The Heart of Teaching

By Lisa Lee

Drawing on her 35-year plus experience in the classroom, Lisa Lee has transformed her extensive and authentic teaching experience into a contagious passion and energy with a specialization in Gifted and Talented programs and a focus on the students who don't always fit in a box. The Heart of Teaching is a book about her experience as a teacher,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mind Flash Publishing
• Release date: May 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987506677

Lisa Lee

Lisa Lee is a 35-year veteran educator with the honors of being named "Teacher of the Year" in DeKalb County, Georgia (2007) and Runner-Up "Teacher of the Year" for Colorado (2017). Over the years, Lisa Lee has taught in Georgia and Colorado elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, with a specialization in Gifted and Talented and a focus on the students who don't always fit in a box. An experienced TEDx speaker, Lisa embraces the TEDx platform as a gateway to deliver her messages of connection and relationship building that she so strongly believes in.Her personal life philosophy is that "We're put here on the planet to make life better for others. Period." This belief is the foundation ofher messaging in that making connections with others and building community can change lives. Lisa lives in the Denver, CO areawith her wife, 2 grandtwins, and her dog Rosa Barks.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Real Teachers: Touch the Heart, Teach the Mind

On Teaching

It is customary for adults to forget how hard and dull school is. The learning by memory all the basic things one must know is the most incredible and unending effort. Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don’t believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it. School is not so easy, and it is not for the most part very fun, but then, if you are very lucky you may find a teacher. Three real teachers in a lifetime is the very best of luck. I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. My three had this in common. They all loved what they were doing. They did not tell—they catalyzed a burning desire to know. Under their influence, the horizons sprung wide and fear went away and the unknown became knowable. But most important of all, the truth, that dangerous stuff, became beautiful and precious.

—John Steinbeck

Years ago, when I read Steinbeck’s thoughts about real teachers for the first time, I cried. They still move me, regardless of how many times I’ve read, written, or spoken them. I only recently learned the story behind his words, however. In his essay Like Captured Fireflies, Steinbeck writes that his eleven-year-old son came to him and morosely asked how much longer he had to stay in school. Steinbeck was met with horror when he predicted his son likely had fifteen or more years of schooling ahead. He then told his child about the real teachers he himself had encountered as a student, describing them as great artists.

Over time, I have decided that great artists and teachers have a lot in common. They have a sense of adventure and a willingness to try new things. They know how to be flexible and not take themselves too seriously. Real artists and teachers have a desire to grow in the areas that hold them back from further developing their craft. But above all else, they are dedicated and passionate about their work. They have no choice but to create—it is who they are at their very core. Making art is a necessity for them.

I’ve spent almost four decades in the studio of the mind. In no way have I been a perfect teacher, but I have tried to be the best I could be at any given moment. I have tried to transform each student’s canvas into the most exquisite work of fine art possible, to be admired and appreciated for the ages. And although Steinbeck writes about the teacher as an artist, the truth is that educators are also transformed by those they teach. Over the years, my talent as an artist of the mind and spirit has been honed through the students who have passed through my classroom. The primary students who looked to me for far more than a reading or math lesson guided my brushstrokes, and they added color and depth that I didn’t know were missing in my life. As I worked to sculpt my hormones-with-legs middle school students, they chiseled me into something different and better than I was before they entered my life. In my high school classroom, we were all shaped and molded on the potter’s wheel of never-ending teenage energy and idealism. The palettes continually changed. Some years were a bit abstract, while others were more realistic than I might have liked. But when they’re all put together, the experiences create a gallery that fills me with gratitude and pride.

When I started college, I was ready to fulfill my life’s dream of working with kids, and I envisioned myself working in or running my own children’s home. I even spent time in an orphanage in Haiti for a bit. I started off with a social work major, but I decided there wasn’t enough focus on children, so I changed to child and family development. I didn’t even consider majoring in education—I’m not sure why, but I was so focused on having my own children’s home that it never crossed my mind. But only six months after receiving my undergraduate degree, I found myself working on my master’s degree in early childhood education. I had NO desire to teach anyone who came above my elbow, and for fifteen years, it never happened. Well, some of my fourth graders came almost to my shoulder, but I never even considered venturing into the world of tweens, even though I was certified to teach up to sixth grade. When we’d pass the older grades in the halls, I’d keep my littles as far away from them as possible in case any of their bigness contaminated us.

After fifteen fulfilling years of hanging out with short people, I began teaching in the gifted and talented field. It was a bit intimidating because I’d be working with students in second through sixth grade—I’d be teaching in enemy territory when those fifth and sixth graders darkened my door! I just figured that I’d enjoy my time with the second, third, and fourth graders enough that the time I had to spend with the Big Kids would be less painful. Boy, was I surprised! Those ten-, eleven-, and twelve-year-olds Changed. My. Life. I LOVED them! I found myself eagerly awaiting the days that those tall kids walked into my suite of classrooms.

Yes, I said suite . . . I had two small adjoining classrooms, and my fifth graders came up with the idea of painting the walls of both rooms with colorful murals. They chose an African village theme and painted one room with safari, jungle, and wild animal daylight scenes. That became the room in which we did our more traditional work. We created nocturnal scenes in the other room and built a hut that we filled with lamps, pillows, and couches. That became the hangout space where we read together, debated, and solved the problems of the world. They invited the younger students to participate in the painting, and the work we all put into the transformation resulted in such a sense of belonging. We truly grew into a village in which everyone had a voice, and we spent our days acting out Greek myths, exploring our genealogy, and learning about mindfulness before that was even a buzzword. We took part in a Relay for Life event where we spent an entire night walking a high school track over and over to raise money for cancer research. Students became characters in a wax museum, which the rest of the school toured to learn about influential Americans. By the end of the year, it was hard to imagine how I’d ever managed to teach without those older