Classroom Caffeine
Classroom Caffeine
Special Edition: Balancing Family, Teaching, and Graduate School
What drives successful teachers to return to graduate school after years in the classroom? For elementary teacher Christy Gupta, it was recognizing gaps in her knowledge about early literacy instruction that propelled her into USF's Master's in Reading Education program. In this candid conversation, Christy shares how graduate education has transformed both her teaching practice and her professional confidence.
"I wanted to read research firsthand and not always get it digested from somebody else's perspective," Christy explains, describing how reading Natalie Wexler's influential book "The Knowledge Gap" sparked her desire to access primary research. Now eight courses into her program, she's gained not just theoretical knowledge but practical tools that directly benefit her students. Her studies have illuminated the critical connection between executive functioning skills and academic achievement, changed how she approaches writing instruction, and given her "the courage of my convictions" when advocating for research-based practices.
Feeling inspired? USF’s fully online MA in Reading Education offers flexible pacing, innovative curriculum, embedded media literacy, Florida K-12 endorsement eligibility, and guidance from expert faculty connected to local and global literacy communities. Learn more here: https://hubs.li/Q03J88bv0
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In recent years, we've seen a strong and steady increase in graduate education for teachers and school leaders. Nationally, more than about 40% of practicing educators now hold a graduate degree, and those who do often report expanded career opportunities, higher salaries and deeper professional enjoyment. Even as some other graduate disciplines have declined in enrollment, colleges of education continue to see educators invest in advanced study to strengthen their practice and broaden their impact. Welcome to this special series of Classroom Caffeine, where we're talking with friends, old and new, about their journey to and through graduate school. I'm your host, Lindsay Persohn. This special series, produced in collaboration with the University of South Florida's Literacy Studies Program in the College of Education and USF's Innovative Education, explores the question what is the value of graduate education for educators? In each episode, we hear from faculty and teacher leaders who share how advanced study and education shape their thinking, their work and their professional lives. Whether you're considering graduate school or guiding others on that path, this series will help give you insight, encouragement and real stories from the field.
Lindsay Persohn:Christy Gupta is a current student in the Master's in the Art of Reading Education program at the University of South Florida. Christy is a public school elementary teacher, primarily English language arts, with a few forays into math and science when staffing needs require it. She currently works with children identified as gifted. Historical fiction is her genre of choice, melding great writing with history as a double dose of some of her favorite things. Her areas of interest include deepening executive functioning skills with children for academic gains. Using writing as a vehicle for learning as opposed to solely a product to be assessed. And fostering a home-to-school bridge so all adults on the team can support a child's growth with research-based practices.
Lindsay Persohn:Christy, thanks so much for taking a few minutes to talk with me today about your journey through higher education.
Christy Gupta:Thanks for having me.
Lindsay Persohn:So can you tell us a bit about your path through higher ed? Where did you study? What led you to pursue graduate work, those kinds of things.
Christy Gupta:Sure, I grew up in the great up north of the Midwest and I went to school for my bachelor's degree for international business and quickly figured out that that was not my jam and that I like working with kids a lot more than I wanted to work with adults in business. So then I did a master's degree in teaching and learning, which was kind of just a general way to get a certificate, not really specialized in literacy or math or anything like that, and then taught for a couple years up north and then moved to Florida with my husband when he got a job down here and stayed home for 10 years with our kids and then went back to teaching elementary and have taught fourth and fifth grade for a long time, mostly ELA, a little bit of math and science when forced or when asked, but that's not my favorite thing and then recently switched over to teaching gifted children. And so in all of that I realized I didn't really have the foundation I wanted of literacy skills. Having just a general master's in teaching and learning didn't help me understand the pedagogy involved in early literacy skills. Like, I think I was super, or I am super strong at intermediate, but you know when we get a child who's reading way below level. I just knew I wasn't doing the best for that student, and so that's one reason I came back and I'm still currently in the program, so I'm not quite finished yet so I've got the perspective of somebody who's in the weeds, so to speak, in some of it.
Christy Gupta:I just needed to know more about the early literacy part of it and I didn't want, you know, six hours on a Saturday. I wanted repeated, thoughtful, intentional practice, which I've gotten in some of these courses, so I'm really really grateful for that. Beyond that, I really like learning, which sounds cheesy, as a teacher says you know that's, you know the standard line, but I really do like learning and I don't think I would have waded through some of these papers on my own right, like having somebody telling me no, you need to read this and you need to respond to it and then you need to respond to two classmates also thoughtfully. That's been good for me. I wanted to read research firsthand and not always get it digested from somebody else's perspective, and that really I figured that out. I think it was 2021. I think it was the school year after COVID, right, our school.
Lindsay Persohn:We were learning so much.
Christy Gupta:Right, right. Well, our school did a book study of Natalie Wexler's the Knowledge Gap and that book blew my mind with how important that like bank of knowledge capital is for kids to be able to move forward with their comprehension. I guess you know I had always thought that with our own children we have two children and they're older now but we had always chosen to do family vacations where we go to museums or we go to historical sites because they have to know these things right. We just thought we were raising thoughtful kids but in reality we were building their knowledge capital so they could read right and they could express their thoughts and make connections. And Natalie Wexler, I kind of have a little crush on her. I think she's amazing and that book is so approachable to everybody. So we read that book at school. It really kind of changed some of the way I selected texts when I had autonomy to do that, and I just you know the bibliography or the references in the back of that book are pages and pages and pages and pages. And I just thought, why am I not reading any of this myself? Like why don't I know about this? Why don't I have access to this? Why aren't I seeking this out, and so all of those things kind of came together to make me want to do this program Right. So that's kind of the like academic side of it, or you know the concrete reasons.
Christy Gupta:Personally, we've lived in Florida for a long time now and I don't think we're going to live in Florida for the rest of our lives.
Christy Gupta:I'm a cold weather girl and it just keeps getting hotter and hotter here. So we plan to move one day not in the immediate, immediate future, but someday probably to a Big Ten kind of college town where there will be lots of education graduates and I'd like to keep working because I really do love teaching and so, to make myself a little more competitive in the market, I feel like I need something more current on my resume than a master's degree from the early 2000s, and so that is a, you know, being completely honest, there's the philosophical reasons to do this, but then there's also the practical, career related reasons that I want something more current on my resume. So and this just seemed like you know this was a winner winner I got the early education or early literacy skills I want. I get the learning and then I get an updated date on my resume.
Lindsay Persohn:Christy, the way that you talk about kind of your multiple reasons for joining a master's program in reading particularly. I think it's so smart. You know teaching. I think it's always going to be the profession of learning. But the other thing I was thinking about, as you were describing particularly your experiences in reading the knowledge gap with your colleagues at school is realizing that we all have this kind of knowledge gap. And I think you're right. You look at a page of references and you think, wow, there is a lot going on in the world of research. Why don't I know these things? Why don't I have access to these things or some sort of you know even, a guide to help me through? Right, because you're probably you're not going to read those references from from head to toe. Right, you're not going to read them from start to finish. You're going to want to kind of dip in and out depending upon what's most related to your own goals and your interests, and you're right. I think that having you know professors and courses to give some structure to that, it does help you to feel like you can make some headway on keeping up to date with the field. Yeah, right, it's a lot and it's a lot to navigate.
Christy Gupta:Right, and I think too, we, you know, and I'm a tireless advocate for teacher time I, when I started back, I would work, you know I had my own children were in elementary school or just early middle school, I think when I started back and I would work from 5am until 11pm and I would work sitting at baseball practice, and you know, that was really great when I was getting back in, because when I left, common Core was just starting, and so when I came back 10 years later, totally different ballgame, like completely different ballgame, and so I had to do that to catch up and to be the teacher that my students deserved.
Christy Gupta:But as I have gotten more familiar with the standards, as I've gotten more familiar with the new systems or the systems because they're not new anymore I'm much more of an advocate for teachers having a better work-life balance, because this job is not tenable the way I was doing it before. And so we also just don't have the time right, like we don't have the time to go seek out research to either support or refute what we think is the right thing to do, and we don't have access to it either. You know we don't have access to find a great article and then we have to pay $7 for the PDF. Like that's not realistic and it's not going to happen. So all of those things work together a little bit.
Lindsay Persohn:Yeah, yeah, definitely. So you've kind of already started to share some of this, but I'm wondering what else you have to say, Christy, in response to the next question In what ways has graduate study shaped how you think about teaching, learning and leadership?
Christy Gupta:Okay, so I'm still in it. I have done, I'm finishing up my eighth class this week and I started last fall. So it's a super intensive program. I have four left and I will be done in May, so we can revisit that question in May completely for the full picture.
Christy Gupta:I think it has solidified a lot of my thoughts. You know, I don't think I'm the world's greatest teacher by any means, but I think I'm a teacher who cares an awful lot and does a lot of thinking about my job and about how to meet the needs of all of my students. So it definitely has solidified some of my thoughts on things and it's given me the courage of my convictions. I'm a person who will speak my mind and so I feel more now supported by research, you know, and I can't always be like well, in 1994, Kinch said blah, blah, blah. Like you know, I don't have that kind of memory, but I have binders and binders and binders of stuff organized where I can say well, actually, if we're thinking about the cognitive load of this task, what are we really looking, you know? And so I feel better about that and I think I feel kind of proud of that, like I've done a lot of work and done a lot of reading and we aren't always asked to do the thing that is best for every kid. We're never asked to harm, of course, but you know, what works for this child doesn't work for this child, and I feel like I have an arsenal now of ideas, supported by research, to say let's try this instead, or I'd like to try this, even if you don't want to try it. Right?
Christy Gupta:I think it's modeling lifelong learning and a growth mindset. With my own two children, I have a 19 year old son and a 22 year old daughter. I think they were both surprised when I was doing this, because they're moving on. And here's mom going back to school, when I could have just been, like you know, taking pottery and learning how to macrame, you know whatever, which are great and very important hobbies, but I'm doing this instead. So I think it models lifelong learning and showing my own children and my students. You know, just because I'm of a certain age or of a certain point in my career, I'm not done, and I think, specifically in my role with children who are gifted, we often find that they expect themselves to be perfect, right, because school has come easily for them to a point or much of school, not always all of it. And there was a class I won't say the professor's name I adore her, but I got a really low grade on a quiz and part of it was Canvas issues, like it wasn't accepting phonetic symbols fully, which is fine.
Christy Gupta:You know it's a program and phonetics are super, super tricky
Lindsay Persohn:And we can fix that. But yeah, we can fix it on the other side of things, yeah.
Christy Gupta:So, and you know, she regraded, but my initial grade was like a 70 and I was devastated because I am not a girl who likes to get lower than an, A right, like I work really hard. And so I cried and I went in and I told my fourth and fifth graders about it, because they are children who are used to also getting A's, and it was such a moment Like we talk so much about. Well, this happens to you. How do you handle it when you get your you know, your fast PM2 back and you expected to have that super high five, like you had on the first one, but you weren't feeling good, maybe or there was a passage that you had no idea about and you got a four, like a four right. It's devastation, end of the world. And so it was really good, in that way, to have this experience because my feelings were real. I was super upset, just like they were, and we talked about well, they still respect me as a teacher. I still do my job well, you know, it was really great. So I'm getting a little overclampe d. They were so stinking sweet about it. So lifelong learning in that way too, like you know, it's okay and you know, and I did fine and I got an A in the class in the end. Like you know, it's okay and you know, and I did fine and I got an A in the class in the end and I did a lot of learning, so it was great.
Christy Gupta:I would say a couple of things more in terms of, like, the pedagogy of this. I didn't know the importance of executive functioning skills on academic learning. I have always taught executive functioning and I call it that with my students. Like we talk really specifically about task initiation, which is a huge one with 10 and 11 year olds, right, like they want to play, it's normal, they're children. We've always talked about them, but kind of more as, like, life skills, and I never understood or never knew or never read the importance of working memory on their learning right, the cognitive load of moving to the next paragraph while still retaining what they read in the prior one to then synthesize it all towards the end. I had no idea. So, in that regard, and I'm super interested in executive functioning skills, because there's such a gap, right, and we can see it in our students and not students who come from one sort of background or another, like a Jackson Pollock painting with some of these skills and the way they are everywhere. So I didn't know that. So I am definitely tying way more executive functioning into the work that I do because it's so important, and then it's just a bonus that it also helps manage friendships and organize their backpacks and all of those things.
Christy Gupta:This program, I think, really really highlighted the importance of writing as a and I haven't even taken the writing class yet, so I can't even imagine how great it's going to be when I'm done with that the importance of writing as knowledge building. Yeah, you know, it's not just read these two texts and synthesize them and tell me your thoughts or persuade me of this opinion, or you know, I feel like we teach writing as a 30-minute class and really writing is everything you know and it should be in everything, and math and science teachers should be teaching writing, but then ELA teachers should also be teaching science and math and building that background knowledge to make the learning deeper in science and math. Right, like I never want to say, they should be teaching our stuff in quotes. We all need to be teaching all of it. But this program really highlighted the importance of writing to build knowledge, not just to put it on paper. So I love that and it has made me this whole summer. I've been thinking because I'm shifting up what I'm teaching a little bit in the fall how can I get writing in there? How can I get writing in there every single day? So that is huge and important and like a soapbox. I will go on forever. What else?
Christy Gupta:I think one of the best things about our school that I work at a public school is the diversity at our school. Last year we had more than 30 languages spoken at home in our student body, which is absolutely phenomenal and what a gift, right, like it's so cool to go after hours to an after hours event at school and, you know, it's like being at an airport a little bit. It's really it's, it's amazing. But that means then too, we have a lot of families for whom school is really really different from their educational experience. Right, we also have adults who were born and raised here, but it was very different, like I think, about my elementary school experience versus now, and we were doing times tests of multiplication tables in second grade and probably getting our knuckles slapped if we didn't grow right. Not the case now at all. And so there's such different philosophies in education that I think we need to do a better job as educators of bridging that gap right.
Christy Gupta:I think we often see like teachers or school versus parents, when really it's just us holistically, as a collective group.
Christy Gupta:All of us are working for kids. So in that light, one of the things that I'm working on developing at our school and with the principal support and other faculty members will help out when they want to is we're developing a monthly seminar of, or a seminar series for our students adults to attend, whether it's their parents or their grandparents or a caregiver, and each month has a different highlight or kind of a different focus on one aspect of literacy. Looking at Scarborough's rope and just breaking it down, we surveyed the parents. A group of parents responded with what they value and what they think they need the most help with at home. So we're kind of basing it off of that and we're going to set it up as the first 15 minutes are a little welcome. Talking about the topic introducing it. So if we were doing fluency, for example, what does fluency mean to include prosody, because many times people think fluency is just like getting the words out right.
Christy Gupta:So really talking about what we mean by fluency, the research about it, why it matters so much, and then 15 minutes sharing what we do at school to develop this skill, and broken up with a primary and an intermediate teacher also, because those are very different things and we're a K through five well, actually pre-K through five, so those are very different things for the different ages, right. And then 15 minutes doing activities with parents that they can walk out the door and do that evening when they get home, not buying anything, not subscribing to anything, but how they can help their student grow in that area. And then the last 15 minutes Q&A. Just, you know, if you need something, we're here to try to help. Again, bringing it back to that whole us thing, right, not school versus home, but us together. So we're excited about that. We hope that parents will come.
Christy Gupta:We had a good response. We sent out the survey over summer and we had a really good response and we're hopeful that they'll come and they'll understand a little bit about why we're doing the things that we're doing at school, how important they are and how they can then support at home as well. And that has been a big part of all of the learning I've done in the past eight classes. There's just so much information out there and it's not. I mean, reading is a big deal right. It's a tricky, it's a really tricky part of development, development, but it's not unapproachable and it's not impossible, and there are things that everybody can do with no supplies and no money, just a little bit of time and a little bit of thought.
Lindsay Persohn:So yeah, Christy, you've shared some really incredible ideas this idea that, of course, you know your studies have helped you to approach tasks at school with more confidence and, I think, approach your thinking around your teaching. But I also love the story you told about relating your experiences as a student to your students' experiences. It's such a humanizing kind of conversation right to have with young people to say, oh, you know, I did this thing and it didn't go like I thought. Because it is so important for kids, youth, to see us with that learning mindset but also going through, like, those really tricky points, you know, whenever things don't go to our plan.
Lindsay Persohn:But then that last thing you shared with us this idea of starting a monthly seminar series for the families at your school.
Lindsay Persohn:I mean this idea that you're, I think what you're talking about is content and community, and I think that that is it's so critical to have just sort of this total package of support. You've done research there. I don't know if you recognized it as such, but you sent a survey out to families and collected their thoughts about what they need support with and then to build school-based programming on that authentic data right On what the families of the children you serve at your school, what they need and the structure you mentioned is wonderful. Thank you, yeah. Yeah, this overview down to kind of a nitty gritty hands-on practice and then let's talk about it, let's respond to questions. It's such a smart way to approach that and, like I said, I think that idea of sort of wrapping content plus community, having the structures that allow you to work with parents hands-on work with families, hands-on, hear their questions and build that community around learning. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that goes because I envision that as just a really incredible opportunity for everyone at your school.
Christy Gupta:Thank you. Well, you are welcome to join us at any point if you would like.
Lindsay Persohn:Oh, thank you, I might take you up on that. Yeah, it sounds like a tremendous opportunity, learning for everyone. And so did you say that the idea for that series sort of came out of your thinking and your studies and your program.
Christy Gupta:Kind of. I've been thinking about it for a while. Like I said, we're a really diverse school and I believe our parents, of course, want to do right by their child, want to do what's best for their children, but there is a disconnect there. Schools have changed so much. Not even post COVID, but certainly also post COVID. Just I think back to my growing up and what school was like for me, with desks in rows and you know our school supplies were like a folder and pencils and scissors and a set of watercolors and no way right Like that doesn't exist anymore and we were able to do art in school and we got all this.
Christy Gupta:It was just so different and I think that's from a person born and raised here and I think about our school where more than 30 languages spoken at home, which means people are coming from everywhere, and so how different is it and how intimidating would it be to walk into a school where already your language isn't the language of the paperwork or the language of the rules or the language of even the supply list, and you know you're having your kindergartner try to translate what the lady's telling you about birth certificates and immunization records, like it's.
Christy Gupta:So I would be intimidated, I imagine, if I went to a country where I didn't know the first thing about the language. The script was different, everything Right. We have got to bridge that gap right and if we go in knowing everybody has the best of intentions to help the child, that's the base upon which to build. But I would never want to ask parents to come to school for something that's just fluff, and I feel like if we base it in the research and base it in fact and then apply it, that's the way to make this as efficacious, I guess, as we can.
Lindsay Persohn:Yeah, no, it's wonderful, it's a wonderful concept. And, no, I couldn't agree more. I mean, I think about how overwhelming that might be to be in a totally different place and a different space, with different procedures and routines and also navigating a different language at the same time. It's just, it's so much, and it can be really overwhelming when you want to give your, your children, the very best and you know to have the tools to do that and also to know that you have a partner in the folks at your child's school. I think it's just, it's a wonderful thing, it's an absolutely beautiful idea. So, yeah, I really look forward to hearing about how that goes. Thank you, yeah, yep. So what do you think educators should consider when deciding if graduate study is the right next step for them?
Christy Gupta:I would say just do it Honestly, like, take the class, take a class and see what you think. You've got to have some reasons for it, because, if I'm being super honest, the first class I took there were some tears. I mean, there were actually a lot of tears, and not because of you know the professor she's lovely not because of the content. Just, it's very different, right, growing pains, right. Yeah, you know it had been almost 20 years since I last did graduate work and I was a classroom teacher and a mom. Or am a classroom teacher and a mom, but the reading is really different, right? I feel, especially as teachers, we get an article and we have 22 minutes after we drop the kids off at specials to use bathroom and read this article that we need to have ready for our PLC that afternoon, and so we skim and scan because that's what we can do and that's survival, right, and you can't skim and scan.
Christy Gupta:In some of these classes, some of these articles, I'll read a paragraph and be like but wait, I have no idea what that just said and I will need to read it three or four times and then I probably need to walk away and let it percolate a little bit in my brain and think about why that paragraph was in there or why that section was in there, and then come back, reread it and then try to integrate it with whatever else is already in that article or that's about to come. So take a class but give yourself grace because there is some adjustment there. It's a different kind of reading, but just do it, and not that I would tell anybody to start and then stop. But you're not going to be harmed in any of this.
Christy Gupta:Your brain is going to be firing different synapses and different you know different ideas, and everything you learn is going to affect your teaching in some way, whether it's very intentional and thought out, like our seminar series, or whether it's simply a line in an article that's stuck with you that makes you want to try something new in class, or even just makes you want to try something new with that one child who needs a different kind of scaffold. Just do it. I am incredibly enriched because of this program and the learning that I've done and the resources. You know, one of the cool things is I'll read an article and I'll really like an idea and then I'll see a name and a date in parentheses after it and then I'll go look at the references and then I will go look up that article and read that, and so it's just been really enriching for me and, I believe, for my students.
Lindsay Persohn:Right, right, well, it gives you the kind of like the breadcrumbs, so to speak, to follow. So you can, you know, you can trace that idea back and think, well, where did that come from? Um, and, and you know you mentioned that, read everything. You read, everything you encounter does sort of rewire you in some sort of way. It makes you think differently, whether it is a directly applicable kind of idea that you're going to try tomorrow, or if it's just something that sort of changes the way you see something or changes the way you think about something. And I think that a combination of many of those experiences you do end up changed on the other end of things, you know, because how couldn't you be right? You're sort of reshaping your thinking all along. So, yeah, yes, and that's great advice. I, I, I tend to agree If you're thinking about a graduate degree, go for it. And we've said in some other conversations for this special series that there's never going to be the perfect time, whether it's in your family or in your career. You're never going to go. Boy, I've got all the money in the world, let me go try this. You just do it and you make it work one step at a time.
Christy Gupta:Yeah, you muddle through and celebrate when you get there.
Lindsay Persohn:That's right, that's right. So one last question for you, Christy what do you wish you had known before starting grad school?
Christy Gupta:Maybe on a really technical level is I'm not a great reader on digital platforms, that is. You know I I will read on my phone when we're on vacation and I don't want to haul a big book around with me, but it's not my preferred method of reading at all, and so many things are online now that that has been really tricky for me. So maybe I would have done a little more learning about technology and how to annotate on my computer before I started, because I'm definitely in one of my classes there were a billion articles and I printed them all out and my professor was like, wait, what are you doing? How are why? Like what's going on? Because it was hundreds and hundreds of pages, oh gosh, right, right, and I have shelves full of binders of articles, but that is how I learn best, so I maybe would have spent a little time adapting to that and trying to figure out how to make online work for me, so I wasn't harming the planet quite as much as I was.
Christy Gupta:Other than that, you know the faculty has been so supportive and understanding that there is no time. You know, I think I had COVID in the middle of one of the classes and you know I was never nervous about asking the professor for a little extension. It's super, super supportive in that way. So I don't feel like there was anything else I wish I would have known, because anytime I encountered any challenge and felt like I needed to ask about it, I've been met with great support and great understanding, which is important because as a full-time teacher and a parent and a wife and a person, I needed that.
Lindsay Persohn:So there's a lot. There's a lot that can happen. Yeah, yeah, so I'm glad you felt supported. Yeah, and you know I I would agree with you. It took me a long time to feel efficacious and reading online. You know there is something to that kind of switching from a paper modality to a digital modality. It took me probably longer than I'd like to admit to figure out how to do those things online. So you're right, there are some of those kind of unseen learning curves. I think that you really do just sort of have to. You muddle through, you figure it out and you keep going, and you are better off for it on the other side of things too, I believe. So, yeah, yeah, well, Christy, it has been absolutely delightful talking with you and hearing about some of your thinking. Yeah, thank you so much for spending a few, a few moments with me. My pleasure, thanks.
Lindsay Persohn:Thanks for joining us for this special episode in the special series of Classroom Caffeine, in collaboration with Literacy Studies Program at the University of South Florida's College of Education and USF's Innovative Education. If today's conversation sparked your curiosity about graduate education programs, you can learn more about USF's reading, masters and literacy studies programs by visiting www. usf. edu/ education/ areas of study/ literacy studies/ programs. So again, that's www. usf. edu/education/areas-of-study/literacy-studies/programs. If you haven't already subscribe to the Classroom Caffeine podcast for more energizing conversations with inspiring educators and education researchers. Until next time, stay curious and keep learning.