His Story
Wade Whitehead is a fourth-generation Virginia public school teacher and the son of two lifelong elementary teachers. He has taught at Crystal Spring School in Roanoke since 1997, where he teaches fifth grade. The school was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2015. His students come from one of Virginia’s poorest urban districts, yet routinely post state test pass rates in the high 90s and sometimes 100 percent.
His classroom is built on three words: Imagination, Discovery and Sharing. Students write with quill pens on parchment when they study the American Revolution, examine an alligator hide under a microscope to explore cells, and analyze model spaceships hanging from the ceiling to learn about friction. Just inside the door is the “Shelf of Wonder,” twelve shelves of unlabeled objects, from Confederate currency and fossils to a brain model and an artificial hip. Each item eventually turns up in a lesson, and he refuses to answer the “What is this?” questions.
On the first day of school every year he makes two promises: to never raise his voice and to never display anger, no matter what. He is also a professional jazz musician and sometimes brings bandmates in to perform for the class. His students take field trips to a quarry, a courthouse, a symphony performance, a water reservoir and a university engineering lab, and they join his Coding Club, Ambassador team and annual egg-drop experiment, in which he drops their homemade parachutes from the school roof.
Beyond the Classroom
In 2004 Whitehead helped found the Teachers of Promise Institute, an annual two-day event that honors the top future teachers from each of Virginia’s colleges and universities. He has served as its executive director ever since, and it has recognized more than 2,000 prospective teachers. More than 40 master educators serve as mentors. In 2010 he established the Teachers of Promise Foundation, a nonprofit that funds the Institute, and serves as president of its board. He chaired the Virginia Milken Educator Network for more than 12 years.
He directed his district’s New Teacher Academy for seven years and has presented more than 250 workshops, seminars and keynotes across the country, with partners including PBS, Apple and FableVision. In 2014 he was appointed to Virginia’s Standards of Learning Innovation Committee, as the only elementary classroom teacher among fewer than 30 members, and he serves on its Assessment 2.0 Subcommittee.
He also created the school’s annual Turkey Bowl, a flag football game between fourth and fifth graders that raises money for the city’s largest homeless shelter. Each November students collect spare change, tour the shelter and set its tables with holiday placemats they designed. Over nine years the school has raised more than $25,000, enough for more than a quarter of a million meals.
Philosophy Into Practice
Whitehead believes that every learner has a unique set of strengths and talents, and that his job is to help students find them and use them to build their weaker areas. He sees himself as a “dot connector” rather than the ultimate authority, and he says that “learning, not time, should be constant.” He gives pre-assessments before each unit, checks understanding constantly, and invites students and parents to conferences about progress.
He believes the quality of the teacher is the number one school-controlled factor in student achievement, which is why he built the Teachers of Promise Institute. He does not measure his own success by test scores alone. He asks whether students grew, understood new ideas, learned to collaborate, and came to value learning for life.
“Students deserve teachers who understand and utilize rapport and relationships as the primary propellants of student success.”Wade Whitehead
In His Own Words
“I teach students, not curricula.”Wade Whitehead
“I am, instead, a dot connector, uniting them with possibilities just within their reach.”Wade Whitehead
“I will build and nurture an environment of imagination, discovery, and sharing that honors every student’s dignity and background.”Wade Whitehead
What Others Said
“Wade Whitehead has dedicated his life to serving public school students and families.”Robbie Whitehead, nominator, spouse
“Wade is, without exception, the most brilliant and most effective classroom teacher I’ve ever encountered.”Carter, superintendent, Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1
“Walk into Wade’s classroom and take notes. What you see are the exemplars we want every teacher to attain.”Michele H. Dahlquist, principal, Walnut Bend School of Environmental Sciences, Houston ISD
“Mr. Whitehead always told us that learning takes a lifetime, not just a class period.”Ford, former student, quoted by David B. Carson, former chairman, Roanoke City School Board
“Mr. Whitehead provides a once in a lifetime learning experience.”Elizabeth Rice Martin, parent of a former student
“He treats his students with great respect and he expects the same in return.”Kathleen Tate, principal, Crystal Spring School