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Joe Evans, NBCT - Science Educator - Maryland Eastern Shore
319 Plays5 months ago
In this inspiring episode, we sit with Joe Evans, a National Board Certified Teacher in Adolescent and Young Adult Science. Currently teaching AP Biology, Biology, and Forensics, Joe shares his powerful 28-year teaching journey marked by persistence, professional growth, and a relentless pursuit of accomplished practice.
Joe initially sought National Board certification because he craved meaningful feedback on his skills while teaching in the smallest district in his state. Though he didn't pass on his first attempt, Joe didn't let that define him. He proudly keeps that notification letter to remind students that failure is part of the path to success.
After doubling down on his efforts, Joe achieved certification. Now at 64 years old and the sole NBCT in his district, he continues raising the bar - recently renewing through the Maintenance of Certification process and enrolling in a second Master's program.
Tune in as Joe reflects on his winding career path, the impact of National Board certification on his evolution as an educator, and how he's leveraged his expertise to become a celebrated role model and leader among colleagues. His story exemplifies the lifelong learning mindset at the heart of accomplished teaching.
Whether you're an NBCT candidate or a fellow trailblazer in the profession, Joe's firsthand insights are sure to motivate and inspire you on your own journey. Don't miss this candid conversation!
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Transcript
Podcast Season Wrap-Up
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone! Welcome back to another episode of National Board Conversations. It's school year is wrapping up and so is this season of the podcast.
Joe Evans Introduction
00:00:07
Speaker
Coming up we get to speak with Joe Evans, the National Board Certified Teacher of Maryland with a fascinating story. He's a champion of the national board process and loves to recruit and encourage educators to go through the national board process. I won't hold you much longer. Here's my conversation with Joe Evans.
00:00:23
Speaker
Joe Evans, thank you for joining me on the podcast. How you doing today? I'm doing well. Appreciate you having me. Of course, man. It's been, we've tried to connect for a little bit, but so it's Gilbert finally getting able to connect. So we're going to get right into it.
Teaching and Department Role
00:00:35
Speaker
What is your current role and can you give us a brief intro yourself? Then I got a few questions to kind of personalize you a little bit. I like to try to humanize y'all. Good to know.
00:00:44
Speaker
Presently, I'm in a small rural high school on the eastern shore of Maryland. My duties right now, I'm an AP biology, general biology and forensic science teacher. Basically the same thing in the fall, but I also had a physics class back then. So I have to wear a lot of different hats, teaching wise, and I'm also the chair of our very small science department. Oh man, nice.
Personal Interests and Hobbies
00:01:09
Speaker
So what are your three favorite foods?
00:01:12
Speaker
This is a tough one, but I'm going to go very simple here with crunchy peanut butter. Okay. I really like dark chocolate, and I'm a big fan of strawberries. Okay, nice, nice, nice. My sister's from Louisiana, and they have a strawberry festival down there every year where everything is made of strawberry. She tells me to come down every year because it's supposed to be really, really big, so I'm trying to get down there for it.
00:01:37
Speaker
All right. All right. So the last three songs on your musical playlist. I listen to a little serious XM. I don't really have a playlist, but I grew up listening to the Rolling Stones and U2 and some other classic rock bands. And I'm more of a podcast informational kind of listening guy, but, you know, little music once in a while is nice. Okay. What podcast are you listening to?
00:01:59
Speaker
Oh my goodness, a lot of them are sort of running related because I do a lot of distance running. So I'm always listening to things about different training philosophies and ideas. And I listen to Neil deGrasse Tyson. I listen to a lot of science sort of podcasts as well.
00:02:14
Speaker
OK, OK, nice.
Inspirations and Role Models
00:02:16
Speaker
So the one sport team that has your heart. And if you're not a sports fan, a movie you can recite line for line. Well, sports wise, I'm kind of torn between my Baltimore Orioles and my University of Maryland Terps. Oh, man. The Orioles are pretty good this year. They're rocking this year. Are you expecting big things for them? I'd like to see them win the entire American League and maybe make it to the World Series. We'll see how their pitching holds up. You going to get out to a game if they make it? No, I'll definitely make it. OK, OK.
00:02:45
Speaker
So who is your favorite fictional teacher? I'm not going to go with a fictional teacher, if you don't mind. I really admired Jaime Escalante out in Los Angeles, who taught AP calculus to some kids that otherwise people had given up on. And they made a fantastic movie about him called Stand and Deliver that he really set a high bar and has some students reach that. So it was a phenomenal movie.
00:03:14
Speaker
Okay, okay.
Career Transition to Teaching
00:03:16
Speaker
So can you share why you became an educator and remain in education? It's a long story, but I'm a career changer. My original major in college was animal science and I worked with race horses. Oh, whoa. And I worked on a very large horse breeding farm and I got a little turned around with that and I decided to become a blacksmith and I had a shop in the back of my truck and I would nail shoes on horses feet.
00:03:43
Speaker
But in the winter, horses feet grow a little slower. I wasn't making enough money. So I said, you know, I think I'll substitute teach, pick up a little extra money. And I found that I like teaching a whole heck of a lot better than I did working with 1200 pound animals. Oh man, like that's gotta be crazy. It's like terrifying. They can like kick you or something. I've been kicked, I've been stepped on, I've been bitten. It's rough work. And also be honest with you, I wasn't that good at it.
00:04:10
Speaker
Hey man, but we got you here. You're here in the classroom. You're an MBCT. So we love to see it.
Academic Journey and Lifelong Learning
00:04:16
Speaker
So what were you like as a student and how did that influence your teaching style now? I thought about this a lot. I was an average student. I kind of kept my head down and tried not to be called on too often. I don't feel like I excelled at much of anything at high school. You know, I got by.
00:04:33
Speaker
College, it was a little bit the same thing, but man, it was a little bit rougher. It was tougher. And by the time I got to be a junior, I kind of figured things out and really buckled down and started to do much, much, much better. And I'm still taking classes, even though I'm in my 60s. I'm working on a second master's degree in straight up biology, and I just love learning now.
00:04:57
Speaker
All right. And so you've been, how long have you been teaching him? 28 years. I'm finishing up my 28th year. Man, that's wild. And so you're now a national board certified.
Pursuing National Board Certification
00:05:08
Speaker
What push you to pursue?
00:05:10
Speaker
So like I said, I'm in a rural area. You get feedback from an administrator coming in to watch you. And I always felt there was like a little bit more excellence I could kind of reach for. Am I really doing a good job? And I had heard and read about national boards and I thought, this looks like something I could give a try.
00:05:33
Speaker
I read about it and I thought, let me give this a shot. And I'll be perfectly honest. I put a lot of work into it. I videotaped myself and watched hours of myself. I submitted my portfolio. A few months later, I get this really nice letter back. Thank you for trying. We're sorry you weren't successful. And that just kind of motivated me. And I reread everything and I thought, you know, they're right. This stuff really wasn't that good.
00:06:00
Speaker
what can I do a little bit better? And I redid the portions that I was not proficient in and did far, far better on the second submission and achieved national board certification.
Feedback and Support Systems
00:06:14
Speaker
And since then, I've also done the maintenance of certification a couple of years back. So what was the motivation for you to try again after you didn't achieve the first thought? Oh, I don't like failing in anything. I mean, I saw it as a challenge and I thought,
00:06:28
Speaker
they gave me really good feedback. This part of a lesson was not good. This could have been much better. And you see that when you videotape yourself and when you really stop and reflect, you see how much better you could have done. And to this day, I still don't think I've ever taught what I would call a perfect lesson, but we get close. Nice. So what was the most helpful piece of advice you received along the way?
00:06:57
Speaker
You know, I was kind of a lone wolf doing this. Nobody else in the county in my district was pursuing it at the time. So I felt like I was kind of going about it just all by myself. I bought a few books. I didn't really correspond with anybody. I think I had a couple of teachers here, you know, proofread some entries for me and give me a little feedback.
00:07:20
Speaker
But really, I don't think I got a whole I think today there'd be a lot better support systems in place. But I really didn't have that. So, how would you build out support systems for rural teachers because that's something that's seems to can get lost in sometimes when it comes to building our resources forgetting about rural teachers. Well, I in my own district, we're making a
00:07:44
Speaker
big push to get more people to get into national board certification. So we have some cohorts of people starting to go through the process and that will be great. People will be able to meet with each other, give each other feedback, watch each other's videos and those sorts of things. So I think that momentum is starting to build and that problem will end up taking care of itself. Oh, nice. So how did becoming an NBCT impact your career?
Opportunities and Confidence Boost
00:08:11
Speaker
I think the biggest part of it was a confidence builder. Failing it and then actually achieving it made me think, you know, this is pretty good. I'm in a smaller group now and I really started reaching out for some other opportunities and I became a AP exam reader. I latched on to a national educational organization that makes a lot of resources for biology teachers and became a
00:08:40
Speaker
teacher ambassador for them. So I've been very fortunate. I give PD workshops at national and state conventions. And it's just really, I think helped open up a whole lot of doors for me. That's awesome. Okay. So now it's time to get into a little bit of teacher recruitment.
The Rewards of Teaching and Encouragement
00:08:58
Speaker
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 page?
00:09:06
Speaker
This is a tough pitch because a lot of people are looking negatively at education now. But to me, it's been an incredibly rewarding career. And I cannot tell you how many young people have kept in contact with me in college and even beyond. I get random emails that just brighten up my day. Hi, Mr. Evans. I just wanted to let you know I landed a job at XYZ or
00:09:32
Speaker
Hi, Mr. Evans. I just finished my first semester at college. I got straight A's and I took all of your advice about study habits. Those things are just very, very, very meaningful to me as an educator. And I think a lot of people could feel those same emotions if they get into it and establish the relationships with the students. I love that. I love that. So on the podcast, we have a feature called the shorter tap.
00:09:58
Speaker
is when they'll give us, tap to a colleague in the shoulder and let them know they're ready to become National Board Certified. Or here, you're going to give them a quick shout out and we'll encourage them to go through the process all over social media. So Joe Evans, who are you shoulder tapping today? So Mrs. Karen Saunders, she works upstairs from me. I can sometimes hear her students moving the desks around in their classroom.
00:10:21
Speaker
And she has started her pursuit of national board certification, but I really want to encourage her to finish it and get that portfolio submitted. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Karen Saunders, you up next. We'll be getting you on national board, we'll be getting you national board certified. Joe Evans. Thank you for joining me on the podcast. I appreciate you having me.
00:10:40
Speaker
Joe was a fun person to talk to, and I want to thank him for taking the time to chat with me. And I want to thank you for listening to this episode of National Board Conversation. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast for every review you listen to them, and we'll see you next time.