Leading with a Passion for Teaching Kids

Payton’s passion for teaching was ignited while coaching young children in the Parks & Rec program. After earning his degree in Education from UW-Green Bay, he became a sixth-grade social studies teacher. With aspirations to become a principal, Payton furthered his education by completing the Masters of Applied Leadership for Teaching and Learning program at UW-Green Bay. This program perfectly aligns with his vision of becoming a leader in education.

Transcript: I chose the Masters for Applied Leadership in Teaching and Learning because it was a wonderful opportunity to get to dive into content that was specific to what I was studying and get into the foundations of education was really valuable to me. To understand how things work and where it goes and what I can do as an educator to make a difference on a daily basis, was awesome. In a schedule that works for me. Uh, we came to class on Saturdays and sometimes have night classes so it worked really well with my already busy schedule. I enjoyed any class where I got to explore my own thesis and the opportunity to work directly with people around me and my professors on something that I was interested in to form into my thesis was super fun for me. I conducted interviews with teachers who are also coaches throughout the whole process and looked for emergent themes to see how they could be applied through an action plan to an everyday classroom. My project was based on goal setting and teams in the classroom and how it’s applicable to everyday learning. I use it on a regular basis by tracking leadership points with my students, setting goals with them and showing them what effective goals are and how they can use them in the classroom every day. I have such a passion for learning that I want to pass that passion on to students. To get them to see their potential is something that is really fulfilling for me and I hope eventually fills their bucket as well. I would describe my professors as passionate and flexible. They work really hard to make it work for us. Their flexibility allows us to explore many different things on a deeper level and I had such a wonderful experience with all of them that now I have a connection with them outside of the classroom and talking to them about my own classroom on a regular basis. They are more friend than Professor. My master’s degree in Applied Leadership in Teaching and Learning allowed me to step into a different pay scale as a teacher. It will make it easier to get my administrator’s license in the future and it allowed me to land a sixth-grade job as a social studies and science teacher at a local school district.