As fall semester closes, Assistant Principal Rachel Shepherd has left her position at Watauga High School to become the Associate Director of Empowering Teacher Learning at Appalachian State University. As the testing coordinator for Watauga High School, Shepherd wanted to serve in her position at the high school until testing was complete to best serve students, faculty, and other administrators. However, the winter weather had other plans, and Dr. Shepherd has now joined the staff at ASU. Shepherd describes the Empowering Teacher Learning program (ETL) as a program that coexists side-by-side with the GEAR UP program, with which many Watauga students are familiar.
The Empowering Teacher Learning is “a federal grant program that is doing research on allowing teachers to choose the professional learning activities that they want to participate in so that they can grow and become better educators,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd compared the ETL’s goals for teachers to standards-based grading for students. If a student can master a skill in 5 math problems, she said, there is no need for them to complete 50. If teachers demonstrate that they’ve mastered a skill, they can move on to new professional goals at their ideal pace.
“The program at App is actually partnered with NC State and the Friday Institute,” said Shepherd. “So we have other organizations that we're working with and through to try to get this off the ground. And there are a lot of teachers in Watauga County who are participating in this program.”
Although she is confident that her new position will help her continue to grow as a leader and a learner, Shepherd’s decision to step away from Watauga was beyond difficult.
“I've literally been in public schools as a student, a coach, a teacher, something, since I was four years old. This is my entire life,” Shepherd said. “So this was a really, really hard decision.”
Additionally, working with ETL, Shepherd will have more flexibility than a public high school can offer. She sees this freedom as an opportunity to further prioritize her family and children while enjoying her work herself.
“There's a huge time commitment and stress level that goes with being an administrator in a comprehensive high school of this size,” said Shepherd. “I have four kids, and my youngest just started kindergarten. This will give me an opportunity to be a parent to my own kids.”
Learning is Shepherd’s number one priority, and she is adamant that, more than anything, she has a desire to learn.
“I really feel like when you stop learning, when you stop growing, you just stagnate. I'm first and foremost a learner,” Shepherd said. “I enjoy learning. I enjoy research. I enjoy writing about stuff. I really like it. I know that if you put that in there, everybody's going to be like, ‘she's a weirdo.’ But I really enjoy doing that.”
Shepherd became an administrator in hopes that she could learn about education, share her knowledge for the good of a school, and develop genuine connections with high school students. Although Dr. Shepherd will not work in a classroom or public school building, she sees her transition as expanding her impact on students, not disconnecting herself from them.
“I became an administrator because I wanted to feel like I had an opportunity to make a difference for teachers and for kids on a bigger scale than I felt like I could in a classroom,” Shepherd said. “I hope that I've been able to do that at least a little bit. But I think this will give me an opportunity to do that on an even bigger level.”
Shepherd will miss Watauga for a simple reason: the students. In a way that students don’t often encounter, Dr. Shepherd simply loves teenagers. She loves having genuine conversations, and she loves both teaching and learning from them.
“Man, I’m going to miss kids,” said Shepherd. “They can be frustrating. Yes, sometimes they do really stupid things. But they're also really cool people. When you see them coming in in ninth grade they're a little awkward. Sometimes they're a little wacky, maybe do things that they shouldn't do. But then you get to see them walk across the stage. It's the combination of everything you work for.”
Just as Dr. Shepherd proudly watches Watauga students cross the stage at graduation, well-equipped for their next stage of learning, Watauga now watches Dr. Shepherd step into a new role where she will continue to learn from, inspire, and transform both students and teachers.
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