Working Alongside Educators with Courtney Thompson   

Please note, this transcript is generated by AI and may include some errors. 

Spencer Payne: Okay, here we are with front of the class real stories from real educators today with Courtney Thompson and Courtney, could you share with the audience how you describe what you do today in the educational world and how you got there and where you came from? How do you share with fellow folks in the educational world? What it is that you're working on these days?

Courtney Thompson: Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, I'm thankful to be here, thankful to hopefully be reaching other educators, but I am not in the classroom anymore. Although I had always wanted to be a teacher, you ever since I was a student in school. And so I actually got started with teaching, you know, immediately graduating college, started my first year as a teacher and I taught for the past seven years.

Spencer Payne: I'm sorry, did you say seven? Seven years, okay, perfect. And what are you doing now?

Courtney Thompson: Seven, yeah, yes, yeah. So I actually left the classroom in May and now I I like to say I'm working alongside of educators. I'm actually working for a nonprofit and we really partnered with our the district, the school district. So I'm going into pretty much every high school in our district and working alongside teachers and students that are interested in doing like paid apprenticeships and internships while they're still in high school. So our nonprofit helps connect businesses with students that are looking for that work-based learning experience. And that's the program that our district has and that we go through. So although I'm not in the classroom, I still love working with students. And that's kind of my realm right now.

Spencer Payne: Okay, awesome. And yeah.

Perfect. And what are some of those apprenticeships trainings? Like what are some of the examples of things that students are learning in these programs that you have put together?

Courtney Thompson: Absolutely. So we mostly focus on students that are interested in trade careers. And so we have business business partners that do things like, you know, HVAC, electrical, welding, all those very like hands on things that they actually have the opportunity to learn in school, some of the high schools have courses, you know, for those trades, and then we connect them with opportunity to go and actually work you know, what they've been learning in school.

Spencer Payne: And how in the world did seven years in the classroom transition to that role? How did that come about? How did you find out about it? And what made you say yes to this new role that you're in?

Courtney Thompson: So when I left the classroom in May, I actually had no idea what I was going to do. I just knew that I wanted to have a little bit of a break. But I actually knew about this nonprofit from a former teacher co worker and you know, very good friend of mine, her husband started this nonprofit. And so she and I had taught together for several years, we're still good friends. And her husband is and they're both very involved in the community and with, you know, students in our community. So that's how I knew about it.

Spencer Payne: And can you share a little bit more about where are you located? What district is this nonprofit partnered with to be able to offer this to the students? And let's just say for argument's sake, people like what they hear. Like, can they reach out? Can they set this up elsewhere? So can you provide a little color of where you're located and how potentially people might contact?

If at all, maybe that's not possible. But if people want to know more, is there a potential path to do this in their district by utilizing the same nonprofit?

Courtney Thompson: Yeah, so I'm in Georgia, specifically in Augusta, Georgia. And so we work mostly with the County of Richmond County. That's the biggest school district. So we are called Trade Up Careers. We're very, very small nonprofit. But a lot of what we do is mirrored off of similar programs like one in North Carolina. And it kind of just depends state to state, of course, because we work with the district.

It just depends. I don't know what work-based learning looks like everywhere, but if your state has that, then I would definitely start asking questions, especially if you're a parent or a student or a teacher that wants more opportunities for your students. For us, we have a website and students are able to apply really at any time, and then we reach out to them to kind of get the process started.

So our website is tradeupcareersinc.com. That's just a little bit about us. But yeah, it's mirrored after some similar program. Specifically, our founder mirrored it after a program that his father-in-law started. And it became so successful and so big that their district, I can't remember the name of it, but it's in the state of North Carolina. It actually took over the program and so instead of partnering, they're actually a part of the school district now. We are not working that way as of now, but it is very similar.

Spencer Payne: Awesome. And I want to go down that road just to highlight some of the things of what's possible for folks if they do decide to leave the classroom of you're still impacting students. You're still building those relationships. You're still working with school districts in a very real way, just in a slightly different manner. There's all kinds of opportunities that exist for teachers if they so choose to leave the classroom permanently or temporarily. But to go back to teaching in that seven years in the classroom, can you give us little sense of what subjects do you teach, grades, public, private school was something else. What were those seven years like and were some of the details of who you taught when, why, how, all that kind of good stuff.

Courtney Thompson: Absolutely. I did teach in private. I did not plan on doing that the whole time that I was teaching, but that's kind of how it worked out. actually, even though I wanted to be a teacher since I was young, I did not go to college, you know, with, I guess the plan that I would be an education major. So instead I majored in English and I minored in histories and social studies. When I graduated college, I was actually planning on moving to another country. didn't even think I thought I was going to go teach ESL in a different country. And so some, you know, things just changed with that situation. And I ended up being reached out to by a former coach who needed a teacher. He at the time was not a coach. He had actually moved up to be an administrator, which is why of course he was the one hiring. But that's how I got my first teaching job was him reaching out.

And I started as a history teacher doing AP US. And still to this day, that was the first thing I ever taught. Still my favorite thing that I ever got to I did that for three years. And throughout those seven years, I taught A push, I taught government economics, world history. And then just last school year, I had transitioned over to teaching English for the first time. And I did enjoy that, but I only taught English the one year.

Spencer Payne: Got it. must, I got, I got to throw this random one out for AP US history. I don't know if this is still top, but for some reason when I took it, like you had to know the year 1066 and I still remember when was the Norman conquest of England. I actually don't even know what that means, but I know it happened in 1066 because at the time that was something you had to be tested on. I still remember that.

Courtney Thompson: wow, that sounds like, yeah, that sounds like an AP Euro question or something. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: I still remember that. And so you got into teaching in the first place by almost, it sounds like a little bit of a cold outreach, but stayed in it for seven years. What drew you to say yes to that first teaching job? And then what kept you in the classroom for seven years? What kept you coming back?

Courtney Thompson: I fell in love with it and I knew I would, cause like I said, my plan was to be teaching in some capacity. thought it was going to look like ESL first and it didn't, and that's okay. But actually what brought me, I was living in North Carolina throughout college and was not planning on Augusta is my hometown. where I was born and raised. I wasn't planning on coming back. I love traveling. love, you know, seeing the world. so.

Coming back right after college was not on my radar, but unfortunately our community suffered a tragedy the summer that I was finishing up college and my heart just was really drawn to come back to my community. And so at that same time, while friends and family were grieving that summer, when that former coach reached out to me, it just felt like the right thing. It felt like I had kind of been called back to my hometown for that season of time. And I actually was working with a lot of students who were also impacted by that tragedy. And so it just felt right. And then as I got into teaching, I just really fell in love with it. I love the content that I always taught, but I also just really love forming those relationships with students. Of course, I think that's why most of, you know, teachers go into the profession and hopefully why most of them stay.

Spencer Payne: Yes, awesome. anything in this kind of new role that you're in, anything in particular that you're looking forward to in the next three, six, 12 months, you pick your time frame. But is there anything exciting or particularly energizing for you in this new role that you're just really looking forward to being able to say you've done or that the program did or anything that you're looking forward to is just a big milestone coming up?

Courtney Thompson: Yes, actually, you know, we've just recently sat down to talk about some of those exact things, you know, as a as a nonprofit. And there's only three of us. So like I said, we're very, very small. We're still growing, still new. But our goal is to create at least 10 more business partnerships to create more opportunities for our students and to have at least 10 high schools that are partnered with us where we have students coming through and getting those opportunities to see if they would like a job in the certain trade or just get that experience, which can be so valuable. So I've been really energized by that. We've been having a lot of meetings with people on the board at the district just about the different possibilities.

And it's really cool because as teachers, we see how impactful we can be in the classroom and what we can do for students. But at the same time, we know that we are limited in many ways. So it's kind of cool to be just outside of that and be talking about possibilities that extend beyond the classroom.

Spencer Payne: Yep, awesome. And as you look back on those, we just look forward to now let's back, let's look back a little bit. As you look back on those seven years in the classroom, I'm curious to dig into some of your, you know, some memorable stories. So maybe first, is there anything that stands out as just a coolest, most enjoyable, proudest moment of your teaching career? Something that, you look back on and maybe today it still makes you light up or makes you smile because it was just something that was just such an incredible feat that maybe you, your team, your class, someone in class actually did. So if anything, stand out as just most enjoyable, proudest memories in the classroom.

Courtney Thompson: Wow. honestly, I have a lot because I really did enjoy, you know, those years in the classroom. I would say, you know, any moment where you get to see, you know, a student that's been working really hard, you've been working really hard with them, you know, on a particular skill or, or maybe it's a chapter or something they're struggling with and just to see them, you know, kind of come out on the other side is always very fulfilling.

But one thing that I really learned to appreciate over the years was taking those moments to just stop, especially in like the busy times of the year. I would think like right now, like April, May is usually the busiest time for teachers. You're doing testing. You're trying to make sure kids aren't failing. Like there's just, there's so many things going on. And so those moments where you just get to say, okay, hold on. Let's like check in with everybody. this lesson is important, but also, you know, how everyone's doing is more important. And so I started doing this thing where it was really silly when it first started, but once my students, you know, kind of got the hang of it, they really appreciated it. We're on particularly chaotic days, we'd walk in and I would say, everyone stop, put your hands out in front, close your eyes.

and like we would just all breathe in and out together. And I think things like that where we could all just kind of just be like, everybody feels weird at first, but then we realize like, it's okay, like we can take a breath, we can laugh, we can kind of, you know, realize that whatever you're stressed about in this classroom, you know, we can, we can just take a beat and it's going to be okay. And so those things always made me smile because I just remember like we're all humans. These students are going through so much more outside of our room other than just getting through this curriculum or passing this next test. so, so many things that make me smile were, you know, getting to the end of the year or even getting into years where you don't even have that student anymore.

And they come back just to talk to you and say, hey, like, you know my time in your classroom really, I still remember it like and they might not remember anything about the curriculum. I taught history, so that's not a favorite subject for a lot of kids, but to see. Yeah, exactly. Exactly, they don't remember, you know who is king or Queen this year this battle, but they remember like hey you you know you stuck with me or you know you gave me a chance to.

Spencer Payne: So they might not remember the year 1066, but they remember how you made it, how you made them feel.

Courtney Thompson: to really, you know, feel seen or feel heard. those things always make me smile. We have students that, you know, come back. Sometimes it is years later and it took me a few years in the profession to see that. Cause I think we want that instant gratification of, especially when you see a student struggling, like you want them to get it right away or you want their situation to change right away. And oftentimes it doesn't, but even years later to have students, you know, come back and visit or even reach out through social media or something and say, like, thank you. And, you know, not to pat myself on the back or anything, because, you know, I know that there's so much that goes into that beyond just what I did in the classroom. But those definitely stand out as my favorite moments.

Spencer Payne: I want to highlight that, that concept of, you know, stopping to just breathe when things are busy, hectic, stressful, whatever word you want to use. two things, two things real quick. One is I'm a big fan of watching the documentary, the last dance of kind of like those nineties championship bowls teams. And there's some, there's some video of, of, you know, Phil Jackson as the head coach of those bowls teams that won six championships in the nineties with Michael Jordan. Right. kind of being in the middle of the team around him and he's just leading them through kind of these deep breath meditation exercises. And I share that because this concept of being able to calm yourself down when you feel worked up is not necessarily something that is taught in school or at home. And it's one of the most important skills a person can learn so that they don't compound an error, right?

Like you might get mad, you don't know how calm yourself down, then you actually potentially make something worse by doing something that you know you shouldn't have done, but if you were able to calm yourself, you wouldn't have done it. And I share that Phil Jackson example just because if it can work for men who make $30 million a year and win titles, right, it can work for anybody. And then as a second note, we have this book for my son, he's two and a half called That's My Truck. And it's all about how you know, this little boy wants to go play with his red fire truck, but his sister's playing with it and it makes him so mad. And, you know, he goes through some exercises in the book and I'll sit there with my son and it'll be like, all right, now let's he's breathing. Let's, let's practice. Let's take a deep breath.

You feel better? Do you feel better? He's like, yes, I feel better. And just like, just practicing that concept of being able to calm yourself down in a heated moment is a really important skill. So anyway, I just want to highlight that. I love that that's something that you shared that's not on the curriculum.

Courtney Thompson: Yeah.

Spencer Payne: No teacher focuses on that, but it's a really important skill and the ability to do that is potentially really impactful in life as evidenced by six championships by Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson. So thank you for doing that. I love it. Other wild, crazy stories maybe in your career.

On that wildest craziest story anything you can't believe happened I can't believe that student said this anything stand out to you over those seven years in the classroom that you're able to share even if there's no names and all for things like that but any just those wild crazy I can't believe that happened moments in the classroom

Courtney Thompson: my goodness. I mean, as far as like, you know, students saying off the wall things, I feel like that's just a weekly or daily occurrence. It's hard to even keep those straight. Definitely some moments where you have to kind of, you almost feel like, you know, you're on the office where you just look at the camera like, really? You know, am I really here right now? But mostly it's all, you know, fun and games.

One year, I want to say it might've been my first year teaching, first or second, it was early on. And I'm in South Georgia, our air conditioning had gone out in my classroom and they weren't fixing it. So I had to open the windows and you know, that didn't help very much. But I remember just having this one student who kept trying to climb out the window. And I taught high schoolers by the way, so these aren't little kids. it's, yeah, it's the first floor. I took care of clarify that. Yeah, I was on the first floor. but just like, and I'm, you know, I had a normal classroom size. So it wasn't like some huge room auditorium where I couldn't see. And I just keep looking up like, what are you doing? so that was kind of wild. In my first year, I'm just thinking like, what?

And let's see, last year actually, this one was not as funny. We had a freak accident kind of thing where my classroom backed up to a baseball field and somehow some kids were out there practicing before school was out. They were not supposed to be. But a stray baseball came through my classroom window and like shattered everywhere. And that was definitely one of like the most scariest moments that I've had in the classroom because of course I thought it was something else when it happened. it wasn't, you know, none of us were registering that it was a baseball that had busted the window. And so that was like probably the craziest kind of scariest thing that's happened in the classroom.

A few students, a few of us did have like, you know, minor, minor like cuts and things from the glass, but thankfully everyone was safe and no one got seriously injured. But yeah, definitely one of just the most kind of random freak things that you can't prepare for, you know, you just never know.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, that's for sure. And it goes back to those breathing exercises in that moment, right? Like the ability to step back and take a deep breath and try to figure out what just happened. What do I know is true? Like what's out that window, right? That ability to stay calm in that moment is as potential to really be a powerful experience. Any particular like tough times or tough moments in your career or one of those days where you're just like, I don't know if I can come back tomorrow. Any of those tough moments and then most importantly, how do you come back after one of those? Everyone has those, right? But it's always more interesting of like not what caused it, like.

How do you calm yourself? How do you come back? How do you regather yourself and kind of come back and give those students your best? So any tough moments, challenging times, tough experiences, then how have you handled that and how have you kind of come back and come out the other side better? Any examples come to mind?

Courtney Thompson: Yeah, I, this was pretty early on in my career as well, but I, maybe my second year, I was obviously still very new to teaching and I had taken on some extracurriculars, you know, as, what I doing, student council or something. And really,

Spencer Payne: Yep, as I'm sure everyone is asked to do or elbowed, like, you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure?

Courtney Thompson: Yes. Yeah, I won't get sidetracked on that right now, but learn to say no. I was not in that space. You know, as a new teacher, I'm like, yeah, I'll do this. I'll do that. And honestly, I just taken on too much. I was in over my head. And I think sometimes too, like young teachers can be kind of taken advantage of like you know, they're coming in kind of energetic and stuff and wanting to do things, wanting to create those relationships. But it was just a particularly tough day. was like the middle of homecoming spirit week. I was in charge of all these events and I had never done it before. And I'm like doing it by myself.

And I remember it was like the middle of a pep rally and I'm being like given additional duties, like in real time of like, oh, you're, you were supposed to do this and this. In the meantime, I have a class full of students that are like walking back to my classroom to sit down, you know, and, uh, for our next class. And I'm thinking like, I'm literally one person, you know, I can't be, I can't. Yeah. And I think like no one was really sensing how overwhelmed I was getting in that moment.

Spencer Payne: can't be in two places at the same time, what am I supposed to do?

Courtney Thompson: And so I was like, okay, I'll be right back. I walk into the bathroom. I'm trying to gather myself and it's getting worse until I, the next thing I know I'm in like a all out sob. I'm just crying and I'm like, well, this is embarrassing. So I had to walk down to the office and our, you know, sweet secretaries were in there and they're like, my goodness, what's going on? we're going to go get your principal. And I was like, actually, no, I don't want to talk to anyone right now. I said, I really need someone to go watch my class for like five minutes if I can just sit in here and gather myself. And so they're like, yes, of course, of course. Thankfully, you I had really great people that were willing to give me that five minutes.

But I took it, you know, I cried a little bit more maybe. And then I'm like, okay, let me let's go do this. That was a big learning lesson for me because it, it really got me to the point where I said, okay, I'm going to have to start figuring out what boundaries are needed for me to sustain myself in this career. And like I said, it was still very early on. I think a lot of that you kind of just learned by trial and error but that was a big moment for me to realize it's okay to ask for help. It's okay. If you are overwhelmed, you need to voice that before it gets to the point where, you know, it's too much.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, 100%. It seems like once you ask for that help, those administrative ladies that you were chatting with were more than happy to give you what you needed. But sometimes it can be hard to ask for help. But oftentimes people are more than willing to help when people are genuinely, earnestly asking for that, I just need 10 minutes. Learning how to ask for help is a really important skill to learn. Good thing you got it in that moment when you most needed it.

A couple more rapid fire, more quick hitter type questions, mostly more for especially folks who are maybe younger teachers or maybe thinking about getting into the profession. But what's the number one piece of advice that you give to someone who is about to start their teaching career or maybe is in their first year? Again, it's April, maybe they're going into their second year. What's the number one piece of advice you'd give to those newer teachers or maybe even something that you go back and give yourself advice at that particular time in your career?

Courtney Thompson: Yeah, it's funny. actually was just having this conversation last week with a former student who is in her student teaching and, you know, potentially getting ready to go into the profession. But I would definitely say for both new teachers and for my self seven years ago, I would say that you don't have to do it all right away.

I think that is maybe, at least for me, what kind of got me into, I don't want to say the trap, but kind of the trap of saying yes to everything is I knew that I wanted to explore, you know, different avenues and, and fill different roles in the school beyond just the classroom. You want to create those relationships with your students. And we know that a lot of that happens, you know, showing up at their games or being a part of you know, clubs and things like that. So I'm not disparaging it, but I think just learning to really assess what you can handle and realize that just being in the classroom, at least your first couple years is still plenty. Like you're not, you're not a bad teacher if you don't take on all these extra responsibilities, especially right away.

I think giving yourself time to learn what kind of teacher you are, learn your students, learn, you know, the environment that you're in and your school, give yourself a couple years and then, you know, you can start doing more. then I would also just say not being on an island. think oftentimes, and again, I can only speak for myself ultimately, but I do think that we go into the profession feeling like, you know, we need to have it all figured out, but
I was blessed to have an incredible mentor teacher my first couple of years, and she had been, you know, in the profession for over 20 years at that point. And so she was really good at sensing when I was struggling and not asking for help to go and say, Hey, like, let's talk about this.

So when I moved from that school and didn't have that mentor teacher anymore, and I got into a situation where I did have questions or I was feeling overwhelmed. That's kind of what led me to reach out to the community of teachers on social media, because unfortunately I was in a situation where I didn't have that mentor or that person to go to. But I would just say always having a community asking questions, you don't have to know how to do it all. mean, some of my best lessons or activities that I've done were ideas that I got from other teachers. So I think just being willing to say, you know, it's okay, I don't have to know everything. I don't have to do all this on myself because the isolation, I think, leaps to burnout really quickly.

Spencer Payne: Yep. And what to you is the number one single best thing about this profession? What do love about it?

Courtney Thompson: I think just the significance of, you know, what, how we can impact a person's life. mean, that might sound, you know, very general, but I think about, you know, how formative school is for every single person, no matter how old you are. You know, most people would look back and they remember, you know, this time in your life, whether it's elementary, middle school, high school.

And so I think just realizing how much of an impact that we can make is huge. And I say that because I know that's what drew me into teaching. I had teachers that I really feel like changed my life. And because I leaned on them so much in high school and they were there to support me, you know, beyond things that were happening in their classroom, it really made me realize that I wanted to be able to be, you know, that kind of support for kids or students who needed it. And that's what drew me. That's what I loved about it, you the entire seven years that I taught and what keeps me wanting to hopefully go back into the classroom one day.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And on that note, why take this break? You mentioned needing a break after seven years. You're now still in the educational field, right? And something that's a little bit different, but still very much so, helping people learn, improve, set themselves up for a better life, et cetera. But can you help share a little bit about why did you need that break? Do you intend to go back? Why? Can you give us a little context around this current break after seven years in the classroom?

Courtney Thompson: Yeah, I think that I felt myself just getting to a point where I wasn't feeling the same enthusiasm and I was starting to kind of lose like my creativity and and things like that that I know that I had been bringing into the classroom for, you know, almost seven years. And I started feeling this way, you know, sometime early last school year when I was teaching.

And I kept kind of thinking like, it'll get better, go better. But I just realized that I needed a break. I had been kind of overdoing it and not in the best situation in my, like, I guess, like where I was teaching was not the best situation. And I moved schools, you know, hoping that it would get better. And in a lot of ways it did, but there were just certain things that had not changed. And I wanted to take a break because I didn't want to burn out and lose you know what I love about the profession. I know that I don't have children, but I know that one day when I do if I do, I would really love to you know work and teach at the same school as my kids. You know if I'm if not teach them and I just didn't want to get to the point where I was so unhappy with the profession that I just couldn't do it anymore. So that's why I wanted to take the break now so that I can kind of, you know, regather myself, just have a little bit of time to think about what I want out of teaching and then hopefully go back.

Spencer Payne: And if there was one thing you could change about this profession, point a magic wand at one thing, maybe it's the single worst thing, or maybe it's the thing that made you want to take a break, what would you change? What's the single toughest thing about this profession or the thing that you would point a magic wand at that you potentially want to go change overnight?

Courtney Thompson: Just the expectation of teachers and everything that is put on their plates. I think it's just way too much. And I think that is it seems like it's nationwide. I know that every teacher is probably not in that situation, which is great, but I think far, far too many are that there's just way they're spread way too thin. Whether it be due to like classroom sizes or, you know the all the things that they're expected to do unpaid, know, think about all the labor that teachers do outside of the classroom or extra duties and things like that. I think that would make a tremendous positive change for, you know, everybody involved, students and teachers, if some of those expectations could be a little bit more realistic.

Spencer Payne: And last two quick questions. Knowing what you know now, again, even you're on a break, but you still alluded to, I hopefully want to go back and teach, especially if I have kids, I'd love to teach them in my classroom. So knowing what you know now, would you still go down this teaching path and potentially recommend it for others?

Courtney Thompson: Yes, I totally would. Like I say, I have so many great memories from teaching and I think that giving myself this break, you know, allows me to still look at it fondly. Even with the struggles, I would still recommend it to a person while being honest about the challenges that I or a lot of teachers face. I just had that conversation, like I said, with a former student who's getting ready to go into it. And I was very honest with her of like, hey, here's what I struggled with most.

But if you're prepared, you're going into that prepared, then I would still recommend it.

Spencer Payne: Yep, awesome. And last question, is there anything else valuable, fun, worth sharing to prospective or maybe newer teachers in the profession? Anything that we haven't hit on yet? Or maybe anything that you feel like is so important that we want to just go restate, re-highlight, dog you that page. I want to say that one more time because you feel like it's that impactful. So any last words to wisdom, either new or repeated?

Courtney Thompson: Yeah, I guess I would just repeat like finding that community, reaching out to people. That just makes it so much more enjoyable, especially because the things that teachers go through can be like so niche and unrelatable to people in other professions. I think that you will go crazy if you don't have someone to kind of vent to or even laugh about those situations with. So that's a big piece of advice that I would have. Yes, absolutely.

Spencer Payne: Find your people, find your people. All right, awesome. Thanks so much Courtney for sharing your story from seven years in the classroom to now working with nonprofits with the school districts and salaried the classroom to potentially teaching your own children one day back in the classroom.

Courtney Thompson: Yeah, thank you for having me.