Candy Ellard was honored Jan. 6 at the White House with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Homeroom Education Blog

By Melissa B. Taboada and Laura Heinauer | Sunday, January 31, 2010, 09:25 PM

A veteran teacher of about 30 years, Ellard teaches science and math at the Austin school district’s Pillow elementary campus, where she was named the 2008 Teacher of the Year. The presidential award is given annually to the best pre-college-level science and math teachers from across the country. The winners are selected by a panel of distinguished scientists, mathematicians, and educators.

Ellard was listed among 87 teachers honored with the presidential award and given $10,000 awards from the National Science Foundation.

Ellard recently took some time to answer questions about her success and teaching in general.

1. What was it like meeting President Barack Obama? And how do you feel about being recognized at the national level?

Certainly, meeting the President is not an everyday occasion for most people so in that respect, meeting President Obama was a once in my life event. An invitation to Washington DC to meet the President is symbolic- it demonstrates our President’s commitment to improving STEM education and the critical role that teachers have in this task. In Obama’s Race to the Top Speech he said, ‘From the moment a student enters a school, the single most important factor in their success is the person in front of the classroom’. I believed this from the moment I became a teacher 30 years ago and entered my first classroom (which was, by the way, the same classroom where I was taught fifth grade as a child in my hometown of Marshall, Texas). I was honored to be recognized at the national level, but more than a personal honor, I feel that tribute was given to my colleagues who work hard in their classrooms and devote endless hours beyond their work day to be the excellent teachers that they are. I could not be acknowledged as an ‘excellent science teacher’ were it not for my them.

2. What did your students think about it?

My students this year have not been as aware of the award as last year’s class (the award was for 2008 - the actual recognition ceremony for this cohort of teachers went well past the typical date). I shared a slide show of pictures that I took while in DC and students were intrigued by the Secret Service agent who checked my ID to enter the White House. They were also amused when I told them of another teacher who was able to snap a photo of the First Dog, Bo, while we were touring the East Wing of the White House. The question asked most often by students is, “Did you meet Obama?” More recently, a third grader asked me if I was able to see any salmon while I was in Washington. After wrestling with this question a bit, I realized he perhaps needed a little geography lesson and I told him that there was another Washington in our country besides the state of Washington that he was associating with salmon fishing.

3. What are some of the new and unique things you’ve done in the classroom to teach students about science and math?

Last year, my students and I engaged in a teleconference with a graduate student, Jamin Greenbaum, who is part of team of researchers living and working in Antarctic. During the teleconference, my students were able to ask Mr. Greenbaum questions about his work in Antarctica where he helps gather data about the landscape beneath the miles of ice using radar imaging collected from an airplane. This was a great opportunity for students to see and learn from a scientist working in the field. When Mr. Greenbaum returned to the US, he came to our class weekly and he and I co-taught lessons on a variety of topics. Students designed solar collectors, and explored gravity by observing a bowling ball and a pool ball as they were dropped from the roof of our school.

For twenty years, I’ve taken students on an overnight camping trip. We have camped at McKinney Falls State Park and Inks Lake. For the past several years our Pillow fifth graders have camped for three days and two nights at the Outdoor School in Marble Falls. Camping is one of my favorite field trips with students - many have never camped or made s’mores around a fire. I recall walking on a trail with a group of students and one of the boys remarked that he had never taken a walk in the woods before in his life.

To explore flora and fauna in a local river, I took a one group of sixth graders snorkeling down the San Marcos River - wet suits and all!

With the assistance of resources provided through the NSF funded ESI GK-12 Program, I have taken a group of students into Whirlpool cave in southwest Austin to learn about processes that change the earth’s surface and the delicate environment of our local Edwards Aquifer.

My students and I have planted and grown a school garden to learn about nitrogen cycle, photosynthesis, life cycles of plants, and more fundamentally, where our food comes from. One day when the class was working in the garden, one of the students shouted out, “So that’s where a tomato comes from!”

In the classroom, students have performed simple water electrolysis to separate water into its component parts - hydrogen and oxygen. Students participate in Chemistry Theater (a lesson I learned from Dr. Mary Walker at UT Austin - please give her credit if it is mentioned!) where they act out the behavior of water molecules as heat energy is increased or decreased. This fundamental understanding of the behavior of matter and what matter is made of is the foundation for learning all year long.

Learning about the processes that change the earth is made meaningful when students take part in a School Yard Walk, an excursion around their school yard and neighboring area to look for signs of erosion, weathering or deposition. Students photograph evidence of these processes and later write about their photos.

Students participate in the annual Walking Field Trip. We leave our school and hike to our local watershed creek, Shoal Creek. Along the way we talk about where water goes when it rains (or snows or hails) and discuss the water cycle. The field trip ends at my home where students observe my backyard fishpond and enjoy pizza on towels spread across my back yard. My fifth grade teaching partners also accompany us as well as parents who volunteer to supervise and provide dessert treats.

I tap into local human resources as much as possible. I learned of a scientist who worked at the JJ Pickle Research Center who studied earthquakes using a massive machine (a cross between a space alien and an enormous tractor) that was designed to literally shake the ground. Students gathered around with hands over their ears as the machine rumbled.

4. Where do you come up with your ideas? And what suggestions would you give to new teachers?

I begin with what I want students to learn and then I do some research before developing a new lesson. I find out what’s already out there for teachers to use, and like cooking, I take a little from one recipe and combine it with a what I like from another recipe- to end up with a lesson I feel is the most effective and efficient way to convey a concept. I have learned a great deal from others- colleagues and content experts I’ve been able to work with over the years at UT and through the UTeach Program.

In the years I taught math, I often drew from my everyday experiences when creating problem solving situations for students that went beyond the standard text book word problem scenarios. If I had to calculate how many laps I needed to swim in a pool to equal a mile, this became a problem solving task for my students to do in class.

Once I assigned my fifth grade students the task of creating a pie graph that illustrated a day in the life of one of their parents. I wanted them to learn and apply simple data analysis concepts such as range and median, and mean (average). I also wanted students to apply their knowledge of fractions and decimals and simple percentages. Students created the chart where one of their parents recorded what they did each hour of the day in a 24 hour period. This data was used to generate the graph and students also wrote a summary of what they learned from this project.

Suggestions to new teachers: Be observant. The subtle behaviors of highly effective teachers are the art of teaching.

Look for teachers on your campus who have high expectations for their students and those who discipline and manage students quietly and effectively. I learned how to teach and simultaneously manage a group of thirty students by watching a colleague who I felt was a great teacher (she is retired now and her name is Jane Moody). At first I tried to analyze what she did with students that made her so effective and allowed students to be so successful. Eventually, I simply copied her mannerisms and as well as the way she said to her students and eventually, these behaviors became natural for me and I added my own variations.

Research (and personal experience) shows that highly effective teachers are masters of their content matter. Learn your content as well as the best way to teach your content. Don’t be afraid to take risks in terms of trying new approaches to teaching, remove yourself from your comfort zone - don’t rely on pre-made materials always,- and when you are feeling overwhelmed, remind yourself of what you were hired to do - and that is teach.

Expand your thinking about teaching - and don’t miss an opportunity to teach. Years ago my sixth grade students were taking a science test I had written on the topic of food chains. A student came to my desk and asked for help with a question, and of course, my first reaction was to tell her that it was a test and that I could not help her. That notion was replaced with the realization that I had a child standing before me wanting me to teach her. I learned from that experience and with a few exceptions (state and local testing requirements) I will always help a child that asks for help.

5. What are some ways that teachers have changed what they are doing to better teach students?

In science, the shift from the focus on the memorization of facts and vocabulary to the teaching of big concepts reflects tremendous change and improvement in science teaching. Most people can name the planets in order, but how many could take a meter long piece of string (representing the distance between the Sun and Pluto) and tell you what planet would be located approximately at the halfway point? Most adults can tell you three of the five states of matter, but how many can describe the behavior of the atoms/molecules of water as a solid, liquid or gas and explain what causes this change. These are concepts my fifth grade students have learned this year.

Questioning and assessment have changed in many ways for the better. Teachers are learning how to ask questions that elicit more than one answer and that provide immediate feedback about the child’s learning. Instead of assessing after I teach, I’ve learned how to assess as I teach.

6. What influences drew you into teaching?

I played ‘school’ with my sisters growing up and I was fortunate to attend a school with teachers who were what I would call great teachers of their time - and I think of my self now as an amalgamation of three of those teachers - Miss Broadstreet, Mr. Harris and Mrs. Staggers. But, I did not enter college with a plan of becoming a teacher - I hoped to become a doctor. I was taking second semester calculus and a group of students and I began to meet weekly to help each other. Eventually, I found myself tutoring other students, and I realized that not only did I enjoy teaching, I was effective at helping others learn - and that is basically all teaching is.

7. What motivates you to remain a teacher?

I like the integrity of teaching and in many ways I like the challenges of teaching. Teaching is, in my opinion, one of the most undervalued yet essential professions in our culture. Teaching is never dull, and requires a certain creativity that I enjoy and explore. And, I like to see results, and teaching provides me with an opportunity to see the results of my efforts in individual students. There aren’t many jobs where you get to say, “Hey, I taught you that!”

8. What are your impressions of teaching now compared to when you first started nearly three decades ago? What’s changed?

The physical environment where many teachers work has changed. My first class room was organized in rows of chairs - with students all facing forward towards me. Now, in my classroom (as well as all others at my school) students are seated in small groups working together. I did not have a phone in my classroom until about fifteen years ago. Phone calls to parents and families of students were made on the one phone in the office shared by all teachers.

The roles and responsibilities of teachers have broadened tremendously. Not only do we teach our content areas, we are responsible for providing instruction that builds character as well as lessons and activities that improve students’ health. When I began teaching thirty years ago, there was very little accountability for teachers. Currently, teacher accountability is being negotiated and there will be period where policy makers and educators navigate through this very sensitive topic.

What we teach has changed. When I began teaching my first group of fifth graders, I did not have a state or national curriculum to guide me. Text books ruled the world of teachers and often lessons were at the discretion of teachers.

Students are more actively involved in their learning and there are more student-to-student conversations where students are learning.

9. Any other thoughts you’d like to add?

No Child Left Behind created a public awareness of the need and the necessity for highly qualified teachers in schools, but we need to expand the discussion to include highly effective teachers. You often hear the phrase that a teacher ‘made a difference’ in a child’s life. Ironically, not only do the best teachers earn this acclaim, but also, the worst teachers. The demand for teachers is greater than ever and as a society we need to ask ourselves what we are doing to ensure that the best and brightest enter the teaching profession.

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