Why I Teach
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Why We Teach

Ashley Bishop
Ashley Bishop

Michelle Skidmore
Michelle Skidmore

Dave Datolla
Dave Datolla

Wendell Crow
Wendell Crow


Interviews:
Belinda Karge
David Pagni
Nancy Segal


Alumni Responses:
Letters from teachers

Ashley  Bishop

Why We Teach:

Ashley Bishop

Ashley Bishop, acting dean of the College of Education, is not the sort of person you'd expect to describe his elementary school self as “a charter member of the low group” who believed that reading was an activity to be avoided. But Bishop vividly recalls the sixth-grade teacher who turned him around.

Mr. Winters noticed Bishop leaping benches during the lunch hour and presented him with a book about a track star with perfect hurdling form. Bishop struggled through it three times until he understood every word. Mr. Winters then gave him one sports book after another, finally introducing him to the library, and to the idea that he could read about virtually any subject – and he could do it all by himself.

Decades later, Ashley Bishop remembers Mr. Winters, the teacher who opened up whole new horizons to a young man who had no idea they existed. It is Winters' example that he hopes to emulate, and Winters to whom he dedicated one of his books, "Teaching Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, and Word Recognition," which he coauthored with his wife, Suzanne, for Teacher Created Materials, Inc.

“As a teacher, you make society a better, more productive place. You help people make informed decisions, the best decisions,” says Bishop, today a recognized reading specialist. “The more knowledge you have, the better decisions you will make. We guide kids not just to answer but to ask questions, to ultimately seek knowledge and make a difference in society.”

A culture of knowledge is one that is imbued within the Bishop family. Both Bishop and his wife are educators, as are their son and daughter.

Perhaps it is fitting that a young man who once struggled in making sense of words and reading now leads the university's newest college. His open, inclusive philosophy and that of the new college is one of community. “We want to make the College of Education not just a place to earn a credential or become a school administrator, we want our students to become part of a family, centered on a culture of learning,” he says. Just as the Reading Center is a college for kids, he sees the College of Education as a learning center for families.

“We not only teach our students, but we give them personally valuable reasons to learn,” he notes. “The faculty and staff are tremendously supportive of the College of Education. We are not so much a college but a huge family. There is a culture of helping here. A supportive culture. We make societal changes. We have strong long-term goals.

“We feel like we have a voice.”

Why We Teach: Michelle Skidmore »