Career Pathways

To stay in the classroom as a career teacher, I think that it’s so important to feel both successful and inspired within your teaching role. Valor’s academic, culture, and operations teams do incredible work for our schools – creating and maintaining clear, consistent systems of support that ultimately leads to success for our teachers.

I learned and grew so much during my time supporting students and teachers at a Compass Coach at Flagship, but within my second year in the role, I found myself missing the creativity, joy, passion, and strong relationships that come with teaching directly in the classroom, and I knew that I wanted to return. Teachers are truly the heart and soul of our schools, and I deeply believe that keeping strong teachers in the classroom is so important.

Valor has an interconnected set of supports that have helped me to feel like I can stay in the classroom: an actionable commitment to equity, relationship-based coaching, organization-wide responsiveness to feedback, dedication to teacher sustainability, and a competitive payscale for living in Nashville. In the past four years, I have received the best professional development in our training to teach the math curriculum, focusing on student-led development of key concepts through novel problem-solving and discourse. My instructional coaches have been incredibly supportive, giving me bite-sized feedback to execute our vision for the curriculum, trusting my experience and expertise to innovate in lesson-planning, and helping me guard my personal and family time when the work of teaching feels overwhelming.

I had grade-level and school-level leadership experience before I joined Valor, so I was interested in pursuing leadership at Valor from the time I started here in 2019. However, it was important to me to really understand the organization and community first, and I believe there’s no better way to do that than gaining experience as a teacher.

I really focused on learning to be a better teacher during my first year at Valor, and my coach at that time certainly helped me improve. I use things I learned then in my current role as an Assistant Principal today. I learned what it meant to be truly prepared to teach a lesson and how to effectively analyze and respond to data. I also developed a deeper sense of self-awareness and a keener eye towards not neglecting the importance of equity at all times.

I remember starting to teach at Voyager when we had not yet finished putting in all the windows – that is how new our building was! Valor means the world to me and has helped me grow not just as a professional, but as a whole human. Being able to have the opportunity to lead Valor Voyager as the new Principal next year, and show up for this incredible staff every day feels like such an opportunity and culmination of a lot of work that Valor has in turned poured into me over the years.

I have loved growing as a leader at Valor because the work is never done alone; I feel that I am in such partnership with my colleagues and much of my professional development has happened thanks to their support and feedback. This, alongside our coaching model and weekly professional development has helped sharpen me as a leader at Valor.

Valor is not a perfect place. We make mistakes every day and choose to learn from those mistakes. Where there are gaps, we create opportunities, encourage you to use your voice, want to know your short-term and long-term personal and professional goals, and do what we can to support you in achieving your goals. We are a team connected by our humanity and committed to our improvement. If you want to work somewhere where you are seen, heard, and known, this is where you want to be. If you want to be supported in your DEI journey, then this is where you want to be. If you want to become a content expert, this is where you want to be. You will leave better than you were when you came.

I was fortunate to have a phenomenal coach my first 4 years at Valor Flagship. My coach saw potential in me that I did not see in myself. He pushed me to grow by constantly teaching me new things, and always having an open door when I needed support or questions answered. When I mentioned my desire for change and growth within the organization he showed support as he always did. We talked through the changes I wanted to make, and mentored me through the process. As I have seen in other organizations, some leaders may put out flames for growth in their employees, but I was lucky to have a coach here that expanded that flame within me instead of burning it out.