I have been at FCCPS for almost 6 years. This is my 24th year in the classroom, from New York City to D.C. to Falls Church.
Kids are kids, no matter where you teach. There are some kids I worry about and think about when I wake up in the middle of the night. Some kids have amazingly generous spirits and give me hope for the future. Some kids challenge me and test my patience all…year…long. Some kids surprise me and make so much progress that I wonder if it was them, me, or some perfect combination of the two.
As amazing as they are—and I wouldn’t have a job without them—it’s not the kids that make FCCPS different from other schools. It’s the adults. The “secret sauce” is that FCCPS has employed a large group of genuinely nice human beings. There wasn’t one pivotal moment that made me realize this. Rather, several things, all compounded, add up to my overwhelmingly positive feelings about our school system.
I started teaching at Mount Daniel in the fall of 2019. Before the school year started, our principal, Tim Kasik, wanted to meet with me. I assumed he wanted to ensure I knew the curriculum, what to do the first day, etc. Nope. Tim wanted to tell me how important it is to treat the students respectfully. He told me that the teachers at Mount Daniel speak to the students with a kind tone. And that was it. That was the whole meeting.
And that told me all I needed to know about my new principal. Number one: He trusted that I knew what I was doing. He didn’t need to go over the curriculum with me, he didn’t need to make sure I was going to offer a “rigorous” experience for the students. He hired me, an 18 year veteran teacher, and he had faith that I knew how to do my job. And number two (and more importantly): He wanted me to know that how we treat the children matters. You might be thinking: “Duh, of course that matters,” but to have your new boss have a meeting with you just to tell you that speaks volumes.
I spent my first year at Mount Daniel teaching Kindergarten. I was the 9th teacher in the grade, and I knew from the getgo that depending on the number of students the following school year, it would quite possibly be only a one-year job. I was unbelievably sad when this inevitable reality came, not because I liked teaching kindergarten so much (although I did).
The reason was that the group of kindergarten teachers was undeniably the warmest, kindest group of people I had ever worked with in my entire life. Every day, these people were nice to the students, me, and each other, and it never wavered. I had never worked with a team like that before, and it was so hard to leave something that brought me so much comfort and happiness. I cried when I found out I had to switch grades, but as luck would have it, I fell into another crew that I quickly grew to love just as dearly.
That brings me to my final “special sauce” idea, which, like the others, involves the adults at FCCPS.
When the kindergarten gig ended, I moved to second grade. Since I wasn’t new to the school when I switched grades, I didn’t have a support buddy, mentor, etc., but… I was new to teaching second grade and could have used one. Motrya Manalac took it upon herself to help me out. I didn’t ask her, and she just did it. She shared her lesson plans, worksheets, and everything under the sun to make my first year easier. The other members of my team — Julie Custer, Natalie Gray, Christine Stillwagoner, Gail Bodner, Ally Bodmer, Gina Thacker, and Amanda Morey — are no different.
On any given day, if I go into the classroom of any second-grade teacher to ask a question or to borrow something for a lesson, they immediately drop what they are doing and help. And it’s not just that they stop and help; it’s done in a friendly way that doesn’t make you feel like you are being annoying. That’s not a little thing. When I talk about anything teaching-related with them, I can tell how dedicated they are and how much they care about their work.
If I want to share a laugh or eat lunch together, someone on the team always wants to do that. These kinds of interactions might seem small every day, but they all add up and give me that good feeling that makes me happy to go to work each day. Teaching means the world to me, but I know how fortunate I am also to enjoy the adults I interact with at work. It makes a huge difference.
I could mention countless other adults who make my day-to-day life at work wonderful. Jed Jackson regularly offers small compliments about my teaching, just in passing, like if we run into each other in the teacher’s workroom. Without fail, Lindsey Covey is supportive and kind. She leaves an incredibly thoughtful, kind note if she pops into my classroom. And Michelle Goldberg somehow finds the time in her day to talk about anything happening in my classroom, whether big or small. The list goes on and on.
It might sound corny, but kindness truly is contagious, and that’s definitely the case at Mount Daniel. So that’s it—the secret sauce, in my opinion, is a huge cohort of wonderful adults who are dedicated to their jobs, who care about their students, and who are simply (though it’s no small thing) nice to one another.
About Diane Kidder: A second grade classroom teacher at Mount Daniel Elementary, Diane received her Bachelor of Science from James Madison University and her Master of Education from The Bank Street College of Education. Diane has been teaching for 24 years. She is a resident of Falls Church City. Her husband is a teacher as well, teaching high school art in Fairfax County. Diane and her husband have two sons who attend FCCPS schools, one at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School and the other at Meridian High School.