Cotsen Spotlight: Trisha Callella

Cotsen Spotlight: Trisha Callella

Trisha Callella, Ed.D., is a 2007 alumna mentor and is currently the Director of Innovation and Instruction for the Rowland Unified School District.

Trisha has accomplished much in the 20+ years she has worked in education. In this spotlight, Trisha talks about how she started down the path of innovative instruction and teaching excellence. 

How did you get involved in teaching?

It wasn’t planned at all. My parents raised me to be an engineer. That’s what they wanted me to do. I went to college having no clue what I actually wanted to do, and then my roommate at the time started a great job. She said it was a high paying job as a teacher’s aide in Long Beach. I had to support myself through college, so I thought the job might work well with my college schedule.

I ended up falling in love with teaching. I fell in love with the children, and so I decided I would change my undeclared major to psychology. In the mornings I worked in Long Beach in the classrooms, in the early afternoon I worked at an extended day care in Los Alamitos, and in the evening I took classes.

By the time I got my teaching credential, there was a principal at Lee Elementary. Her name was Dr. Patricia Simmons. She told me that she wanted me to do my student teaching at her school, and that she wanted me to be a teacher there. So, I went to her school and that’s how it all started for me.

What do you like most about teaching?

The children and being creative. I was very blessed to be able to work with such amazing teachers and we were all super creative. Dr. Simmons also gave us the freedom to teach children and she always said this memorable quote that I’ve repeated since my very first year. She would say, “Remember, what you do is you teach children, not curriculum.”

Since my start as a teacher at Lee Elementary, I’ve always taught children not curriculum. I think what I really love the most is the creativity, the freedom, and seeing that spark in the eyes of my students when they discover something on their own. As a teacher we are responsible for setting up the right set of learning experiences. When we do it right, our kids light up because they experience the true magic of discovery. They learn how to be learners, and I think that’s what I fell in love with. Helping children learn and discover on their own.

What kind of obstacles did you face as a teacher?

I struggled with the expectations from other teachers’ definitions of teaching and education. My kids did not have to sit in chairs. I had a couch, I had a huge teddy bear, I had all the things that people are now putting in their rooms and calling redesigned learning spaces. No one had ever seen this before. It did not match other teachers’ mental model of teaching. We were loud, busy, and we were colorfully creative.

If it weren’t for my principal, Erin Kominsky at Weaver Elementary, I don’t believe I could have made it this far. She truly supported me and believed in me from day one. She really pushed me to new challenges that I didn’t even believe I could accomplish. Erin told me to run, supported me, and loved innovation as much as I did.

I really believe that people have a mindset that standardization is a way of creating equity when it truly is not. The more standardized people become in education, and the more standardized the education system has become over time, the more we cheat our students out of powerful learning opportunities.

In those early years teaching, you were recruited to write several teaching methods books. Can you talk about how that began?

So, my first year of teaching I was given the opportunity to write a book. I actually was still student teaching at Lee Elementary when I was approached by a parent at the school. She worked for a publishing company and when she saw me teach one day she said, “I think you are really creative. How would you like to try writing a book for me?”

She wanted me to write a Children’s Emergent Reader. Emergent literacy is a term that is used to explain a child’s knowledge of reading and writing before they learn how to read and write words. The very first emergent reader I ever wrote was called “I Try to Be a Good Person.” It was published in March 1998.

I look back now and I’m so happy that was my first book. After that first book they invited me to write a few more. Then it grew to me editing other people’s manuscripts for teaching resource books.

Throughout your teaching career you’ve led educational presentations, written dozens of books, and coached educators across the country. Where did you acquire all the knowledge and the energy to do all this while maintaining a classroom throughout the week?

This is what I’m passionate about. And honestly, I love to stay up to date on the latest research on elementary education. Early in my career I discovered that educational research was at least five years ahead of what anyone was doing in the classroom. So, I thought well I’m just going to read research materials and then write books for teachers to try to speed up that research to classroom application gap. Everything else sort of spiraled from that.

A few years into writing those books I was asked if I would participate in some presentations for a company called Staff Development for Educators. I became a national trainer and had an amazing opportunity to train others at school districts across the country.

Shortly after that I wanted to pursue my master’s degree in Education, but I became very frustrated with the program. I thought it was a slow and inadequate program, so I told the director of the program that I could do a better job teaching it myself. They said, “Okay. We’ll hire you.” So, I taught four courses for the University of Laverne for three years.

I had a fun time teaching for the college, but eventually I left that position when they told me that I had to start using textbooks. They decided that they wanted standardization across courses and I’m not a fan of standardization. So, I said no thank you and I left.

I went back to making more presentations across the nation, I wrote more books, and then I was fortunate enough to work with Matthew Peterson from the MIND Research Institute. I was on the team that helped write the algebra curriculum that was adopted by the state of California. I did some other work with them and then Cotsen came to my school to present the ART of TEACHING fellowship.

What were your thoughts on the ART of TEACHING fellowship when Cotsen came to present?

Honestly, my thoughts were that it sounded fantastic, but it was for someone else. I thought there would be too many rules. If you haven’t noticed the trend, every time someone tells me to do something a certain standardized way, I literally say no thank you and I walk away. However, I was encouraged to apply by my principal. Then to my surprise, I was selected to be the mentor.

That was a struggle for me. I couldn’t quite figure out why I was mentoring such brilliant teachers. I mean Teri Malpas was my fellow, and she would go on to bring CGI to Los Alamitos Unified School District and it spread across the West Coast. Evan Grandon was phenomenal with literacy. I could go on about my fellows, but Cotsen helped me get over that hump, and I think once the fellowship started, we never considered it as a mentor-fellow relationship.

I think all of us considered this program an opportunity to learn and grow together as equals. The program is built upon finding out where you are as a teacher, discovering your strengths and helping you play on those strengths to continue to grow and then learn in other areas that you might be not as strong.

I really think that the strengths-based focus which Cotsen establishes from the beginning, sets them apart from other organizations that support teachers. It’s the key to making a difference in the field of education.

What was it like going back to the classroom after the fellowship?

My first initial feeling was fear. I was truly worried that I would not be as good as a teacher as I was when I left the classroom for the fellowship program. I think some of it stemmed from the fear that I didn’t think I would be as good as the teachers that I had been working with for those two years.

However, my principal suggested I go back to teaching kindergarten, because that’s where I started as a student teacher. That turned out to be a fantastic decision on my principal’s part as well. I went back where I felt most comfortable, and started building back my confidence in the best way.

So what have you been up too since your fellowship in 07?

A few years after the fellowship I was encouraged to help other teachers and integrate technology in their classrooms in the same way I had done in my classroom. I became the Educational Technology Coach and Coordinator for my school. The next year my role changed to STEAM coordinator and shortly after that I was hired on as the Director of Educational Technology for the Los Alamitos School District. Now I am the Director of Innovation and Instruction working with the inspiring Dr. Julie Mitchell and an incredible group of teachers and leaders in Rowland Unified School District.

I still miss the classroom and the children, but I follow my heart and my purpose. I’ve never been the type of person to set up goals for myself. My only goal in life was and still is to keep learning something new. That’s how my work with the Cotsen Principals’ Technology Network began.

Three years ago, Sharon Sutton had heard about the work that I was doing for the Los Alamitos School District. She contacted me along with three other educators to meet one day. None of us knew each other. So, Sharon says to us, “So I brought you all together because I think we can start something, and I think you all are the right ones to do it.”

We started talking about technology integration and what it could look like to bridge the gap between schools and districts. The collaboration was unbelievable. Within 20 minutes we had the best collaborative brainstorm I think I’ve ever experienced. By the time we finished, we had developed a two-year plan for what the Cotsen PTN could be and how we could get started. And since then, the PTN has grown.

We have principals that want to stay on for another two-year round. The PTN is completely built on collaboration and zero hierarchy. The principals always come eager to learn, eager to support one another, and of the same growth mindset.

You’ve certainly accomplished a lot in the last 20 years of your teaching career. Do you have any advice for new and veteran teachers?

Always remember why you’re in education. It’s the children. Learn about every individual child in your classroom and let them know you care. Be genuine about it, and always remember… teach children, not curriculum.

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