Vicki McCarter, Science Teacher, Kamiakin Junior High

Kudos to Vicki McCarter, Lake Washington School District’s “Staff Star” for September 2010.

Teaching is in Vicki McCarter’s blood. She grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, raised in a family of educators. Perhaps that is the reason why McCarter always strives to continue learning and to push her colleagues to learn from each other as well.

McCarter teaches seventh and eighth grade science at Kamiakin Junior High. She has been teaching for nearly 20 years. In 2006, McCarter became a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) in the area of science education. She is one of 129 NBCTs in Lake Washington School District.

As an NBCT, McCarter has access to many of the latest teaching resources. Through the National Board teaching organization, she discovered a program called “Success at the Core,” which is an online professional development tool for middle school/junior high school staff. Success at the Core aims to improve classroom instruction by developing leadership teams made up of all types of school staff members in the building, including teachers, principals and support staff. The program also focuses on improving classroom instruction through teacher collaboration.

Through McCarter’s initiative, Kamiakin began piloting the Success at the Core program. The school formed a leadership team made up of teacher leaders from each subject, as well as school administrators and office staff. The team met twice a month to pilot the program during the 2009-10 school year. They discussed what it takes to provide quality instruction. The team worked on various modules that focused on effective teaching and improving instruction and learning. They watched video presentations showing examples of teaching strategies and then experimented with those methods in the leadership team meetings and in the classroom.

Last year, they introduced “Free-Up February” at Kamiakin, which allowed the teachers to sit in on other classes in the school throughout the month. Heather Sinclair, the director of school support for the Juanita Learning Community and Kamiakin Principal Joe Joss were able to get funding to bring in substitute teachers. This allowed other teachers to have the chance to go sit in on other classes. Through this experience, teachers were able to observe different teaching techniques and examine how other teachers organize their classes. McCarter says she found it helpful to get ideas from other teachers. She also enjoyed seeing how her own students responded to different teaching techniques in other classes. She was able to see what motivates certain students and adapt some of her own lessons from what she learned.