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Jeff Norris, NBCT - 2024 Alabama Teacher of the Year - Birmingham, AL
273 Plays7 months ago
Tune in to the latest episode of National Board Conversations as we sit down with Jeff Norris, NBCT, the 2024 Alabama Teacher of the Year! Jeff shares his journey, insights, and innovative teaching practices that earned him this prestigious recognition. Gain valuable inspiration and ideas for excellence in education from this dedicated educator!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of National Board Conversations. I got another great episode in store for you. Alabama is consistently among the most engaged states with the National Board, so it felt right I speak with the 2024 Alabama Teacher of the Year, Jeff Norris. I won't say immediately, but within a couple of months of submitting that first time, I think I was able to slow down enough to really reflect on the process and just how powerful that that actual process was.
00:00:28
Speaker
He's a National Board Certified Teacher at Oak Mountain Middle School in Birmingham, Alabama and is a very humble character. He brings a lot of insight into what it's like to be the State Teacher of the Year. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. Here's my conversation with Jeff Norris. Jeff Norris, welcome to National Board Conversations. Thank you for joining me. Hey, you have no idea how excited I am to be here. Thanks for letting me be a part of it.
00:00:53
Speaker
Of course, man. I remember chatting with you. My boy Zach told me, have told me to check in with you earlier, and maybe we checked in a little bit. And I always be like, you were in my plans to get you on. So again, thank you for making the time, man. I'm really, I was really excited to talk to you. Like, people keep telling me to come to Alabama. So when I come down there, I'm gonna make sure to check in with you.
Jeff Norris' Educational Journey
00:01:09
Speaker
Like, everything. Well, I am Alabama through and through. So you'll hear it in my voice and in my accent as I'm talking today. Oh yeah, the accent heavy. So I love it though. I love it.
00:01:21
Speaker
Alright, so let's get into it. So what is your current role and can you give us a brief intro yourself? Yeah, so my name is Jeff Norris. I'm the 2024 Alabama Teacher of the Year. I do have an interesting journey through through my career. This is year number 19. We have a catchphrase in our district that says prepared for the journey. And I tell people I don't know that 19 years ago, I knew exactly what that journey would look like.
00:01:46
Speaker
But I started off as a third grade teacher and then taught fifth grade, moved into gifted education for several years, said I love being in front of people and presenting professional development. I was getting a degree in teacher leadership and was
00:02:06
Speaker
was not advised, but maybe gently prodded into thinking about going into educational administration. And so for about eight and a half years, I was an assistant principal in principle. And then the most unique part of my journey was about three years ago, right after COVID, the COVID quarantine, I decided to come back into the classroom. So I have been back teaching sixth grade this time for about three years, English first, and then math.
00:02:33
Speaker
And then, you know, personally, I have a beautiful wife. She's also an education. And then we have two children. They are 15 and 17 years old now.
Personal Insights and Preferences
00:02:44
Speaker
And this is their first experience this school year is their first year not being with one of their parents inside the school building. So they feel like it's freedom for both of them this year. Oh man, that's definitely got to be a change for them. Like it's changed, but also freedom, like you said. Yeah. All right. So what are your three favorite foods?
00:03:05
Speaker
Let's see. I think it says something about me that all three are fast foods. So I would say we love Kentucky Fried Chicken. Anytime we can get the big family pack of KFC. This also says a lot about me, the Deluxe Cravings box from Taco Bell.
00:03:23
Speaker
Okay. And, you know, the special Zaxby's has this Asian sensation salad salad that is also my favorites that is out right now temporarily. So every time I can go by there while I'm traveling around the state, that's kind of my favorite thing to hit up. All right. Last three songs on your music playlist.
00:03:43
Speaker
So I, um, we actually have this, um, state teachers of the year playlist where everybody contributed a song that represents them or their life or their journey or their state. And so I was looking it up and the three, the three, this is a great mixture of songs. Uh, this is me from, um, greatest showman, take me home country roads and the song center field are the last three on that playlist.
00:04:10
Speaker
Take me home country road. Stop playing. I am a West Virginia alum. That is our anthem. Yeah, that's awesome. Oh, man. I love it. All right. And then the one sports team that has your heart. And if you're not a sportsman, one movie you can recite live for long.
00:04:25
Speaker
I'm actually both sports and movies, but I will say being from Alabama, this is kind of a controversial answer.
Passion for Teaching and Reflection
00:04:32
Speaker
So I will probably feel heat from both sides. We're actually Auburn fans. My wife and I went for our undergraduate degrees at the University of Alabama. So we are good football watchers with any crowd because we can be nice to both sets of people, but our heart belongs to Auburn. Oh man, that's crazy.
00:04:55
Speaker
There's not a house divider. She went to the University of Alabama. It's not. Yeah, thankfully we're on the same side. You know Alabama really well because it can be dangerous for certain.
00:05:05
Speaker
No, I remember driving through Alabama once, and I saw this store. I forget what it's called, but it was like literally one side was Auburn, and one side was Alabama. I was like, oh my goodness, it is rolled down. You're exactly right. There's Tiger Pride and Bama Fever are the two sides of the same store, if that's what you're thinking. Yup, man. I was like, man, that was crazy. It was wild. It was like it was down in Mobile. I was like, oh man, this is like really a thing. This is crazy.
00:05:35
Speaker
Alright, so can you share why you became a teacher and why you remain in education? And why did you go back to the classroom? Like, what made you decide to go to administration for a few years and then go back to the classroom? Yeah, really, I can speak to both of those. So I think, I mean, growing up, I knew
00:05:52
Speaker
I liked everything in all honesty. I loved learning. If you talk to my teachers and my parents and my friends, I love learning and learning new things. I always loved school. I didn't have any clue what I wanted to be when I grew up. Honestly, coming from a small town, I knew I wanted to be successful. I knew I wanted to make a difference.
00:06:15
Speaker
I knew I wanted to do something big and bold, I thought, at least as a child. And so, you know, at that time it was you can be a doctor or a lawyer. So I think growing up, those were my two career options coming from a small town in order to be successful. That's kind of what I've used success as. And as I got older, I really just felt compelled by this idea of impact that teachers have.
00:06:39
Speaker
And I think that's what appeals to me the most is just this influence that educators have on students. And so, yeah, I have, and I continue, I think that's something I continue to see, even in the field of education, that if you want to make a difference, you still feel like there's this career path where if I want to be an educational leader, I need to be an administrator, and I've lived that. And so I love that, you know, my part of the story is that I hope
00:07:07
Speaker
that people would say I continue to be a leader now even more so as a classroom teacher and I think there's power in that and this journey as a state teacher of the year is definitely showing me that that classroom teachers have had this enormous responsibility and also this enormous influence over our field and over our kids and so I love that now I get to navigate that that part of my journey
00:07:33
Speaker
So what were you like as a student and how did it impact you? How does it impact your teaching style?
00:07:38
Speaker
I feel like you may have talked to someone from my childhood when you asked that question. I love learning. I told you that. I love things that catch my interest. I really think that I wanted to form relationships with my teachers. I think I always thought that I was on the same level as my teacher, so I wanted to have conversations with them. I wanted for good or bad.
00:08:05
Speaker
in all honesty. And so I think that that's something I always keep in the back of my head with my students now is, number one, I want to make learning fun and learning exciting for my kids. There's a great author and speaker, Weston Kieschnick, and he talks a lot about curiosity. And he says the one question you want students to ask when they come in is like, what are we doing today? Like, that's the question you want.
00:08:29
Speaker
to kind of drive their curiosity. And so I really try to plan things and keep them in the back of my head as I'm doing things in my classroom is how can I make this engaging and exciting for my students and make them excited to come to school each day.
National Board Certification Journey
00:08:45
Speaker
I do think that everybody's a learner and everybody's a leader. And so when I plan things in my classroom, there are time for both of those things in my classroom where kids can be leaders and kids can also be learners.
00:08:56
Speaker
That's awesome. It keeps the kids engaged and it makes sure that they're involved in all your assignments and keeps them accountable, giving them some accountability because a lot of students want to be accountable. So they want to feel like they're responsible for something.
00:09:11
Speaker
There is this, the word engagement is kind of a loaded word in the field of education right now. And a lot of people think that engagement means that the teacher needs to be like tap dancing across the front of the classroom in order to get kids interested and keep them hooked.
00:09:26
Speaker
I've read an article recently about cognitive engagement versus rural engagement. And I think that's the aspect that really appeals to me is we can, I can get kids really curious and compel them into the classroom and get them excited about coming in. But true engagement is when we can get them really cognitively involved in a task or an assignment or, you know, something that we're covering with our standards in class. That's awesome. That's awesome. So, Darren,
00:09:53
Speaker
this Teacher of the Year assignment. You had to leave the classroom for a little bit. What's it been like? I guess in hindsight now I can say I thought it was going to be harder leaving my students than it has been. If I ever press pause on the busyness of my schedule, that's the first thing I think of is that I miss that daily interaction with my kids.
00:10:18
Speaker
But I have, we're very lucky in Alabama, our particular program, we get a year sabbatical. And so from August to May, I am outside the classroom getting to travel around the state, you know, talk to different stakeholders, be involved in a lot of professional development is one of my passions. And so working with our state's in-service centers and
00:10:42
Speaker
I try to stay busy so that I don't have to press that pause button and think about my kids. So it is a bittersweet thing because I have absolutely loved the chance and the opportunity that I've been blessed with this year to be able to experience what I've experienced and also in some regards getting to impact
00:11:02
Speaker
the number of people I've been able to impact in a totally different way than I did even last year or even as an administrator. And so I think it just is a neat, it's just been a great opportunity all the way around. That's awesome. I will definitely dive into some of that a little bit later.
Role and Responsibilities as Teacher of the Year
00:11:20
Speaker
So you're a National Board Certified Teacher. What push you to pursue and what was your journey like? I'm actually a middle childhood generalist and I've also maintained my certification once and so I was back in the olden days of National Board where we had the box. You hear the fun stories about the box and I can
00:11:41
Speaker
Those are my distinct memories that I remember the first time I pursued national board certification was like buckling my box into the front seat of my heart, driving it to the, you know, to the post office to mail it in and handwriting. Like we actually had to hand write the page numbers and put our
00:11:57
Speaker
You know our candidate number at the top of every single piece of paper and we had to print it all and I Remember having this pile my wife. It was like a quote unquote pile It's what we called it that I just took around with me everywhere because I was afraid to leave it or set it down anywhere and so
00:12:12
Speaker
it traveled with me to school, it went with me home, it like it walked into the lunchroom with me at school. And so I just remember that piece of it is an image that sticks with me. But as far as the process goes, I think even within, I won't say immediately, but within a couple of months of submitting that first time, I think I was able to slow down enough to really reflect on the process and
00:12:38
Speaker
just how powerful that that actual process was. And I was a fairly new teacher. I've been teaching I think at that time in our state you had to have been and maybe this was a national thing you had to teach for at least five years before you could apply. And so I was relatively new to the field of education. And so I don't remember ever anybody talking about reflection in my undergraduate work or even especially once you became a teacher like that was just not a word we use a lot. And so the national board process as a whole
00:13:08
Speaker
brought that to the forefront. And I think ever since then, it's just been like the primary way we learn is through reflection and through talking. I just think that's how people learn. And so in National Board's case, we can't talk as much, but we can write. And so there's that same piece of communicating and reflecting is really powerful. So I think the second time when I was able to maintain certification a couple of years ago,
00:13:35
Speaker
I had I was back in the classroom as my first year back in the classroom and so seeing just how that process has played out and
00:13:47
Speaker
When you maintain certification, it's all about reflection and how you've grown. I just love that aspect of it. I think that's so important. We talk about growth with our students and setting process goals. I think National Board Certification is the central tenet to certification.
00:14:06
Speaker
Yeah. And I think it allows you to show your students that you're doing the reflection and the growth too, right? So they can see you along your journey and they're like, Oh, okay. So they just, they being about it, they're not just talking about it. That's exactly right. And I, and I have to put a shameless plug in. You mentioned coming to Alabama. I mean, Alabama is just, they, they love national board certified teachers and they, they, they love on us and they love to promote it. And they even, even, you know, 15, 12, 15 years ago when I was pursuing it,
00:14:35
Speaker
There were scholarships available and there were mentors and all of those things that are just critical if we want to continue to move forward with this certification.
00:14:48
Speaker
No, and it shows, and this is a little bit of inside baseball stuff, but doing the marketing and all that, we don't do a lot of state-specific marketing in Alabama, but they're consistently in our top five states of candidates, website views, all of that stuff. So it's like, man, you guys are really killing it down there with what's happening in the program.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's like kudzu. It spreads like kudzu in Alabama is like the ivy, you know, that spreads everywhere. So I think what happens in Alabama, you tell your neighbor who tells your neighbor who tells your neighbor. And so that kind of grassroots movement is what we're known for. That's awesome. So how would you say being coming in NBCT impacted your career?
00:15:28
Speaker
You know, I mentioned earlier about this idea of reflection really being a priority in my life now. And I think after 19 years, that's the word that keeps popping up more and more. And maybe it's experience looking back. But I think this idea of reflection, that national board really compels
00:15:48
Speaker
It's teachers to to think about and to pause and to have that opportunity is is really powerful and I think I took it from the national board process and Then applied it to every aspect of my life. So just take just taking those opportunities to to reflect on what I'm doing and why I'm doing and
00:16:11
Speaker
and who I'm doing it for, really is, I think, the biggest impact it's had. Now, instructionally, you know, in the state of Alabama, I just think we are so proud of our state and how we embrace our national board certified teachers. But in fact, we actually use those five core propositions as an observation tool now in our classrooms across the state, almost as like a rating scale. And so we have teachers who are using this language that was created by a national board.
00:16:41
Speaker
to really drive your instruction and to drive what you do every single day. And I just think that's special. It's special about our state, but just in general that even rolling it down to just those five core propositions makes that much of an impact with day-to-day instruction in our state. Yeah, and you can tell with
00:17:03
Speaker
a lot of the work that's going on and some of the stuff again, this is an inside baseball, but you guys are continuously in our top five of
00:17:11
Speaker
states driven to the website or people on social media tagging us and all of that. It's really a whole thing down there in Alabama.
Memorable Projects and Teacher Leadership
00:17:20
Speaker
It's really cool to see. It's good and bad. In the South, I think news travels really fast in the South. From neighbor to neighbor to neighbor, we actually have, and we also have a great leader in our State Department, Dr. Melissa Shields, who is I think the highest ranking National Board Certified Teacher as far as the State Department of Education. I think she
00:17:39
Speaker
She and our national board network, our state network, really, they just celebrate our teachers and make it as appealing as possible because it's such an awesome thing. So shout out to her and to all our people. Yeah, I'm trying to get her on the schedule, man. I might need your help. So we touched on it a little bit earlier. You're Alabama. They're the Alabama State Teacher of the Year. What was your initial reaction when you learned you were named the state teacher of the year?
00:18:07
Speaker
You know, even before the state announcement, I think, even at the local school announcement was just a complete shock and a humbling moment. We have about 1200 students in our school at the middle school where I am at Oak Mountain Middle School. And so I had been back in the classroom for three years. So a lot of my students
00:18:27
Speaker
from the first year we're now in eighth grade and so out of those you know 1200 students I've taught about a third of them and even before that I had been their assistant principal when they were in kindergarten first and second grade years earlier with a lot of those students so I formed these you know these relationships with kids and so it's like this really
00:18:43
Speaker
outer body emotional experience when I you know in the moment it was just shock and then when I started thinking about it and you know just kind of dwelling in that moment it really was an emotional experience and then you know we had another pep rally and if you know anything about me like I don't love being the center of attention anyway like I will make a fool out of myself in front of my kids in my classroom but I don't love large crowds which is you know can be difficult sometimes in this particular position but
00:19:11
Speaker
I can remember we had that second pepper alley when I was named the state teacher of the year at the school building and the kids were like chanting my name and it has this potential to be really kind of like you know I can
00:19:26
Speaker
like to feel really grandiose and like I've got this title now and at the same time I was like you know this just represents the power that teachers have and the influence that teachers have so it's not necessarily about me it's just this this this the way that kids look up to and respect or or can look up to and respect
00:19:47
Speaker
Adults in their lives and so I I really try to to take everything with a grain of salt So I don't I don't love being introduced, you know sometimes that when I go and visit schools and it's it's that moment of You know kind of embarrassment when they would keep you know Introducing you as the state teacher of the year and and I tell people you know, that doesn't mean I'm the best teacher in Alabama In fact, that'd be kind of scary to have little Jeff Norris's running around or something
00:20:10
Speaker
But it's just this chance that I have to be an advocate and a person who celebrates the teachers in our state and kind of has a voice for teachers in our state. And so that's the impression I want to leave and also just what I want to make out of my title, I suppose.
00:20:31
Speaker
I get it. I get it. It can definitely be hard to be the center of spot. It's not for everybody. You touched on it a little bit. What happens after you're announced as state teacher of the year? Two different things. Every state does it a little differently. I just assumed it was the same everywhere. Very quickly, you learn that different states do it different ways. In Alabama, two different things. Number one,
00:20:57
Speaker
I'd really do become an ambassador for teachers in our state. And so I get a sabbatical for a year, which is really interesting because you are celebrated or honored for your achievements inside the classroom. And then immediately they kind of pull you out of the classroom. But I get to go around and talk to different groups, teachers and parents and politicians sometimes and organizations. And sometimes I just get to go and visit schools and see what's going on.
00:21:25
Speaker
My favorite thing to do is to lead professional development. So I try to work with our states and service centers, different colleges and universities around our state. And so that's been a really, really exciting part of the job is getting to put my hand in lots of different pots and find different ways to kind of make a difference in that way. And then the other aspect is this idea of becoming part of the 2024 national cohort. So there are 55
00:21:52
Speaker
state teachers of the year or territories and commonwealths and so we have really gotten to know each other over the past couple of months and that that particular time period is from January to January so it's a little different than the Alabama teacher of the year timeline so we are actually going to Washington DC at the end of this month and they just announced that we're gonna have the very first state dinner
00:22:15
Speaker
uh in honoring the teachers of the year while we're there at the end of the month and uh black tie you know i get to make my james bond moment but i i have i have really um just been enamored by meeting all these different people and and the
00:22:33
Speaker
not just the talents that they have and the things that they've done in their states, but just the passion that they have and just the willingness to do whatever it takes to make a difference in kids' lives has been really exciting to be a part of.
00:22:49
Speaker
That's awesome. So can you share some memorable experience or highlights from your time going around the state? Yeah, so I mean, a couple like the locally within my district, I have, you know, part of my journey is moving from administration back into the classroom. So I have this kind of passion work of
00:23:07
Speaker
of empowering teachers to be teacher leaders and our district has always had administrator academies where if teachers want to become administrators they could go through this kind of cohort experience and learn how to be you know ready for that particular leadership position and one of the things i really want to create was this teacher leader academy so how do we create
00:23:26
Speaker
and empower teachers from their classroom to be leaders within our district and our state and that's been one of my absolute favorite things is just getting to hear from about 25 different teachers around our district and let them talk to each other. I tell them all the time the knowledge is in the room so just opening up questions and getting people to share has been has been one of my favorite parts. I think I also mentioned maybe I did this earlier about my own I have my own podcast and so I'm
00:23:53
Speaker
Is something that's been brand new for me and it's been a growth and a challenge in some ways, but I have this podcast shameless plug It's called the power of a moment it is on YouTube and Spotify and I've done about seven or eight episodes with different teachers around the state and not just teachers educators and
00:24:11
Speaker
some administrators and even some retired teachers and each episode we change the title from the power of a moment to the power of dot dot dot whatever topic they kind of want to talk about and so we've been able to talk about the power of movement, the power of community, the power of relationships.
00:24:29
Speaker
all kinds of really neat things. And so it's just been one other way to really celebrate some of the things that I've seen around the state and share those with other people. So that's my favorite part. And even, even more so, like not the big things is those small moments and being with kids, like when I get to visit a school and like read to a class or go and sit in a music classroom and, you know, and, and pull out the, you know, the, the sticks and like work with the kindergarten class and just, you know, those moments are really a lot of fun.
00:25:00
Speaker
That's really cool, man. It's like, it's cool that you get to jump around the state and be a part of, make it like almost your own whole community, like the whole state is your community now, instead of just being a leader at your high school. Yeah, that aspect of connecting people is something that I take really seriously. So how can I...
00:25:15
Speaker
you know, hear something in one corner of the state that would really impact another corner of the state or if a teacher's looking for a particular need. Now I feel like I've got, you know, 55 other people around the nation who could be experts in some of these things. And so yeah, I think that aspect of getting outside your four walls is really important. Yeah, I was talking to another state teacher of the year not too long ago. And she said there's long lines of
00:25:40
Speaker
Now, almost everywhere is your classroom now, right? It's like, all right, you can connect with these teachers all across the country in all these different territories. It's like, wow. It really broadened my idea to what it actually means to go through this project, go through winning state teacher of the year. Yeah, exactly.
Advocacy for Teaching Profession
00:25:58
Speaker
How have you learned from your interactions with other teachers around the state?
00:26:03
Speaker
I think exactly what we just said is that this field of education is bigger than just the four walls of a classroom. I really pride myself on creating a community within my classroom. I call them the D1. This is too much information. I call it the armpit of the school. I'm in the front corner of the building and kind of out of the beaten path. I could very easily
00:26:26
Speaker
Just impact you know the kids that are that are within my four walls and what i'm what i'm learning is that education is bigger than that and somebody mentioned this at our first meeting with the state teachers of the year in california they said something about
00:26:42
Speaker
And I'm not a gardener, but they were talking about how you get plants to grow bigger, especially if they were in a particular pot. So if you imagine this kind of baby plant in a pot that you get from the store, in order for it to grow successfully, you have to put it in a bigger pot. And then eventually you have to transplant it to a bigger pot. And the whole goal here is that the roots have more room to spread out.
00:27:02
Speaker
And the analogy that they were making was that for teachers sometimes we limit ourselves to the pot that we're in. And I think that's such a great image of, you know, that I, and I can, and that's still important. Hear me when I say that, like what I do with my kids within my four walls is really important. But if I truly want to grow and make a bigger impact, I have to be willing to be transplanted outside my four walls in order to stretch my roots. So I just think that's such a cool image.
00:27:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's very powerful statement there. That's really, really cool. All right, so we're close to wrapping up here. We're gonna get into some teacher recruitment. Yeah, if I'm giving you one to two minutes on the elevator, why would you say somebody should join the teaching profession?
00:27:52
Speaker
You know, it's kind of what I said when I was a kid. I knew I wanted to do something that made an impact or something that would make a difference. And I think that teaching is the one field. I tell people all the time, we're in the life-changing business. We are in a business. We're in the life-changing business. And my kids, the very first day, I tell them,
00:28:10
Speaker
Um, you're a Norris kid, like, and you're a Norris kid for life. Like you will always be one of my kids. And I know this is true because I'm a crump kid. I'm a strokes kid. I'm a moody kid. These are teachers that, you know, I will forever be grateful for to them for their influence on my life. And I can tell you, you know, maybe not necessarily even what they taught me academically, but that the influence they had on my life is, is just, and it continues to make a difference in my life. And.
00:28:38
Speaker
Now it's like this exponential increase like now I can impact more kids and so there.
00:28:44
Speaker
Their influence on me is now influencing. This idea of replication is just really powerful. And as a math teacher, you know, this kind of exponential growth is really powerful, you know, like where one person affects two people and those two people go and affect other people. And there's that idea of the influence of a teacher. It's long lasting and it's bigger than we think it is. So I love that idea. And we're the one career that can really say that happens on a daily basis. That's awesome.
00:29:14
Speaker
So we have a feature on the podcast called the shoulder tap. It's when you give a tap to on a colleague to let them know they're ready to become national board certified. On here, you'll give them a quick shout out. I will encourage them to go through the process on social media. So Jeff, who are you shoulder tapping today?
00:29:30
Speaker
Yeah, we do this in our state too. And I do it on like a daily basis, I feel like. So I am, we call them NBCT2Bs in our state. And so there are those. So we have several at our school who are already going through it. So I won't mention those, but there is a teacher about two doors down from me. She actually is good at getting her alternative certification right now. Teaching is not her first career. And her name is Melinda Nichols. She teaches sixth grade social studies and she is,
00:29:57
Speaker
just a rock star. And she came mid-year last year. She's working on a certification right now, but she is somebody who naturally reflects on her craft. She really wants to make a difference in her kids' lives. She is doing all of the right things already naturally. And so I told her, you know, the next step is just putting it on paper for the committee to acknowledge. That's all that's left for her to do. And so there are lots of rock stars around me, but she's one that I think this is her next step for sure.
Conclusion and Farewell
00:30:28
Speaker
I love it. I love it. All right, Melinda, you got to call out from the Alabama State Teacher of the Year. You got to do it. That's right. That's right. Jeff Norris, thank you for joining me on the podcast. It's been so great. I appreciate letting me be a part of this.
00:30:41
Speaker
Jeff is a very bright person. I had so much fun talking with him. Let me congratulate him on being named Alabama Teacher of the Year, and thank him for taking the time to chat with me on the podcast. I also want to thank you for listening to this episode of National Board of Conversations. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and we'll see you next time.