Rewind Wednesday, Part Two: Toyota Highmark Press Conference

The following morning, I was recognized at a press event back at the capitol by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, State Superintendent of schools Jim Phares, and WV Board of Education President Gayle Manchin. I was also recognized by Doug Sheilds of Toyota Manufacturing, who presented me with the Prius to use as I travel the state this year, as well as Fred Early and Catherine McAlister (president and manager of communications, respectively), who present the teacher of the year with an unrestricted $5,000.

Approaching the capitol that morning

On our way inside, I happened to see...

Remarks by Gov. Tomblin

Thank you Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield!

Thank you Toyota!

What is a press conference like? Well, there are lots of cameras and flashes that are going off all at once. Whenever I see a camera, I want to look at the person taking the picture and smile (because my mother always told me to smile nice for the camera, you know), but what they want you to do is act natural and pretend they aren't there. Which is hard when there are 20+ of them. I wish I would have had Brad throw me my phone before I started speaking so I could have taken a picture of it to show you what it looks like. It's pretty exciting and fun.

Picture from the WVDE Facebook Page

I was also given the opportunity to make some remarks and express my gratitude to Toyota and Highmark for their generosity. You can watch my speech above. I also spoke about some of the programs I've created that I am looking forward to sharing with the students and teachers of West Virginia this year - but I will save those for another blog post.

We then went outside so they could officially present me with the car. I also did some interviews for the local news stations.

Picture from WVDE Facebook page

Getting positioned for pictures - and showing me how to turn on the car (hey it's a push button start...otherwise I would know how to start a car :-)

With the WV Board of Education

Speaking to the media

Berkeley the Bear also got some press time, but he will share that with his readers on his own blog. If that just sounded a little strange, check out his site, and I will explain on here in another blog post :-)

I had a wonderful time in Charleston and am "pumped" to represent West Virginia's teachers this year. I was really, truly sad to learn on the way home of the water emergency due to the chemical spill that is now impacting the southern counties of the state. I know there have been a lot of efforts here locally in the Eastern Panhandle to gather bottled water and supplies for those impacted by this emergency. As I told Jenni Vincent, a report for The Journal (our local  newspaper) prior to the State of the State address, those in the far Eastern Panhandle sometimes feel cut off from the rest of the state. In times of crisis you do get to see that, whatever part of the state we hail from, we are all West Virginians.

Next week I head to Scottsdale, Arizona, for the first conference with all of the other state teachers of the year. Just keeping it real, I'm a little intimidated by that, and I hope that I represent all of the teachers in our state well next week and in the months to come.

Rewind Wednesday, Part One: State of the State Address

Well, I began this post on a Wednesday and am finishing it on a Thursday, so technically, it's still a Rewind Wednesday post.

Last week I was honored at our beautiful state capitol during the State of the State address. I guess you could call it the official "kick off" to my year representing West Virginia. I was excited to attend - and a little nervous. I still wonder every once in a while if this is all really happening and if I'm the best person for the job.

Sitting in the governor's chair  before pictures (shhh...:-)

You know it's "for real" when...

The view from the balcony of the Delegate's Chamber 

Another view

Places, everyone!

Before the address, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with representatives of Toyota and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, which support the teacher of the program and provide the state teacher of the year with the use of a Toyota Prius for a year and $5,000 from Highmark. I also met with our governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, and First Lady Joanne Tomblin. You can view the official pictures of the State of the State and the honored guests at this Flickr link. If you would like to see the address, you can view it at this link on WV Public Broadcasting. I appear about 22-23 minutes into the speech.

Okay, this is funny. I knew ahead of time when I was to stand and acknowledge the governor during the address. So, if you watch that part of the speech, you'll see me stand up - and then, everybody in the chamber stood up and clapped for me. My face kind of does one of those "Whoa" looks, because that's a lot of people giving one little person all that applause. And they kept clapping, and clapping, so I kept standing, and standing. The entire time, though, I was a little worried, because I'm thinking "Okay, are they clapping because I'm still standing or am I still standing because they're still clapping?" Regardless, I was very moved by it all. So I had my possibly extended minute of fame on WV Public Television.

With Brad after the address

With Woody Wilson, Medal of Honor recipient

Our state capitol building is stunning - especially at night. It is made of nine different types of marble, and the dome is gold guild. It has been years since I have been in the capitol, and never at night when the chandeliers are all ablaze. The sphere chandelier in the dome (I call it the "Cinderella chandelier" but that isn't what it's really called, it just what I think of when I look at it.) weighs 4,000 pounds and has the lighting power of 15,000 candles. No picture can do it justice! Each of the chandeliers in the Delegate's and Senate chamber has 10,000 pieces of rock crystal. They are equally stunning.

The crowd after the address

The "Cinderella chandelier" with Sen. Robert Byrd's statue in the background

Beautiful, intricate ceiling!

Senate Chamber

Looks like 10,000 pieces of rock crystal to me!

It was a special, exciting night. It makes me cry when people send me texts and e-mails when they "see" me somewhere, whether it's on the local news or in the newspaper. I don't think I will ever feel worthy of it, maybe just incredibly humbled and personally obligated to repay the love that has been shown to me for the rest of my life.

Good night, Charleston! See you tomorrow!

Teachers are our Water

This is the text from a speech I gave at the Berkeley County Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, January 14th.

As the recent events in the southern part of our state have illustrated this week, one thing we can’t take for granted – and often do – is water. We need our H2O to clean, to nourish ourselves, and go about our daily lives. Without it, we can’t survive, focus, maintain the progress we make each day in hopes of furthering our selves the next.

In education, teachers are our water. We quench a thirst for knowledge in our students that they may not even realize they have for a subject. We spend some of our day putting out fires, as we resolve issues between students and parents. We wash away tears – and outdated teaching methods, as we make waves with new ideas and lessons. With teachers, as with water, things will grow, as students soak up the experiences in their classrooms. Together we make an ocean of learners, providers, and family members that touches the lives of everyone we meet. Everyone has absorbed in some way the lessons of a teacher. Without it in some form each day, where would any of us be?

Often, however, we take water for granted, not realizing its value. There is much demanded of our water supply. Water has to be purified to keep what’s potentially harmful from reaching the masses. It needs support, the proper structures, and maintenance. Teaching is no different. Support and a watchful, caring eye of the community is vital to our water supply. While some evaporation is expected, as others move on in the profession, we can’t risk a drought due to negligence and not nourishing our current water supply.  It’s expected that some negativity will seep in, but the actions of a few can’t flood out the good works of many. Often our water supply risks becoming contaminated with misconceptions and misinformation. Sometimes it takes a jarring experience, a wake-up call to remember how fortunate we are to have our own water supply – and how imperative it is to nurture it.

However, water is the strongest force on earth. It takes just one pure, clean trickle to break through the barriers, the negativity to instill hope that there is more in supply and better days to come. Together, our ideas condense and form a river that others are willing to join upstream. We weather many a storm to come out replenished and ready for another day.  And there will always be those willing to make waves for the sake of improvements, morale, and the conviction that someone must wash any apparent negativity out to tide. We are water – the most vital, versatile resource on Earth.  

Teachers are our water. And we can’t take water for granted. Thank you, and God Bless all of our fellow West Virginians. 

December Recap - The Year Ahead

For a year that has brought so many new experiences, I'm choosing to end it quietly.

Tonight, it's going to be me, Brad, and NYC via Ryan Seacrest's Rockin' New Year's Eve. The way I see it, the upcoming year is going to be one big celebration of sorts, so I can take the night off. It feels comforting just to be home with familiar things, and I know the upcoming year will often take me away from them. So I choose to wrap up this year in peace. When the clock turns to 12:00 in a few hours, I'll officially embark on my year, and the past two and-a-half months have prepared me for what's ahead.

December found me on a one-person mission to visit the rest of the schools in Martinsburg for Be the Difference WV. I don't want to abandon this project or my commitment to making it to all of the schools in Berkeley County this year, and I knew this month would be my "window" to record as many interviews as possible. I made it to every school in Martinsburg except one, leaving just the schools in the southern part of the county for the second semester. For those of you that haven't been to Berkeley County, we are small in square miles but exploding in term of population. Just 75 miles from Washington, D.C., many families relocate to our area of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia so they can still commute to their jobs in the metro area. That means a lot of students, and a lot of schools. I still have about ten more schools to cover in our county, and hope to be including those from around the state in the very near future.

With Melany Delong at Burke Street Elementary

I did two radio interviews - one with Cecelia Mason for West Virginia Public Radio, and another with Marsha Chwalik for the Panhandle Spotlite on WEPM 1340 and WLTF 97.5. Marsha - who is a former English teacher for Berkeley County Schools - also had me record some intros ("This is Erin Sponaugle, and your listening to 97.5, W-L-T-F") for some of Prettyman Broadcasting's stations, so be listening for them in the upcoming year! What's ironic is that Cecilia Mason, who is the Eastern Panhandle Bureau Chief for WVPR, was a guest speaker for one of my journalism courses at Shepherd before I changed majors - and she remembered me! Funny how things come full circle :-)

With Marsha at Prettyman Broadcasting

I also was a part of the Martinsburg Chamber of Commerce Education Day for their Leadership Berkeley Class. I spoke to members of the community participating in this event at James Rumsey Technical Institute, a vocational school that serves students in Berkeley, Morgan, and Jefferson Counties. High school and post secondary students have the opportunity to learn a trade and certification in a number of fields, ranging from Automotive Technology to Graphic Design to Masonry. We are fortunate to have such an institution in our area that prepares students to become a part of the workforce.

Another part of Education day that I took part in was touring our county's beautiful new Spring Mills High School. At 250,000 square feet, it is projected to become the largest high school in West Virginia. The structure and technology in this facility are astounding, and it's exciting to see what our students will have access to as they are prepared for the future.

Spring Mills High School at night

I ended the day interviewing two teachers for Be the Difference WV at Winchester Avenue Elementary, a school in downtown Martinsburg that opened its doors in 1920. Looking at the portraits of the former principals lining the hallways as I left that day, I reflected on the variety of teachers and facilities we have in our area to serve our students and community. Whether it's a  technical school preparing students to assume a vocation, a state-of-the-art facility introducing high school students to the tools of tomorrow, or a small, urban school with a lot of history and devotion to setting the foundation for our youngest pupils, the commonality all have is the future. What goes on within our walls, wherever we teach, is just prelude for what is to come for our students. 

My month concluded with a personal trip to Austin, Texas, to celebrate the wedding of one of Brad's track and field teammates from Wheeling Jesuit University. It was great to see Jason and visit the capital of the Lonestar State. Within the next month, I will have traveled to two more state capitals - Charleston, for the State of the State address, and Phoenix, for the first meeting of all the state teachers of the year. 

With Brad at the reception

We fit in some time to visit the capitol building before we left. It's the largest state capitol in the United States and taller than the federal capitol building in Washington, D.C. There are also four floors of 700,000 square feet of office space below ground!

Beautiful Day!

Guess Who :-)

Star at center of Rotunda is eight feet!

Delegates chamber - tree has an ornament from each delegate's district

Austin skyline

...And now, I'm home, ending the year much differently than I started it. Next year is a blank slate that will quickly fill up with memories. I have more to share with you before we return from break about the programs and platforms I hope to enact in the upcoming year, but for now, I'll leave you with the message that drives what I resolve to accomplish in 2014. Happy New Year - and God bless you all!

McDonald's Presentation

In between adventures the week before Thanksgiving, McDonald's of Martinsburg and the McDonald's Family Foundation came to Tomahawk on Wednesday to donate $1,000 to my classroom and treat our fifth grade to a magic show performed by Ronald McDonald. The students loved it (who doesn't want to start their day out with Ronald?), and once again I am tremendously grateful for the generosity that has been shown to my classroom and school.

Thank you, McDonald's!

Helping Ronald with his magic act

With Ronald and a representative from McDonald's

 I also had the chance to briefly speak to the students. I miss them - but I know they are in good hands. When you are away and come back to a school like Tomahawk, you realize what a wonderful place it is to teach - as in, you can tell when you walk in the front door. None of  what has transpired over this year this would have happened had I ended up anywhere else. You can watch my (very brief) message at this link.

The next few days will be almost normal. I get to be with my students for a few days, and in between will be doing two radio interviews - one for WV Public Radio, the other for our local station. I am also attempting to make it to all of the schools in Martinsburg for Be the Difference WV by our winter break. The month of January is going to be the busiest of all, so if I am to make it to all of the schools in Berkeley County as planned ( and add others) I have to stay on it! There are some other projects I am working on that I will be sharing in the next few weeks as well.

When I was "just" in the classroom, I kept a very full schedule and was never content - I had to keep creating, stretching. I "think" myself to sleep most nights :-) Now that I have this opportunity to have a classroom with "no walls" for a year, I want to see what I can possibly create that will bring joy and success to others. It's the least I can do for a profession that impacted my own life beyond anyone's imagination.