Leadership Vision Statement

Hello! My name is Mindy Trisko and I have been a CTE and Health teacher as well as educator leader for over a decade. 14 years ago, I dramatically changed my career path and got into teaching to truly be there for a young person at a delicate time in their lives - a time when they are learning about themselves, the world around them, and making important decisions that will truly affect the rest of them and their family’s lives. I see the role of an educator as one who imparts not only knowledge but also love and self-love.

Did you know that a high school teacher spends approximately 7,680 hours per year with each cohort of students? That is an incredible amount of time in which to enact change.

My first teaching job was at Hillsdale High School where I was CTE and Health teacher, as well as an Advisor for 26 students through their junior and senior year. I then took a job again teaching CTE in a new district where I had the chance to also lead schoolwide change. As an educator, I chose to specialize in these particular content areas because of the natural ways the curriculum is structured for personal, deep, and meaningful conversations to take place. This means that I have seen firsthand the power and transformation that making an authentic relationship with a student can have. When students are seen and known on an individual level, it is only then that others can discover and practice appropriate ways to fully support them.

According to the CDC as of March 2022, less than 47% of students felt close to a teacher during the pandemic and 27% of our students have seriously considered suicide ((New CDC Data Illuminate Youth Mental Health Threats During the COVID-19 Pandemic | CDC Online Newsroom | CDC, 2022). Now, more than ever, our schools need to prioritize ways to effectively build and model healthy relationships with and between our students.

At my current school site, I led an initiative to do just this. I co-led a pilot year of Advisory where all freshmen students were paired up with a teacher who would stay with them for four years to provide social- emotional support, community and culture building, academic skill development, and overall invigoration. It’s not news that strong teacher-student relationships are associated with improvements in higher student academic engagement, attendance, grades, discipline issues, and decreased dropout rates (Sparks & Sawchuk, 2019).

So I ask why isn’t every school making relationship building a priority?

Throughout my educational career I’ve done the messy and challenging work of also building a relationship with myself. This internal analysis has allowed me to see my own biases and faults and has helped me to see more clearly the larger context in which the event occurs. I believe that because of this it's allowed me to facilitate deeper and richer connections with the community in a more authentic and validating way. Before we can build relationships with others, we have to do this messy work first. I’ve carefully and honestly examined my cultural identity and am in a constant state of reflexiveness around how my identity shapes and frames how I see myself? others? I’m now keenly aware of how each of our unique, wonderful, and complex intersecting identities interact with each other at every moment. It’s a delightful dance that happens in the classroom, but one that can only happen if the teacher has done the work of self-analysis.

The social activist, bell hooks said, “Teachers must be actively committed to a process of self-actualization that promotes their own well-being if they are to teach in a manner that empowers students.” I believe that the foundation of any successful school is employing staff who know themselves and who also are willing and able to make personal connections with students paramount.