A Conversation With Kimberly Kyff—Michigan Teacher of the Year 2006-2007

“Classroom challenges stemming from Michigan’s school reform movement will necessitate continual professional development, solid administrative support, and good follow up in order to garner the desired success,” says Michigan’s new Teacher of the Year, Kimberly Kyff, a fifth grade teacher at Jamieson Elementary in Detroit.

Recently named 2006-07 Teacher of the Year, Kyff says, “strengthening curriculum standards is not enough.”

“Teachers will be feeling overwhelmed (due to the changes), and that can close you off,” Kyff explains. “The need for solid professional support will be critical.”

Kyff supports the reforms, which include greatly heightened curriculum requirements and teacher qualification requirements, and she believes strongly that these changes will have a positive impact on Michigan students.

“Once children know they are valued, it doesn’t matter how high you set the bar,” Kyff says. “If they know you’re going to help them get there, and you don’t expect them to go from A to Z without the assistance they require in between, they will be all right. As long as we keep our focus on the child, the child is going to grow.”

Teaching is in Kyff’s blood, having come from a long line of dedicated educators. Her mother and grandmother are both retired elementary teachers. Her oldest daughter, Kelly, teaches fourth grade in South Lyon schools, and her youngest child, Jamie, 17, has expressed interest in teaching students with hearing challenges.

“Teaching excites me because it’s not just a job,” Kyff says. “Every single day is different; every child is different. Teaching is about continual change—and it is never, ever dull.”

The fifth-grade teacher holds a master’s degree in the art of teaching from Marygrove College and is a facilitator at the University of Phoenix in Southfield in their master’s program for education. She’s a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) in the area of middle childhood, with 19 years of teaching under her belt. Kyff is beginning her tenth year with Jamieson Elementary, a Golden Apple Award school in the Detroit Public School system. Jamieson houses grades one through six, along with a preschool Head Start program.

Kyff embraces a philosophy that all children can learn, replacing the term “student at risk” with “student of promise.” She cites her school’s use of the James Comer School Development Program (SCD) as a good example of how to go about addressing school improvement by focusing on positive child development using the principles of cooperation, consensus, and no fault (for more information visit http://info.med.yale.edu/comer).

“Our students are considered at risk, but we also experience a lot of success,” she says. “It’s a lot like brain-based learning. We try to meet all the different needs of the child: physical, social, and environmental. We take the child right where they are with no fault assigned to anyone—and we get them to where they need to go.”

“In order to offer students the kind of educational experience they deserve,” Kyff says, “it’s vital that all aspects of the community come together.”

“I think schools and districts as a whole are going to need to have an almost unified curriculum where everyone is clear on where they are going and where they need to be,” she says. “We must focus on solutions and build on the positives. We need to find out where our students are successful and capitalize on that. We need to look more to the corporate world and our communities for support and input. We’re going to have to pull in parents as much as we can. We need to globalize the way we look at education.”

Kyff believes the new changes will also require teachers to collaborate more often, sharing classroom strategies. Teamwork, she said, is critical to educational success.

“Whether it’s a building in your district or across the state that’s succeeding, find out why,” she says. “When we share what works, we breed more success, which helps keep teachers from leaving the profession.”

In addition to her responsibilities with students, Kyff also mentors teachers new to the urban environment. She says that while teachers may have less time flexibility in their classrooms, that should not close the door on creativity.

“Once a teacher gains familiarity with the standards, we can look at other ways to teach the main idea without doing a workbook page,” Kyff explains. “I tell them about children sharing with each other and working together and having project-based learning that still meets all the benchmarks, but in a fun way. As long as students find learning fun and they’re engaged and interacting with each other, the lessons click and they succeed.”

Kyff offers some key strategies for achieving classroom success in light of ever-present educational challenges including:

• Focus on the student.
• Look at where the student is today.
• Build on student strengths to take them as high as you can.
• Take advantage of professional development.
• Share your professional success with others.
• Be open to change.
• When you see someone struggling, forego judgment—offer help instead.
• Model teamwork.

Kyff is excited about her recent honor. “I want to spread the good news about teaching,” she says. “I want to help teachers feel proud about their profession, because I believe it’s one of the most admirable professions there is. I want to explore the valuable use of technology in the classroom and motivate teachers to keep on evolving. I want to encourage others to enter the teaching field.”

“Education is a great place to be and it’s only going to get better,” Kyff concludes. “I am very proud to be an educator in Michigan.”

For more information, contact: Kimberly Kyff, 2006-2007 Michigan Teacher of the Year, Michigan Department of Education, kyffk@michigan.gov.

Judy Winter is the author of Breakthrough Parenting for Children with Special Needs: Raising the Bar of Expectations and a frequent contributor to Leading Change. For more information, contact: jappwinter@aol.com or visit www.JudyWinter.com.