Teachers in America

Transforming Education Through Innovation and Student Engagement with Dr. Mary Hemphill

• Season 7 • Episode 6

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A 60-second chat with students can lead to big changes.

Today we are joined by education leadership expert Dr. Mary Hemphill, who details the transformative power of the One-Minute Meeting. Dr. Hemphill shares how to implement and leverage this unique approach to school improvement, where quick yet meaningful conversations with students shine a light on their well-being, achievements, and learning challenges. Discover how these interactions not only engage and empower students but also inspire educators to innovate their teaching.

Teachers in America profiles K–12 teachers across the country. Hear firsthand from the people who are shaping young lives in the classroom every day. If you or someone you know would be a good candidate for Teachers in America, please email us at shaped@hmhco.com.

Speaker 1:

So why have we not invited students to the table and said is there anybody you'd like to shout out for their stellar services or something that we can do to make sure that your educational journey is even better, or are there any barriers?

Speaker 2:

From paper and pencil to Wi-Fi and AI. Education is ever evolving On Teachers in America. We'll keep you at the forefront of what's new. We connect with teachers and ed leaders to talk trending topics and real issues, bringing you inspiring ideas that will influence the future of your teaching. This past summer, at the model schools conference, we sat down with leadership expert, educator and center for model schools senior fellow, dr Mary Hemphill, who's also the author of the One-Minute Meeting Creating Student Stakeholders in Schools. We love a one-minute meeting. This book dives into how to leverage the unique instructional practice of the one-minute meeting to gain information from students on their learning experience. In this episode we put together our favorite moments from our conversation with Dr Hemphill, as she shares how to implement this practice to engage and empower students as stakeholders. But first let's hear from Dr Hemphill on why and how the one-minute meeting came about.

Speaker 1:

So when we came up with the one-minute meeting at that time, I was a principal of a failing school. Two days before I was hired by the school board. The North Carolina Department of Education deemed that school an F, and when I say an F I mean 19% proficient in reading and between 7% and 9% proficient in math. I came from a school like that. I grew up in Hickory, north Carolina, and being in that school and knowing that it wasn't the top school, it wasn't the school where there was an affluent community or where we had access to all of those resources, I knew that as a child, even though my parents still let me know we support you, we're going to make sure we do everything you can to succeed. I came from a building like that, so it was incumbent upon me after graduating as a teaching fellow to go back into classrooms and to go back into schools that way, because those students deserve a chance as well. I played on the same playgrounds, I've been in the same community centers as you've been in, but I've also seen the world outside of our local community and it's accessible to you. When I came back to Hickory, north Carolina, I was in the same third grade classroom that I had been in as a third grader and I had also studied abroad. So I asked my principal to give me every Spanish-speaking student and family, because I truly and deeply believed that it wasn't about access, it wasn't about where you came from. It was about arming them with the knowledge of curiosity and positive intention to be able to arm themselves to have a voice as they went on their educational career. So myself, my assistant principal, my instructional facilitator, had about two months to really sort of turn things around and think about how we were going to start this school year. We knew that time was the most precious commodity that we had, and so my AP and I said what would happen if we met with every single child in the building for one minute and asked them about their experiences?

Speaker 1:

I had all the data. I had the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey. I could see what people were saying in the community, but nobody was asking the students we as adults. Anytime you open a bank account, what do you get? When you get home, you get a survey. How was the experience? Would you like to call somebody out who went above and beyond? You can't book a flight now without getting a customer satisfaction survey. So why have we not invited students to the table and said is there anybody you'd like to shout out for their stellar services or something that we can do to make sure that your educational journey is even better, or are there any barriers? So that's what we did the first year. We met with every single student.

Speaker 2:

Dr Hemphill breaks down the components of the one-minute meeting, including three questions she asks every student.

Speaker 1:

The first thing we did is we made sure that the mobile office was set up, because those one-minute meetings don't happen in the principal's office.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to shift the narrative that only bad things happen or problems are only resolved in the principal's office. So I had my mobile cart with all the information that I needed and I rolled my principal chair down to every classroom. I didn't sit in the principal's chair. Students sat in the principal's chair, every single one, the ones who had been high flyers in my office, the ones who were high-performing students, every single one, the ones who had been high flyers in my office, the ones who were high performing students, every single one. And I sat in the student chair at their feet and I asked them and I listened to them and wrote down their answers. But here's the key when I went back and shared the data with our team and shared the data with our entire school that's what transparency is I could then develop relationships with students all of our team who were doing them, because in the hallway, instead of saying, hey, josh, how you doing? I would say, hey, josh, you still celebrating that little sister, how's she?

Speaker 1:

doing. It's consistency, it shifted the conversation. By the time we finished up one-minute meetings that first year teachers, unmandated, were doing one-minute meetings after instructional benchmarks, after huge projects and even with family members, because they saw the power in the three questions and conversations how are you today? That establishes relationship and each question 20 to 22 seconds, sitting with a child and not doing the drive-by. How are you today? The second question is what are you celebrating or what are you most proud of from the past nine weeks? And that last question is what are you celebrating or what's been the greatest barrier to your learning in our school in the past nine weeks?

Speaker 1:

Our team came up with those One. We wanted to make sure that in a school that was failing the lack of emotional language and the stories that our children were hearing they were repeating things they were hearing in the community I had little kindergartners come to me and say my mama said that we're going to move out of this district as soon as we can. So I needed to be able to stand in the gap for that conversation. That second one when we talk about celebrations, I didn't want to celebrate what we celebrate as adults. Yay, we got the grant. Yes, we went one-to-one, but some children are celebrating their parents coming home from being incarcerated or mastering a new language for my English language learners and learning print vocabulary.

Speaker 1:

I even have a student I share this in my keynote Amira. She was one of the twins in my school and when I asked her what she was celebrating, I thought she was going to say perfect attendance or she had just gotten an A on her exam and she said Dr Hemphill. I'm celebrating as a family with my twin sister who just exited EC, because we're going to have the same reading homework for the first time since kindergarten. It brings you back to values. And then I didn't want to end that meeting without asking them what is it that I can do? What's the barrier? What's the problem, what's the challenge? What can I do to help move that out of your way so you can get to success faster?

Speaker 2:

out of your way so you can get to success faster. Learn about more leading edge ideas and best practices at the 2025 Model Schools Conference. Join us from June 22nd through the 25th in Washington DC to hear from innovative districts, model schools and epic educators from across the country. Come out and connect with a community of dedicated educators just like you. Be sure to secure spots for you and your team today. With any kind of change, resistance may arise. Dr Hemphill had to address teachers' hesitations and concerns. She explains how she garnered teacher buy-in by providing support as well as leadership opportunities.

Speaker 1:

One of the things we had to really think about was the fact that, going into a failing school, we're going to have individuals in the building who had been there for a long time and probably had very little impact. We had to start really thinking about when we did the one-minute meetings with students in their classes how can we take that data and transform it into a story and engage that teacher. So we really had to work on not reacting versus responding, and I did have some teachers who booked the process. During some of those one-minute meetings when students would share with me their experiences, I wanted to just stop the meeting. You can't do that because, remember, you're modeling the way for how leadership is going to be in your school and so, taking all of that data and saying to a teacher instead of saying, johnny told me you, I said 30% of your students have signaled to me that there is something happening in your classroom that's distracting. Can you talk to me a little bit about what that sounds like and looks like on a daily basis? It also helped us weed out culture cancers, because those culture cancers in the building are quiet and they're silent and they can spread their negativity very quickly, and so we needed to be able to pinpoint those and surround them with support, even if that support meant we supported them out the door.

Speaker 1:

First thing we did was we changed stakeholder language. So one of our cardinal rules, one of our non-negotiables was we'd never say the word teacher without saying the word leader behind it, never say the word student without saying the word leader behind it. But that also meant giving teachers the opportunities to actually lead. There are star teachers in every single building, but if we keep them within the closure of their classroom only, without supporting them and having some external efforts to show up as leaders, and also realizing that I can't do everything. So some of those communication loops that we created, my third grade level teacher she created those my school improvement team asking for permission to utilize them in different ways, not just bringing the voices of your colleagues, but what are some tangible solutions and innovative ways we can approach this?

Speaker 1:

And even I had one of those teachers who had she had been at the school for 15 years. She had never traveled outside the county for professional development. I asked her to go with me to Charlotte, north Carolina, to a literacy program and she said I get to go to the big city, but her navigating the big city, sitting at the table with me as we talked about statewide initiatives, something she had never done before. She was my greatest ambassador when we got back. But what I said was that if anybody in this building goes to professional development, when you come back, I want you to lead the PD on it. I want you to even teach me about it, and I made sure that I was sitting in the chairs to learn from them.

Speaker 1:

So when we were able to say listen, we can't do everything. We need to tap some ambassadors who are really good at what they're doing, and we also need to lean into curiosity, because some of the teachers have been there way longer than I had been. Tell me what I need to know about this community. Teach me. As the principal, you're the lead teacher, and so when you put yourself in a position to learn from other people, you'll start to see leadership opportunities pop up.

Speaker 2:

When implementing the one-minute meeting, dr Hemphill kept in mind the other key members of the school community families. Hear how she supported parents and guardians throughout the process.

Speaker 1:

So that F when it hit Facebook, when it hit the newspaper, there were already conversations happening. So what I had to do was take a risk and I think, as being a school leader, taking courageous risk for me meant sitting down with my assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction as well as my superintendent saying things like if we keep doing the same things we're doing I was their fifth principal in four years If we keep doing what we've been doing, then we're always going to get what we've gotten. Do I have your permission, on these specific pillars, to not do what it is that the other principals are doing, because what the other principals are doing fit their community. For instance, our first parent-teacher conference day 450 students I had less than 50 families show up and it was not the 50 that I needed to speak with. So I went to my superintendent and I said what if we opened up some of the fellowship halls in some of our local organizations? What if we went to the community centers and our YMCAs and YWCAs and if we were to have a few tables and chairs and devices and Wi-Fi? What if we meet parents where they truly are? We even had parent-teacher conferences outside of football Friday night, two hours before the gates would open because parents are showing up there night. Two hours before the gates would open because parents are showing up there. We went from about 50 parents showing up to over 380 because we broke down the barriers. That school only happens in the brick and mortar, school happens everywhere. We just had to make it possible.

Speaker 1:

At Open House that first year I had a parent come up to me and she said Dr Hempel, we're excited you're here. I've read about you. I think you're going to do amazing things, but you just have to know that this is the only child I have and I have to make the best decisions for her. My husband and I are making plans to move out of the district to be able to go to another school and I didn't want you to take it personally and I said will you give me a year to change your mind?

Speaker 1:

What that meant was that we had to be consistent in how we showed up. We had to do what it is that we said we were going to do, and that meant, whether it was at the school level, whether it was at the local level or even the community level, we engaged her truly to be able to help us garner other parent support. At the end of that second year she came back to me and she said Dr Hemphill, thank you for changing my mind. We're going to stay for her first grade year. And she became our PTA president. And that's when I knew because it wasn't a teacher leader, wasn't somebody in the building who was hearing our voices all the time this was somebody who made a decision for the future of her child to keep her connected to our school. And that's when I knew we were changing things around.

Speaker 2:

Dr Hemphill believes in bringing student voices to the forefront of important school conversations. Students' feedback can help inform instructional practice, foster a positive school culture and improve student achievement.

Speaker 1:

When we think about education as an industry. We are one of the only industries that truly sort of was on the back end of that innovation of putting the end user first. That's exactly why I wrote the one-minute meeting, because education is something that shouldn't happen to children. It's something that happens with them. So when we're optimistic about the fact that this transformative change lies within our students and they hold the answers, then we can't look at just budgeting. We can't look at just human capital or physical resources. Yes, those matter, but we have children in seats right now. So my level of optimism is encouraging educators to continue showing up for themselves so that they can be their best for children, because our children deserve it. Second graders only have one shot at second grade. Our graduating seniors only have one shot at their senior year, and if we can commit 180 days to being our best selves so that they can succeed, then there's still power in this industry and I believe it's still there at the core. It's like asking somebody that you see being successful. We know about the iceberg effect. We know that at the top we're seeing the success, but underneath it is all of the hard work, all of the challenges, all of the frustrations. But when we switch it to say it's not that we're doing everything in education, we're doing the right things in education, it shifts our perspective, because engaging a child and asking them what's happening in your educational experience, what are the things you're celebrating, what are the things that are challenging you or what are barriers that we sometimes perceive as adults are the budget, the lack of human capital, all of the hiring, recruitment and retention, whereas students, on their perspective, if we're really going to meet them where they are, they're thinking about their microcosms, maybe something that happened at home that day, maybe some areas and pathways that they want to be able to follow after high school. When we can reframe the right things to make sure that we're intimately connecting with those students, then we can embed their responses into our school improvement plan, into our pedagogy and into the actual culture. When we start to think about this story of life, we're teaching students how to do life in our classrooms.

Speaker 1:

I talked this morning about doing two types of walks in a school A celebration walk, which is walking through the building and finding every piece of evidence you can find in terms of how you celebrate students, and I'm not just talking about trophies in a bookshelf from the 1980s and 1990s. How are you currently celebrating and rallying around students in their celebrations and what do you define as a celebration in your school? But the other type of walk is a failure walk, because when students fail, when teachers fail, what's the culture that wraps around them? When we fail, do we polarize them and say you're going to be othered or polarized or I'm going to silently retaliate because you messed up, or am I going to shove that support even further so that I can undergird you in your journey of productive failure? And when we can teach students to productively fail from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade, think about what type of adults they'll be walking into society.

Speaker 2:

Dr Hemphill now helps other education leaders execute the one-minute meeting in their schools, and some are even putting their own twist to the practice.

Speaker 1:

So I just did an amazing engagement with a school district in Long Beach, new York, and I worked specifically with Lauren Kaufman. She's absolutely phenomenal, you've got to follow her. She worked specifically with beginning teachers and she was having some issues with some middle school students. She took our one-minute meeting, she created a five-minute meeting, she took the questions and put them on a Google form and she sent that Google form to all of her middle school students to give them time to be able to respond and then she opened up her classroom. This was during COVID. She opened up her virtual classroom in a breakout room and when she met one-on-one with each student, she already had responses and resources and solutions for the students and it just changed the game. And that's the beauty of the one-minute meeting Customize it to match what it is that you need.

Speaker 1:

High school principals are reaching out to me in campuses of 1700, 2100. And they're saying listen, I'm starting with the students who have had attendance issues, I'm starting with the students who may not have declared college and career ready and we're starting to see some changes and I'm finding out things I never knew or how they got this far in education and they haven't gotten the support that they needed. So principals and teachers are talking to students and they're being intentional and strategic about the information they're gleaning from them to make change happen in the building. When I work with leaders, I always remind them that when you share your vision and when you model the way, you're casting out something that people can either attach to, find themselves in and have the opportunity to have a voice about. But what I'm finding is that many school leaders are saying but what if it's rejected? Or what if this doesn't work, or I simply don't have the time? Well, this is a process that takes the time and creates an intentional opportunity for you to connect. So people are starting to see in new and different ways that leadership is action. But it doesn't have to be these big, huge, overt projects and initiatives that require time and all this energy and capital in order to be able to see all the way through. This is something that, through 60 seconds, what you're saying is you matter. What I have to be accountable for as a leader is being consistent in how I continue to wrap you around this process. It gets principals out of the principal's office and it puts them in a space to be able to be learners. We forget that oftentimes, as principals, we're lead learners and showing people how to lead with curiosity and when we can develop that in the leader. Do you know how much permission you give a teacher leader to productively fail or to have an initiative and follow it through? But we first have to be the ones to be able to do that.

Speaker 1:

There's a quote that I have just fallen in love with from Alan Tolfer, and he said that the future of learning is really and truly thinking about literacy, and it's not reading and writing, it is unlearning and relearning. If you're in a season of unlearning, know that you're not alone and as you unlearn, have a voice about that unlearning. We have to unlearn the traditional practices of the way we learn school, the way we learn school in terms of thinking about the connections and the communication and the collaboration. We have to unlearn the fact that even being the sage on the stage is not always the way to go. Sometimes the sage is sitting in the seat in front of us in that classroom.

Speaker 1:

We have to unlearn how we used to connect with teachers and building culture, how we do that now is it's life-work balance and how we can bring that into our building. But we're also unlearning how to trust ourselves. So, yes, we still have the formal assessments and standardized assessments, but what are some other ways that we can say you are actually an amazing human being, and that may not always be being a level one, two, three or four on a state test, and when we can do that in a way that is transparent and honest? Even if we don't get it right the first time, you're really teaching everybody at every level how to be a better human.

Speaker 1:

Readiness means knowing the symptoms of what's happening in the building and I think that once you see the symptoms of this is shifting, this conversation is not the same conversation it used to be. I'm not reaching students using the things in my bag of tricks that used to work anymore. When you're feeling that feeling and you know your school is about to lean into the shift, then you're ready for the one-minute meeting, because I believe that students are the American public school heroes we've been waiting on, and there's a quote that my professor told me right before I finished my PhD. He said, mary, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. Can't put kids on the menu anymore.

Speaker 2:

Who knew so much could be accomplished in 60 seconds? We want to thank our guest, dr Mary Hemphill, for her insights on elevating students as school stakeholders and sharing all about the one-minute meeting, and we want to thank you, listeners, for tuning in today. Until next time.

Speaker 3:

If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on the Teachers in America podcast, please email us at shaped. At hmhcocom. That's S-H-A-P-E-D. At H-M-H-C-O dot com, be the first to hear new episodes of Teachers in America by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed today's show, please rate, review and share it with your network. You can find the transcript of this episode on our Shaped blog by visiting H-M-com. Forward slash shaped. That's hmhcocom. Forward slash S-H-A-P-E-D. The link is in the show notes. The Teachers in America podcast is a production of HMH. Thank you to the production team of Christine Condon, tim Lee, jennifer Coruvo, mio Fry, thomas Velasquez and Matt Howell. Thanks again for listening.