My Letter to Okeechobee County Schools' Teacher of the Year Kellyann Campbell, who made it back-to-back county TOYs for Yearling Middle School

Dear Kellyann,

Thank you for your perseverance in becoming a leader. When I asked you to leave your algebra and geometry classroom to become our math instructional coach in the spring of 2019, you and I discussed the challenges entwined with being a Yearling Middle School alumnus and an Okeechobee High school graduate – a lifetime member of our Okeechobee community – and stepping into a leadership role alongside many colleagues who you’ve known for a lifetime. I remember our first talks about defining leadership. We discussed how school leadership is all about making others better at their jobs, resulting in increased student achievement. We also discussed how coaching teachers requires the courage and character to hold courageous conversations with colleagues. We discussed how you would have to be able to provide constructive criticism and feedback, knowing this sometimes makes you unpopular. But as our Okeechobee County School District’s vision states, it’s about putting students first. It isn’t a popularity contest. Effective leaders aren’t always popular rather their focus is on the good of the whole. You have coached our teachers to deepen their mastery of instructional strategies and that coaching has resulted in our math department producing the highest rates of student proficiency on our campus. You have grown into a true leader, one who puts students first and who has the courage and integrity to challenge teachers. And you’ve don’t it in a way that also shows compassion for teachers and has resulted in not only increased student achievement but also staff buy-in to our instructional system. It has been an honor to be part of your growth and to watch as you make such an enormous positive impact on our students and staff. 

Thank you for your endless resolve to make YMS better.  I’m not a doctor but if I drew your blood today I’m pretty sure your blood’s color would be purple and white – our YMS school colors. You have expressed on so many occasions your deeply rooted desire to contribute to making YMS a model school. To the point of raw emotion, you have expressed an unalterable commitment to supporting our teachers and students to achieving our school’s vision that we established in 2018 of guiding ALL students to preparation for success in college and or career and in life. You have contributed far beyond your job description as math instructional coach to help guide all YMS systems to ensure that they support our pursuit of our vision. 

Thank you for leading data-driven, collaborative teams of teachers. In one or your primary systems of work at YMS, you have done a masterful job of guiding our collaborative learning team system with our teachers. As our teachers work in grade-level, subject-area teams, you provide guidance as they work through a cycle of work including: Identifying target standards, unwrapping standards, developing targeted instructional plans emphasizing differentiated instruction, creation of common formative assessments, and applying data from the common formative assessments to drive instruction. You have provided coaching for our teacher teams as they work to master this process, guiding and facilitating the work, providing feedback to our collaborative learning teams’ products, and working to ensure that all teacher teams across YMS are growing to master our instructional system. You are painting with a wide brush and impacting instruction all across our campus and thereby touching all students’ learning. 

Thank you for leading and helping other teachers grow. You have developed and delivered professional development workshops based on data that has informed us about our teachers’ individual needs. You have worked to close gaps among our staff in our critical instructional elements of conditions for learning, standards-based instruction, collaborative learning, and authentic learning. In addition, you have worked with teachers in coaching cycles in which you provide objective feedback to teachers, analyze exemplary-level instruction, and work collaboratively with teachers to develop action plans for instructional growth. You have emerged as a highly effective mentor and instructional leader.

Thank you for spreading your wings and having the confidence to push me. I smile as I share this with our YMS community and beyond. You are a pistol in every sense of that term! During our official weekly leadership discussions and our daily unofficial talks, you push me to consider all elements of support our campus requires to be as successful as possible. You have the self-confidence to speak up, to question, to make suggestions, to push for better ideas. When I promoted you to math instructional coach, I did so with the hope you would make me better. You have. 

Thank you for exemplifying and representing the amazing work our YMS staff is doing on a daily basis. You are now our county’s teacher of the year and will be considered for Florida’s state teacher of the year. And it is completely deserved and our teacher of the year committee in Okeechobee got it right. They got it right for the second consecutive year. Last year’s YMS and Okeechobee County School District Teacher of the Year Krista Stanley went on to be named Florida’s state teacher of the year by the Florida Department of Education. Krista deserved that with her exemplary practice for achieving instructional and cultural equity for all of her students. And you, Kellyann, deserve it for 2022, for your work not only with students but in building leadership capacity and empowering all teachers across YMS to deliver instructional equity for all YMS students.  You are a representation of the outstanding work and development of our staff at YMS who all share the commitment to building strong, positive conditions for learning, standards-based instruction, collaborative learning, and authentic learning. You have mastered these elements, after all, in your final year in the classroom, 99% of your students tested proficient on the state’s end-of-course exams. We have so many deserving teachers at YMS who have formed a collaborative system of instructional excellence, and I thank you for representing that excellence for all YMS teachers. Our school deserves this recognition and our staff is transforming instruction and learning for all YMS students. At YMS, we have many teachers who are exemplifying this mastery level instructional work with our students. You, Krista Stanley and many more are leading that work. It is breathtaking!

With the Ultimate Respect, Admiration, and Gratitude,

Dave