The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast

Joy and Empowerment in Teaching with Missy Testerman

R. Scott Lee, Ph.D. Season 2025 Episode 10

National Teacher of the Year for 2024-2025 Missy Testerman uses her position to advocate for the teaching profession. In this conversation, she shares how even in times of stress and upheaval there is great joy and positivity in the education profession.

Scott Lee: Greetings friends and colleagues, welcome to The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast, the professional educator’s thought partner-a service of Oncourse Education Solutions. I am Scott Lee. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and education organizations please visit our website at www.oncoursesolutions.net and reach out. 

For today’s conversation, I am joined by Missy Testerman the 2024-25 National Teacher of the Year. Missy was a first and second grade teacher at Rogersville City School in Rogersville, Tennessee for three decades before earning and English as a Second Language endorsement and becoming her school and district’s ESL specialist and ESL program director. Missy used her year of service as National Teacher of the Year to empower teachers to advocate for students and fellow educators by using their voices and sharing their experiences with those outside of the classroom. We will discuss her belief in teachers embracing their role as education experts to inform decision makers in support of meeting all students’ needs. But we’ll start by discussing her journey as a classroom teacher and her later career change becoming an ESL teacher.

Welcome to the Thoughtful Teacher Podcast, Missy. 

Missy Testerman: Thank you so much, Scott. I'm thrilled to be here. 

Scott Lee: Thank you for, joining us today. First off can you share a little bit about why you decided to become an elementary school teacher in the first place?

Missy Testerman: Oh, absolutely. I think I knew Scott from the moment I stepped foot into a classroom as a five-year-old that I was destined to be a teacher. It was my very first ever school experience and my teacher's name was Mrs. Brown. She was wonderful. She was so welcoming and energetic and I just fell in love with her.

I fell in love with our classroom, and more importantly, I fell in love with the entire teaching and learning process. I was amazed that she could tell us stuff and then we knew it. So, whenever I would go home, I would go home and play school with my dolls and stuffed animals. My 2-year-old sister, she was not a good student, I would just like to state that for the record. But. I just knew, I think from that moment, and I was really lucky throughout my career that I had loving, nurturing teachers who assured me that I would be an excellent teacher. So, I think I, it was just all I ever wanted to be. 

Scott Lee: Yeah. And then at a time after decades, literally in the classroom at a time when a lot of people are sometimes even thinking about retirement, you decided to go back and get another endorsement. And maybe some people thought that was cool, others thought it was crazy. Tell us about that. 

Missy Testerman: So that shocked even me. I can honestly say that was something I did not have on my adult Bingo card. I had taught first and second grades for 30 years and I wasn't ready to retire because I loved teaching. My own children were grown, so I loved having young ones still in my life. But all of that changed in August, 2021 when one of my very best school friends came to me and said that she was going to be leaving our school at the end of the school year because her husband was taking a job in another part of Tennessee.

And instantly my heart sank because she was our school's ESL teacher, and she wasn't just their teacher, she was their community advocate. She was the liaison between school and home. She made sure that those students were treated fairly and equitably. We had been able to co-teach for years. She had been in our system around 15 years, and so every year I was the person lucky enough to get to teach those students, which meant I get to, I got to teach with her as well.

I didn't know anyone else certified to teach ESL. You know, in rural east Tennessee, you don't have a lot of people who are certified to teach that. So, I worried about what would happen to that segment of our school population and the very next day I received an email from the State of Tennessee explaining Tennessee's Grow Your Own Program.

And at that time, the program wasn't just setting up pathways for people to become teachers, it was actually offering already employed teachers teaching in Tennessee systems a way to add a hard to fill licensure area to add that endorsement to their license. And one of the options was ESL. The other two were high school math and special education. So, I went to our director of schools and asked that he nominate me because each school system can nominate one person. And his, his reply was, it wasn't negative, but it was more of, “I don't know why you would want to do that. You will retire before you ever use that. We only need one of those teachers and we have one.”

And of course, I couldn't divulge her confidence. So, it was a big secret. My husband and my superintendent were the only people to know at first. No. After people found out, I think there probably were some inklings of, “you are crazy. Why did you do that?” But I can honestly say it's a decision that I have never regretted ever.

I, I would do it again and again and again if I had had the opportunity to go back and, and make that decision again. 

Scott Lee: And now your new position, or your new role is involved with the Grow Your Own program. Is that right? 

Missy Testerman: Yes. So interestingly enough, I now work with, the people who made that pathway possible, including the person who wrote the email that was now to Tennessee teachers. When I was national Teacher of the Year during my active year of service back in January, I was able to speak at a convening of registered apprenticeship and teaching professionals in Austin, and it's kind of funny because I got up and told that story. And there was a young man at, one of the tables and, and I see him on his phone; which you see people when you're speaking sometimes on their phone, you know, and it's hard for the teacher and you not to say, “please put your phone away.”

But anyway, what he was doing was he was looking up in his info, that email, because he knew that he was the author of that email. So, he, he came up to me after it was over and explained, the story behind it and we just kind of laughed because, who, who knew that later our path would cross. And then he's actually now a, a colleague. So that's, that's just kind of a crazy small world type thing. 

Scott Lee: So, tell us a little bit about, Rogersville and Rogersville City School. 'cause even, even by rural school districts, a very small district. Isn't that right? 

Missy Testerman: It it is. And I think sometimes people are kind of amazed to think that the 2024 National Teacher of the Year came from such a very small school system. So, Rogersville is unlike [most] school systems anywhere. We are a one school, school district, meaning we have one school in our entire district. We serve around 650 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

We do not even have a nineth grade. So, when our students leave us after eighth grade, they must actually go into the county system, Hawkins County, where they finish their high school education. So that means we have this one really. Old historic 102-year-old building with additions added onto it.

And inside that building are all of our students, our instructional staff, all of our central office staff, our administrators, even our director of schools. So, while a lot of teachers say things I hear all the time, “I don't even know. I wouldn't know my superintendent if he or she walked in the room.” While we saw ours or see ours every single day. He sees us every single day. He actually shares a restroom with fifth grade boys because that's where his office is. So, it, it's a very different situation than most school setups. 

Scott Lee: So, a lot of times, other teachers don't always know what, the ESL or ELL teachers do. What are some things that you wish other teachers knew about their school, ESL program or ESL teachers and what all they do? 

Missy Testerman: I, I'm so thankful that you asked that question because even though I was really close to our school's ESL teacher and I, I had some degree of understanding of what, what she did. I didn't really understand just how much she did. I told someone when I first took, over in that role that it was a lot like fighting fires with a million arsonists on the premises because you would start out teaching at eight o'clock and then you would get a phone call that someone needs a copy of their birth certificate because they're going to the passport office and they've gotta have it right now.

So, then that involves you like taking your little group to the office, raffling through permanent records, finding a copy of that, making sure it's left in the office, or you would get calls about things such as I'm having a hard time getting a doctor's appointment scheduled. So, ESL teachers are not just teaching, they're not just serving as the liaison between the home and the school.

They're doing a lot of things like that that no one sees because they're doing it during their planning time, just during the course of, of the school day when they have a moment or two and, and. For me, that was probably the most eye-opening part of the job. Just how many extra things that they did because there was no one else to ask you know? It's not like, you or I, if we have a problem, we ask a friend or we call that entity and say, “Hey, I need an appointment to get my child's immunizations up to date.” 

If there's a limited English background that's difficult to do. So, a lot of times they would send me a message on a translation portal that we used and tell me that was going on, and a lot of times it wasn't to ask me to do it, it was never to ask me to do it.

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. 

Missy Testerman: It was to ask if I could help the child practice doing it. And a lot of those things we're talking 6, 7, 8-year-old children who should not have to be the one calling to negotiate with the electric company or calling, asking for a refill of, of medication. So, sometimes I inserted myself, I always asked first if it was okay, obviously, but it wasn't like they were demanding it-It was never like that. They, they trusted me so much and they trusted the teacher before me. She had built this trust culture. They trusted me enough to ask and I consider that to be an honor and our, our support teachers, whether it's ESL or special education or reading specialists, they're also working with students and they're so vested, not just in the students they serve, but the students who are in the classrooms with the students that they, they serve. So that was sort of surprising to me as well. It's really difficult for me to think that I just had these kids to work with. I considered every kid who was in that classroom if I was co-teaching, to also be one of my students at, at that time. 

Scott Lee: Yeah. When I switched over from teaching history to, special education, I found the same thing I realized there's all these other things that I needed to be doing with families. So, a lot of similarities there. So, let's change gears a little bit and talk about last year, this past school year as National Teacher of the Year, you had the opportunity to advocate for everybody in the profession. What were some of the highlights of doing that? 

Missy Testerman: Yes Absolutely. The highlights will always be the people that I met, the, the good work that I saw them doing, and just the affirmation that what I knew to be true from seeing the teachers at Rogersville City School also played out across this country.

America's teachers are rock stars, not just America's teachers, but America's school staff I was in West Texas in a school. On a school visit, and this kid, for whatever reason, I never got to the bottom of it, but he actually wore a pair of oven mints to school as shoes, and he was so proud.

One of them had a bunch of cacti on it, and one of them had like rabbits and he was so proud. But you know, I watched the school secretary literally go get a container of water and wash this child's really dirty feet and then put socks and shoes on him. 'cause he was a little guy.

I mean, we're talking like 5, 6 years old. And that's the kind of work that actually goes on in schools all day, every day. It's not just delivering instructional content, it's taking care of, of the whole, whole child. I had the opportunity, one of the last events that I did as the National Teacher of the year, just a few weeks ago, was to speak to a conference of close to 4,000 young people who want to enter the teaching profession. So, these are high school and college students and I was out by the pool the afternoon before I spoke, just relaxing, which didn't get to happen a lot during last year. So, the fact that I had a couple of hours before I had to get ready, I took advantage of that. But next to me was a teacher who was giving, part of her own personal summertime. Unpaid totally. To bring these students to have this opportunity, supervising them, having a very serious conversation with a young lady about what should be expected in a relationship and, and just kind of parameters that it's not okay for someone to ask you to tell where you are 24-7. “You are 17 years, years old” and I was like teachers serve so many different roles in, in our society. Particularly those, those middle and high school teachers, during kids' formative years of trying to merge their way into the lanes of, of adulthood. 

But it was, it was always the people and always just the fact that everyone's working so hard to help the students be able to come out into the world and create a really good future for themselves.

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. And you've been somewhat pointed in some of your comments about policy and policymakers and what some of their goals are. And I greatly appreciate that, a year ago while speaking about actions of our legislature, both of us are from Tennessee, you said,

quote, “schools had to hire somebody to scan every book in the building, and this was something that happened about three years ago. Had to scan every book in the building under the guise that pornography is lurking in a kindergarten classroom. Yet we do not have the funding to hire a behaviorist to help with the kindergartners who are disrupting classrooms every day.”

Do you see things improving and why or why not? 

Missy Testerman: That's, that's an interesting question because as you and I both know, in some states, public education is, is under attack, and what I always caution anyone to understand is that. Anytime you hear an attack coming from someone who doesn't spend a lot of time in a public school classroom, that person is not the best source of information.

And so, if you're concerned about what's going on in your child's school or your community school, reach out first of all to that school. Reach out to people who work in that school because a lot of the, the things that are rumored to be happening. I'll be honest, I can't imagine happening anywhere. And the people who know are the people who are in public schools doing the work, and they can tell you real quickly, “listen, we, we just want them to able to get a pencil out and to, and to get started.”

So that's always my response to things like that when people are, are concerned about things that they see and, and hear said about public schools. Because honestly, I, I spent 33 years of my adulthood not, not including my own school years and in a public school, I had the opportunity last year to still be in public schools all over the country and all I see are people who are really vested in the lives of children and young people and wanting them to be able to succeed. 

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. And is there, anything that, that you can think of that we should do? 'cause I, I know what you were referring to when you said that, and one of the problems was that the legislature passed a law, and they never had hearings about it. They never had teachers come up and ask them even if this was happening. It was literally rumor driven. 

Missy Testerman: Yes. 

Scott Lee: And is there anything more we should be doing as a profession, I guess, to, to, to fight back? 

Missy Testerman: Absolutely. So, part of my platform, I as the National Teacher of the Year, was to express to teachers that their voices are needed and their voices are needed because they are the classroom experts. They are the ones who literally report to work every single day in a classroom and. Their real-life stories of the successes they see and also the challenges that they face are very, very important. So, it's important that we tell those stories and it's important especially to people who are in policy making roles, people on school board, people on city council, you know, people within the legislature.

Because the reality is that most of the people who are in the state legislature. I feel like in any state, most of them are products of public school. Most of them have students who went to public school. Most of them support public schools. Their voices are just, just kind of overshadowed by those ones who are seeking attention, saying certain things.

So, I feel like if you reach out and you let your legislators know, “listen! Those things aren't true, but here's how you guys could help us.” Our kids are facing a mental health crisis. We could use funding for counselors to help address that because at the same time, our young people are facing a mental health crisis.

We are at a point in history where people actually are our students, our youngest people are less likely to seek outside care, so that's why we've got to make these options available within the school so that these young people who need the support are able to get that so that they're able to achieve academically because achieving academically is only going to come after that person is well enough emotionally to be able to learn.

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So, something else that, that you said, and this also was about a year ago, “Teaching is an immensely hard job. There's so many demands placed on teachers, and the emotional workload is, is every bit as hard as the physical workload. But I want teachers to remember that there will always be a joy in education and they are joy makers, and I think about that.”

Especially now surveys are showing that that teaching is becoming, quite possibly the most stressful job that there is. I mean, we're, we're talking teaching is, is getting to be the level of nursing type of stress being reported now. So, what can be done or what would you suggest be done to help folks center on that joy of learning?

Missy Testerman: That's, that this is a really hard topic because teaching is in indeed stressful. I think even during the best years of my teaching career, it was still stressful. And when you're talking about, the, the comparison to an emergency nurse, teachers make thousands of decisions. All day, every day.

And the younger the student, the more decisions the teacher is, is required to make. But it's really easy to focus on the part that is stressful and it's true, but I always tell teachers, focus on living throughout the day. And those days will, they're kinda like a bank account. It will compound. You make little deposits every single day, and over the course of the year, you're going to start adding back some of that, that interest, so to speak.

And by the end of the year, you'll have a really big dividend, but it's just hard to see that every single day. But for me it always helped to focus on those students who were in my classroom to do the best that I could for them. That day. But I think it's also really important that teachers understand they have to take care of themselves as well. If you're not in a good place emotionally yourself because you're exhausted from the stress of the job that's going to play a part in how effective you are. So, you have to do things to take care of yourself physically and emotionally. And it's okay to turn. To turn school off. Now, here's the little secret.

You were a teacher, Scott. Teachers never completely turn it off. We wake up in the middle of the night worried about someone else's child. That's, that's just the nature of, of this job. But it's okay to put away the work because in 33 years, I left work there and when I came back, not one time had anyone ever broken in and done my work.

So, it'll always be there when you, when you get back. But something I think that can help, like whenever we're talking about what actions can we do to make this better I feel like that we have to, when I say we, I mean public education as an entity has to invest into creating a really solid workforce again, so that our teachers who are in the classroom aren't so overwhelmed trying to help everyone else all of the time.

I feel like one of the things that we've done across the country during the time that we had a shortage of teachers, and I say all the time, I'm not sure there's a teacher shortage, there's a shortage of people who are willing to teach. We have a lot of trained teachers out there. They're just not in our classrooms. But we've kind of just gotten crazy in some places and let about anyone come into a classroom without the kind of training that you need to be successful, number one, that's stressful for, for that person. I feel really badly for someone coming into a classroom without adequate training, but it's also stressful on our teachers who are there, particularly our leader teachers who want to help other people, but they just don't have the time to do their job and to handhold someone else through that. 

So, one of the things we have to do is make sure when we're onboarding new teachers, that they get the support that they need so that they're able to be successful in their classrooms. And I feel like that's going to help us retain teachers over the long run instead of teachers coming out of college, going into the field for three or four years and then leaving, and then schools having to start all over again.

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it continues to be a problem. You and I started teaching at about the same time, and at that time half of all teachers were leaving within the first five years, and that hasn't changed. So yeah, hugely important to, to find ways to help, help with retention and, and make it so people want to stay and stay longer.

So, do you have a couple other stories, that you'd like to share from the last year? Just any, any story you'd like.

Missy Testerman: Sure. So, whenever I, I think of all the opportunities I had to meet people all across the country I think of those teachers that waited in line to talk to me after I spoke, and that, that blew me away.

I had sat, as a teacher through tons of keynotes and trainings and if I pass someone, I might be like, “I really enjoyed it,” or I would complete the survey very positively, but I was blown away by the people who wait to talk to you after it's over. When I say blown away, I mean really, really touched and I had a couple of, of things that happened in, in completely different states politically and, and geographically. But one of the first speaking engagements that I, I actually completed as the National Teacher of the year was in a neighboring state to Tennessee, and I had a young lady who waited. I mean, she honestly probably waited about. 40 minutes to get to talk to me.

And when she got up there, her concern was that ESL students in her school were not being served because she was in a really remote part of this state and they just simply were not sending anyone up there. And in her state, like in Tennessee, ESL services are, are supposed to be delivered daily. So, I, I listened to her and then I just kind of helped guide her to where she could look up her state's policies and then I suggested, “reach out to your building principal first if it doesn't get addressed, and maybe reach out to the person in charge of federal programs.”

And I completely forgot about that conversation until late in April, and I was checking my school email and there was a message from her. She had looked me up on my school website and she was telling me that for the first time, since she had been in that school for three years, the students in that school were now all getting ESL services because she had been able to advocate for, for the services that they deserve.

And she was talking about what a difference that it made academically. So, she cared enough to wait in line, not for herself, for those students that she saw who she knew deserved and they were supposed to be getting that type of, of extra services. And there were multiple times throughout the year, this past year, where I had teachers who came up and they were just worn out emotionally and physically, and I was in a state where they have allowed anyone who has a college degree or served in the military to come in and teach at any grade level. And so, this young lady she had taught eight years. She was in a school where they had eight third grade teachers and she was the only one certified.

Well, state law says that anytime there's an M-team or 504 meeting, that has to be a certified teacher. So, this young lady was having to go to M-teams and 504s for every single student in third grade, and no one knew how to do planning. So, she was doing all the planning, and then she said that it was to the point where if they had students misbehave, they were bringing them.

To her and, and she said to me, “I want to find the joy that you have because I had that and I don't, and I'm going to, to leave.” And, and then she just, completely crumpled, lost it, was sobbing and, and heaving. And, and I'm a mom, you know, I'm a teacher, but I'm a mom before and anything. So, I, I hugged her and I said, “this is how things are and this is how you feel. You need to leave, but don't leave the field. Leave your school, leave your school district if you need to, but find a teaching position in another place that's doing things differently because I promised that Joy is, is still there.” 

And again, I had not even thought of her whatsoever. And she sent me a message on Instagram literally less than a month ago, and she was like, “I just want you to know I did look for another job and I'm going to try.

Another district that has much better retention practices” and so forth. Because I think a lot of times when we are teaching and we're in those moments like where she was, where she was just wiped out, she wanted to do best by her students and all those other students who weren't hers, but by de facto reasons where I think we get locked into this absolute, “this is bad. I need to get out.” 

I mean, you can have a bad day. You can even have a bad job. It doesn't mean you have a bad career. And when you think of accountants, most of the time when they're unhappy, they just change firms. Go somewhere else where it gets better, and like teachers need to see it that way before you give up on the field that you loved and that you still probably deep-down love, make some changes to let you see if you can find that joy again.

Scott Lee: Do you have any other resources you'd like to suggest, and are you gonna keep your Instagram account going and all that? 

Missy Testerman: Yes. So fun fact, I did not have Instagram until the day before I was named the National Teacher of the Year.

We actually set that up in my hotel room in, in New York City, and I wasn't even thinking, but at the time I had a friend who reached out and she was like, “Is it you? Why would you be starting an Instagram?” Because I had not been a social media person. I'd had an X account, but not an Instagram that will still still be there.

But the best resources for teachers are always going to be other teachers they trust, and we live in a digital age where it's easy to make connections with online groups within your specialty. Because you know, at my school there's only one ESL teacher. There are no more in my district because we're the only school in our district.

But you can go online and find, I don't wanna call them support groups, but resource groups for ESL teachers. So, my only caution about social media groups is to stay away from people who are, who are just platforming the bad things. 

Scott Lee: Mm-hmm. 

Missy Testerman: We have enough of that in our own lives. If those people want to be unhappy, that is up to them. Let them be unhappy. You don't need to go home and, and do that. Just try to, you know, keep it, keep it positive. 'cause there is joy in teaching. 

Scott Lee: Mm-hmmm. Well, once again, thank you so much for joining us, Missy. Missy Testerman, National Teacher of the Year for the 2024-2025 year. 

Missy Testerman: Thank you so much for having me today, Scott. I enjoyed it.

Scott Lee: The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is brought to you as a service of Oncourse Education Solutions. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and youth organizations strengthening learning cultures and developing more resilient youth, please visit our website at w w w dot oncoursesolutions dot net. Also, please follow me on social media, my handle on Instagram and Bluesky is @drrscottlee and on Mastodon @drrscottlee@universedon.com

 

This has been episode 10 of the 2025 season. If you enjoy this podcast, please tell your friends and colleagues about us, in person and on social media. Also, five-star reviews on your podcast app helps others find us. The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is a production of Oncourse Education Solutions LLC, Scott Lee producer. Guest was not compensated for appearance, nor did guest pay to appear. Episode notes, links and transcripts are available at our website w w w dot thoughtfulteacherpodcast dot com. Theme music is composed and performed by Audio Coffee.