Jessica Harvey, a Laney High School teacher, is a part of the group and has been in the profession for 13 years. She was recently named New Hanover County Schools High School Educator of the Year.
“When we first initially started this, we talked about how it is just so difficult to talk about joy in general while teaching, because there are so many things holding us down and draining our cup that it was almost a shameful thing to speak up, and so having this group, it almost like normalized the fact that two things can be true at the same time,” she said.
Harvey said this group gives her hope – and that it’s authentic.
“So I feel like that's really what keeps me grounded and keeps me focused on not getting too woo woo and too toxically positive. It's knowing that the result of the work we're doing is the thing that's bringing us joy and a thing that's helping it spread,” she said.
UNCW professor Dr. Denise Ousley co-leads the group. She said they start every meeting with, ‘What’s bringing you joy?’ but sometimes they talk about facing the complex realities of being in education.
“We've had members say, ‘I'm struggling with the joy tonight,’ and then we surround that teacher with reframes, with support, with love, with understanding, so this body acknowledges wholeheartedly all of the truths that are happening,” she said.
Southeastern Teacher of the Year Hannah Moon was recently named to Governor Josh Stein’s Teacher Advisory Committee. She said that while the General Assembly largely dictates pay and staffing, educators have to deal with the real-world results of those decisions.
Many educators like Moon are disappointed in the state Senate's current proposal for an average increase of 3% over two years — far less than Stein's proposed 11% increase over the biennium, with the restoration of Master's pay.
“I can know that people in the General Assembly are trying to dismantle public education, and I can know that they're trying to keep me down, but through my joy and this group, and through the actual authentic joy that I'm bringing every day, that is just a piece of the resistance,” she said.
Jeremy Buie is a science teacher at Ashley High School. He’s been an educator for 16 years. He agreed with Moon that they have to lead the charge, and not necessarily wait for someone else to do it for them.
“We've kind of been hoping and praying that it would start at the top and it would trickle down. But I think we're reversing that paradigm. So we're saying, ‘No, what we're going to do is we're going to put the joy here at the bottom with the people that are in it.’ We're going to expand that and then allow that to fuel the fire that will trickle itself up the ladder instead of trying to find its way down the ladder,” he said.
Kylee Maarschalk is in her 15th year of teaching. She teaches English at New Hanover High School. She says the joy for teachers like her and her colleagues is developing their students as academics and human beings. Like Buie, Maarschalk believes change has to start with them.
“But at the heart of it all, kids are still kids who need safe spaces. And I think that that's what pushes all of us to continue to show joy, is because we know that in spite of all the crap, we still show up, like we are here with a drive and a purpose, and that's seeing kids grow, to make the world way better than what we're currently in, so if we really want to see like things get better, it starts in our classrooms,” she said.
UNCW professor Dr. Robert Smith co-leads the group with Ousley. He said he hopes this network will shift how educators are seen in the community and by their administrators, and this will, in turn, attract more people into the profession, as he said enrollment in teacher education programs has been declining or low for a number of years.
“It's hard to be a teacher who leads with joy when you're part of a system that too often focuses on the accountability in terms of what students and teachers are not doing well,” he said.
The teachers in the group try to focus on moments with their students when they find that joy and purpose. Here’s Buie on one of these encounters.
“And this student looked at me and was like, ‘You know, I was really apprehensive about coming to high school.’ And, you know, she was like, ‘but your class,’ and then she named a couple [other] teachers, and she said, ‘Your class makes me want to learn, like your class makes me want to be here.’ And I immediately was like, ‘That's the greatest compliment,’” he said.
Moon said it all comes down to the teacher being there for their students.
“And when they walk in that building, if they just know that one adult is going to smile and speak, hug, high five, whatever it is, it can be literally, that tiny nugget that keeps them going,” she said.
But Moon added that teaching with joy, “doesn't mean pushover, in any way. Y'all all know me. I'm pretty tough. AP Lit[erature], like, get on board or get off, right? But I think the kids appreciate, too, that kind of balance, that they know if I'm being tough and I'm pushing them, and I have super high standards, I'm still joyful,” she said.
One way to preserve joy in Moon’s classroom this year was to remove the students' cell phones during the period. Walking into class, they hook them to a charger, and get them as they walk out the door when class is over.
“And my classes transformed. Kids are laughing and passing notes and giggling,” Moon said.
While Moon, Maarschalk, Harvey, and Buie continue to support their students, the question remains for their profession: How can they best effect change?
What will motivate lawmakers to improve teacher working conditions, including pay, staffing levels, and respect for the profession, is unclear. Ousley said the Joy Network operates from a place where positivity gets them in the door.
“The political will is not moving — yet; optimism has to be at the core of this,” she said.
It’s no secret that teacher attrition is still a significant issue. Many public educators over the past five years say they’ve taken a hit from the culture wars over masking, books, and curriculum, and the influx of millions in funding to charter and private schools. Others point to diminished resources and lagging wages.
Some would like to see more public support, pointing to State Superintendent Mo Green’s recent listening tour, during which he said people should revere teachers for what they do. Others have said they support ending the state’s ban on collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees.
Efforts to change the current state law bans collective bargaining for public employees. House Bill 256, sponsored by four Democratic members from Durham and Mecklenburg counties, would have done just that – but the legislation failed to pass into the Senate, meaning it’s effectively dead for this year.
While some teachers say their joy goes deeper than wages and resources, most would agree that more support and better pay wouldn’t hurt.
