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Dr. Dolores Cormier-Zenon, NBCT - President Louisiana National Board Certified Teacher Network
71 Plays11 months ago
Dr. Dolores Cormier-Zenon is a National Board Certified Teacher with over 25 years in education. She served as President of ASCD (Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development), the co-founder/President of the PC2 Education Foundation, and founder/vice-chair of the National Board Network of Accomplished Minority Educators (NAME). Additionally, she serves as President of the Louisiana National Board Certified Teacher Network while supporting underprivileged students to achieve post-secondary academic success. Cormier-Zenon was recognized by the Louisiana Department of Education as a Distinguished Educator in 2004, significantly impacting change in challenging schools and districts to elevate their commitment to educators, families, and students' social-emotional and academic needs. Cormier-Zenon later earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2012 and continues to promote a focus on diverse topics that influence equity, advocacy, and policy, teacher leadership, professional practice, family engagement, and high-quality instruction that impacts the whole child. In response to COVID, she founded the WISE OWL Scholar Academy to challenge and support students in a safe and healthy environment. Dr. Zenon espouses the belief that “Every child, every zip code, no matter their circumstance.”
Twitter: @NBPTS
Instagram: @NBPTS
Facebook: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
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Transcript
Introduction of Dr. Delores Cormier-Zenon
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of National Board Conversations. We have another great guest for you. In this episode, I speak with a decorated educator out of Louisiana. I am not a first time certified. It took me three years to do it. I get the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Delores Cormier-Zanon. She is passionate about education and speaks with a level of gravitas. You feel it as she speaks.
Dr. Zenon's Career and Achievements
00:00:23
Speaker
She's been at every level of education from the classroom to running for public office and has the stories to tell.
00:00:28
Speaker
Stay tuned for Dr. Dolores Cormier-Zenon. Dr. Dolores Cormier-Zenon, thank you for joining me on the podcast. Thank you for having me, Eddie. This is good. This is exciting. Glad to be here. I know. I feel like my whole time here at the National Board, you've been in the ethos of a lot of stuff around here. And so it's good to finally have a chance to really sit down and talk to you. So we're going to get right into it.
00:00:54
Speaker
Can you give us a brief intro yourself, your current role, and then I'm gonna got a couple of follow-ups to get into some personal anxiety.
Personal Interests and Inspirations
00:01:01
Speaker
Okay, I will try not to be long winded on this one, but presently I serve as the president of Louisiana National Board Certified Teaching Network in Louisiana. I am the founder and co-founder of WISE Wisdom Inspired Scholar Education Foundation. I am also the founder and co-founder and CEO of WISE Scholar Academy.
00:01:30
Speaker
Why is Owl Scholar Academy? Excuse me. So many things to roll off the tongue, right? I'm a national board server. You're doing it all over here. You know, I've ran for an office, a state office, just into a number of things. Served as past president of ASCD, which is Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. And the list goes on. I'm just excited to just continue to connect. Superstar, superstar. All right.
00:01:59
Speaker
What are your three favorite foods? My three favorite foods? Yeah. Oh, fried shrimp can't have it. But I love it. Shrimp. Let's see. One of the favorite food. Well, let's see. Pizza's good. Pizza's good. OK. Can't have that either, but that's good. Still have that, though. I can get away with it.
00:02:20
Speaker
And, oh, Gumbo. Oh man, Annie Donna Louisiana, we love it. All right, last three songs on your musical playlist. Oh, let's see. Last three songs. Oh, there's one by Sam Cooke. Oh, Sam Cooke.
00:02:43
Speaker
Yes, don't cook. The other name is like, Day's Gonna Come, Soon, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I like that song. And then, you know, a couple of Otis Redding, you know, yeah, just really enjoy that. And then, you know, of course, MJ. Yeah, I got him on here. Okay, okay, I like it. You got a nice little vibe of Eras.
00:03:08
Speaker
Okay, okay. A little bit of jazz and like cool James. Yeah, you down in Louisiana, you got a little jazz down there, like so many icons from down in that area. And I do like a little drink. Hey, listen, like I said, heiress, heiress, your musical spectrum is all over, is everywhere, I love it. Yes. All right, and last one, the one sports team that has your heart, and if you're not a sports fan, a movie you can recite line for line.
00:03:39
Speaker
Okay. You know, I'm hoping for my saints to finally do something. I'm just saying. In my house, we have this battle with between the cowboys or the saints, always the saints, you know? Oh man, tough year for the saints this year, but they'll get it together. It is, it's a tough year. That's okay, they'll survive. Yeah, they love it. It's what they call saints.
00:04:09
Speaker
All right, so now we're gonna get back into your career. Can you share why you became a teacher and why you remain in education? Well, you know, as a child, I had a unique opportunity to have a mentor in my family, which was my mother. And I would watch her and one day just watched her in her classroom
00:04:38
Speaker
just teach like as if it was a Picasso she was painting. And I was just in awe. And I said, you know, why should our kids be engaged and how they were all like every last one was in touch.
00:04:54
Speaker
She would do these cell, incredible edible cell projects and they had a portfolio and I was like, wow, and they are learning, you know? And I saw the excitement, I said, you know, I wanna do that. I wanna impact the lives of children. I wanna influence and change and let them see all they could possibly be.
Transition from Classroom to Educational Leadership
00:05:17
Speaker
And at that point, I was hooked. Man, early on. I was hooked, early on, early on.
00:05:24
Speaker
All right, so you've been in all levels of education. You were in administration, you did some other stuff. Why did you initially leave? Why did I leave education? I leave- No, I leave like the classroom. Sorry. Why did you leave the classroom at first?
00:05:42
Speaker
I wanted to expand and explore other areas and be in different arenas. I also discovered that in being those different arenas, I could come back to the classroom and make a better impact there. So I always had a classroom on the side. I always had a classroom.
00:06:02
Speaker
But leaving the systems classrooms to create my own classrooms was an opportunity to truly touch the minds and the goals for children who wouldn't have access otherwise. So leaving the classroom, I wanted to do something bigger. And I always said to myself, if I ever stopped feeling as effective there, I would move on. And it just wasn't anything that I was doing. If I didn't feel like I was contributing in any way,
00:06:32
Speaker
I was moving and so, but I've enjoyed every experience and everything has contributed to the other. You pursued national, what, you pursued national board certification. What pushed you to pursue and what was your journey like? Did you achieve on your first try? Well, you know, my mother sat on the board and everybody thought, oh, you're going to be national board just because your mouth on the board. Doesn't work like that. Doesn't work like that.
00:07:00
Speaker
But I will tell you that in watching the excellence, I wanted to know what was it that I was doing for my students that was benefiting my students. I wanted to be the best for them because I felt they deserved to have the best of me.
00:07:17
Speaker
the best teacher and if i was doing it incorrectly or if i was doing something i needed to find out now because i did not want to destroy lives i wanted to enhance lives i wanted to bring about an opportunity for children to grow learn and believe that they could be touched that part of the soul where they could believe they could do anything
00:07:39
Speaker
And I wanted to be able to do that. And National Board really helped me to hone in and focus on where I was doing it, how I could do it better. Now it left me with the why, why, why, because I'm constantly, constantly looking and searching for the next better way to do it. And, oh, how can we do this? Oh,
Pursuing Certification and Its Impact
00:08:00
Speaker
this was great. Oh, we could do this. Oh, my students would love this. When I travel, I'm like, oh, I'm always thinking about how can I make society better?
00:08:08
Speaker
how could I do this better? And it's an investment. I take it as a ministry. I was called to do this. Oh, man. I can feel it. I feel it. And every time you speak, I feel it. Well, thank you. So how did becoming an MBCT impact your career? Well, once I became a National Board Certified Teacher, and I will tell you, and I'm going to back up just a little bit, I am not a first time certifier.
00:08:36
Speaker
it took me three years to do it. Yeah. And I was determined that, you know, I want to do the best and I'm going to learn. So in that process was a learning opportunity for me to grow both personally and professionally. Um, so in the three years, and you know, I missed the second year by one 10th of a point. So, you know, but I said, you know what, there's more for me to learn.
00:09:05
Speaker
And I picked myself up and said, you know what, Lord, it's me and you. Let's go. And focused on that. And so as a National Board Certified Teacher and certified has given me the confidence, the wherewithal to know and be strongly convicted. And this is what I know is right for children. And this is what I know will not work for children.
00:09:31
Speaker
And I'm more researched. I look for information. I'm going out there to get it so that I'm speaking to facts. So I own my profession more than I did before because I'm confident in the fact that every child deserves an accomplished teacher and every child deserves the best teacher and instructor in the classroom. Oh man, preach. So again, I mean,
00:10:01
Speaker
it's clearly had a huge impact on your career. Are there any tangible stories you can give us about where it brought you? Yes, actually it brought me to the State Department as a distinguished educator. I was very excited about that because I had an opportunity to go into schools that were underperforming and show them little possibilities and give them hope. You can make this happen. Our kids can learn. All of our kids can learn.
00:10:28
Speaker
I had an opportunity to travel the state to do that. I had an opportunity to run for a state office, Board of Elementor and Secondary Education, which was exciting because
00:10:38
Speaker
In all of my experiences with National Board, it's led me to diversity and all of those number of things. I was able to share that as well. I was able to co-found with other colleagues and myself, National Board Association for Honoritized Educators, which is N.B. Name. And it was the first, next to the BIE, was the first cross state
00:11:06
Speaker
affiliate network. I'm sorry. It was a first cross state network. So I was really excited about all those different things. And then it's also brought me to becoming president of ASCD to rise to the board. So I've had several opportunities and I'm still going.
Running for State Office and Educational Policy
00:11:28
Speaker
So you've touched on it. You ran for office in Louisiana. What pushed you to do that?
00:11:35
Speaker
Well, you know, we can always sit down and talk about what we want to do. I wanted to be about what we wanted to do. So I wanted to be about it. If I'm going to speak it, I need to model it and be in the space where I can give people an opportunity to share their voice. Since my platform was Voice for Education, I think it should be authentic. I believe that people should be heard. I believe that children and teachers and parents have a right to say what it is they think, feel,
00:12:05
Speaker
and believe, and together we can create a better educational system for all students. We should all be considered. We should never count a child out. So I ran for the office because I didn't want to count a child out. I wanted to make sure we made those impacts for every single child. Oh, man. So in what way do you believe national board certification prepared you for the challenges and responsibilities that had come with holding office?
00:12:35
Speaker
The process itself, just going through the process and reflection. The reflection has been, I think, I want to say that is the best, that's the caveat, the reflection. You're always thinking, well, how can I do this better? Well, how does this happen? Well, why did this happen? Who do I speak with? Reach out to my stakeholders, connect with people, collaborate with people. You're not a mountain or an island of yourself.
00:13:03
Speaker
it taught me to get out of the box and reach to other ways and research and try them out, test them, trial and error. And it gave me the confidence to do that, to do that and look for the evidence. Yeah, it takes a lot of confidence to put yourself out there like that. People keep telling me that.
00:13:34
Speaker
So considering your unique perspective as an NBCT, what policy changes or initiatives do you believe are crucial for improving the educational landscape?
00:13:44
Speaker
Oh, that's a great question, Eddie, because you know, and I believe in this across all states, actually. Some states are doing it better than others, but accountability is a major piece. We have to hold not just our teachers accountable, but our legislators accountable. We also need to hold our administrators accountable. We have students who, when we think about illiteracy in this country, and we think about
00:14:11
Speaker
poverty in this country, I mean, there should not be, we're in a nation where these things should not exist. When we think about diversity and having to force people to understand the differences and respect others' differences, those are also things that we should not, that should not exist, not in a country as we live now today.
Importance of Reading and Favorite Recommendations
00:14:35
Speaker
I also believe teacher preparation
00:14:38
Speaker
is important as well too. Preparing our teachers to be able to handle not just the traumatic situations for students, but how do we look at that child as an individual and ensure that that child is growing to who he or she is called to be, growing to their potential, not the way we think it should be, but the way they are molded to be.
00:15:02
Speaker
Teacher preparation, I think, is a large issue. And the last thing, of course, I've mentioned it earlier, literacy. Our children must, we must all learn to read, write, and comprehend. And in that, when I speak about comprehension, reading and writing, and a number of our students can publish books, my students have, I've worked with them to do that, which was very exciting, to see yourself as an author and to know that your words matter.
00:15:31
Speaker
is precious. It's priceless. Yes. Literacy is a huge issue and it's something I've kind of really plugged into to like working in after school programs to work with kids on reading and writing because I came across some research that said if you can't read on grade level by like fourth grade, it's impossible to catch up because from that point on it's not really about learning. It's about
00:15:59
Speaker
or it's not really about the fundamental skills of reading, it's more about learning content. And so there's not really time to teach someone how to read after fourth grade. And it's terrifying, but it's a skill that is necessary to just figure yourself out. It's very necessary. Reading is essential. Yes.
00:16:27
Speaker
All right, so we're gonna get back to having a little bit of fun. Who was your favorite fictional teacher? My favorite fictional teacher? Yes. It had to have been my mother. Oh, gosh, there are so many. Well, you know, from my mother. I've had so many mentors. Fictional teacher.
00:16:57
Speaker
You know, Mary McLeod Mthune was, too. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. I know you have some stories. I'm going to have to talk after. Oh, man. Yes, she's going to.
00:17:12
Speaker
Oh man, okay. So what are three restaurants folks should try when coming to visit you down in Louisiana? Oh, let's see. They should try my restaurant, my house. You can stumble on the regular. They should absolutely try. Well, you can travel to New Orleans. They have a Cafe du Monde, which is excellent with the beignets and you should have cocoa or coffee. Have it go to the one in the Finch quarters. That's the original.
00:17:42
Speaker
And then, let's see, Lafayette is a best kept secret. We have restaurants here, there's Prejans and there's, oh, Callahan's, pretty good. And then we have, and there's so many. And there's some in Baton Rouge as well too. So all up along the coast, you can try. Now, a good East down in Louisiana, man. Good East down there. No, we have five heart hospitals in Lafayette.
The Impact of Teaching and Encouragement for Teachers
00:18:13
Speaker
All right. So now we're going to get into the teacher recruitment part of this. So if you had to sell the education profession to someone looking to get into it in one to two minutes, what would you use as your elevator pitch? Okay. One to two minutes is the, is the profession that impacts all others. What better way than to be in the midst of it.
00:18:35
Speaker
If you're going to impact, but you're going to make something happen, you're going to create a doctor, a lawyer, inspire a nurse. You're going to inspire all that. It's the profession that creates all of them. Oh man. You're not lying. All right. So we have a feature on this podcast called the shoulder tap. When you give a tap on the shoulder and let someone know that they're ready to become national board certified all here, you're going to give them a quick shout out. I will encourage them through social media to go through the process. So.
00:19:05
Speaker
Who are you shoulder tapping? Oh, I'm shoulder tapping. I've never teach in the state of Louisiana. Come on, come on, come on. We have a couple of people who like Natasha Bennett. We have Cheryl we have.
00:19:24
Speaker
in her name, forget her name. But we have, oh, it's teachers in New Orleans. I mean, we have lots of teachers that we're just ready. Come on out, get shoulder tapped. And you know, a shout out to my board as well too. You know, I want to shout out to Dr. Benjamin, David Legrand, Lauren Jewett, NBCT's all the way. She also ran for an office as well. Robin Clark, Tia,
00:19:53
Speaker
Trahan, she was principal of the year this year. Shout out to her, all MBCTs, all MBCTs, and Chris Bornhurst. Christine Bornhurst, all shout out to them. And they are making it happen here in Louisiana. We are just making sure we want as many teachers out there. Every National Board Certified Teacher, we're calling you, we're calling you. And I knew his doctor, Dr. Leslie Bearden and Walter Brown.
00:20:21
Speaker
So many, so many. So many, right? We bring the party. Love it. Love it. Yes. Dr. Dolores Cormier Zenon, thank you for joining me on the podcast. I appreciate you having me. Thank you. It's been a wonderful time. Let's do this again sometime. You can feel the passion Dr. Zenon speaks with. Can't wait to catch up with her again. I want to say thank you again for her
00:20:45
Speaker
to her for taking the time to speak with me on the podcast and thank you for listening to the National Board of Conversations. Be sure to rate, share, and subscribe and we'll see you next time.