John McKinney
I’ve taught 8th grade science in Douglas County, Colorado for the past twenty-three years. During that time, I have received various distinctions for leadership and creativity including the Milken Educator Award and National Earth Science Teacher of the Year. In addition to my classroom work, I have also been a professional consultant to agencies such as: The National Academy of Sciences and the College Board. I have also been involved with the Temporal Dynamics in Learning Center, a project funded by the National Science Foundation, to study how neuroscience might better inform educational practices in the classroom.
During the summer, I’m director of the Cherokee Ranch Nature and Science Education Program. This is a field science camp for students who are interested in biology and earth science. This is my dream job, hiking with kids on a beautiful 3000 acre ranch.
I love the outdoors. My wife and I live near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Sedalia, Colorado. A good portion of my life has been spent climbing mountains all over the Americas. So many of the postings on this blog are made from my bedroom porch looking at the foothills.
When I met Kathy twenty years ago, I had no idea that this quiet, unassuming woman would change my life. I didn’t know what kind of teacher I was going to be, but I learned how to reflect and grow from her. Looking back, I now realize we grew together in our love for excellence. Kathy worked harder than any other teacher I ever met. She modeled for me how much time it takes to do the job well. Over the years I think we have had conversations about almost every aspect of classroom teaching and student learning. I have learned that classroom teaching is perhaps the most dynamic profession in the world. Excellent teachers are constantly looking for new ways to grow, and I have one piece of advice… Find a friend who likes to talk about teaching. I did, and it made me a pretty good teacher who is still trying to get better.
JM
Kathy Granas
I taught secondary mathematics in the Denver area for thirty-three years. Most of those years were spent teaching 8th graders. (Soon after John and I summited Mt. Elbert - highest mountain in Colorado - I was feeling quite capable and soon pursued certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. At the time, there were no assessments developed yet for middle school mathematics teaching, so I went after the high school mathematics certification. When I became the first mathematics teacher in Colorado to achieve that certification, I gave high school mathematics teaching a try. For three years I taught the traditional high school math courses through AP Calculus. I realized that seniors didn't tend to laugh at my jokes as often as 8th graders... so I returned to middle school for the final ten years of my teaching career where John and I were on the same middle school team.) I also was fortunate to win recognition as a Milken Educator. Both John and I spent a dozen years developing and teaching the AFT's Foundations of Effective Teaching curriculum to teachers in Douglas County, CO, as well as to teachers on a national level. In 2006 I completed a Ph.D. degree in Teaching and Learning.
I retired from teaching in May 2011. However, I am discovering that teaching is not a career one can simply "stop doing". There are so many important questions out there about effective teaching, valid methods of evaluating teachers, and teaching and learning, in general, that my interest and thinking about education continues to engage me. John and I continue to carry on our ongoing dialogues about these topics and others. Thus this blog has developed as a way for us to share our dialogues with each other and with others who might be interested and with whom we can learn.
Both John and I love to be active outdoors. Whether it was around the track during our planning period or up and down the hills in Maryland during AFT trainings, we have a history of talking while we are walking. For that matter, we talk during plane flights and during cribbage games, and, well, you get the picture!
KG
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