedicated individuals to be effective educators. Students suffer the most from the teacher retention crisis. We must build continuity and stability in the lives of students by reducing the teacher turnover rate. Working conditions are the number one reason teachers leave according to the National Commission on Teaching. Schools must become learning communities that prosper in a spirit of collaboration. Maintaining a community of learners is paramount to the success of effective schools.

Ways to resolve this issue
No educational policy, reform, or bonus can invoke change better than educators can. Teachers have the ability to change things and make a difference. Through the power of shared leadership, we can create quality schools in which we eliminate apathy and inspire dreamers. I am still a dreamer and my dream continues to evolve and expand each school year. As mentors, teachers have the power to develop accomplished teachers who know how to help students believe in their dreams. Energized teachers can influence and inspire men and women to enter the field of education. It is exciting to see beginning teachers enter our schools ready to change the world, yet frustrating when meaningful support and continual growth opportunities are absent from the picture. Every state, district, and school must provide appropriate professional development opportunities, compensation and working conditions that demonstrate the respect for the powerful work of our nation’s educators. Providing time for educators to engage in professional dialogue about teaching practice, observe, assess and reflect upon craft, and build learning communities for students and teachers will improve the quality of every school. Successful recruitment efforts attract talented teachers who meet high standards and reflect the diversity of the students they will teach. Recruiting and retaining talented and diverse candidates will require an ongoing consistent effort if quality teachers are to be available to all students. I continue to stress the need for quality mentoring and induction programs for teachers. I participated in a general district induction program my first year, but felt more could be done to support the growth of each teacher in a smaller grouping at the school level. Motivated by my own challenges after that first year, I established STARS, “Supporting Teachers to Achieve, Reach and Succeed.” Comprised of first and second year teachers as well as a host of veteran teachers, the group met to connect new teachers with a network of colleagues. Efforts to reduce the isolation often experienced by beginning teachers proved beneficial in the group as teachers engaged in meaningful solution-oriented dialogue. Reflection upon teaching strategies, standards-based practice, and student-centered teaching became the heart of our work. Not only did these sessions keep us abreast of what was going on in other classrooms, they also fostered professional growth. Although an in-service can be beneficial, some of the richest learning can come from peers.

One thought to inspire educators to succeed
We are the hope! Every day, the dreams of our young people are in our hands. Whether those dreams are delayed, denied or fulfilled is ours to decide.

One Lesson every student should learn
Only you can be you. Each of us are unique, unlike anyone on the Earth before and we all have a purpose. I desire for all to be purpose driven. We all have dreams. Students should learn to use their abilities, interests, talents, gifts, personality and life experiences to benefit others. We all have something to give!

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