Cc Teacher Highlight: Meghann Harris

We’ve known Meghann since 2012 when she came to the launch of Common Curriculum! Since then, Meghann has used Cc to help her develop a 3-year graphic design curriculum at Baltimore Design School, travelled across the country teaching making skills to young women, and was a semi-finalist for Baltimore City Schools Teacher of the Year. She is not only a passionate educator but also an incredibly talented illustrator and maker who cares deeply about her teaching practice and how it impacts her students.

We sat down with Meghann before the back-to-school craze hit to ask her a couple questions about being a teacher.

What is one thing you wish your students knew about you?

My students know me pretty in and out being that they’re with me for three years of their high school education. One thing I like to be transparent about, though, is that I am a queer teacher. I do that very intentionally: I want LGBTQ+ students know they are in a safe space with a person who understands their struggle. I also want cis students to understand that appearances don’t tell you everything about a person, so you really have to be respectful with your language at all times because you never know who you could offend/negatively impact. My students and I have a better relationship with them knowing this about me and students often tell me they feel safe and respected in my room because of the boundaries I set at the beginning of the year with their language and behavior.

What is the one teacher tool or resource you couldn’t live without?

I couldn’t live without my Todoist account. As a department chair, I get a lot of “to do” items from all directions: in email, in passing conversations, when students and parents conference with you… It’s constant. So instead of being bogged down by all those tasks and losing track of them, I sort them into my inbox any time someone gives me a task. Once I week, I “triage” my email and look for any to-do tasks, also adding them to my inbox. Then once a week or every two weeks, I look back at the inbox and assign dates on which I want to accomplish those tasks.

Not everything gets done every time, but that’s why Todoist is great, because I can look at those items and reassign them to a new date. Nothing gets lost. And my other resource is my forgiving brain. Didn’t finish my to do list? Well, resting is important, too, and tasks can be accomplished another day so that I stay sane and ready to assist my students.

How has using Cc improved your teaching practice?

Common Curriculum has taken away a lot of the extra tools my team would create every year from scratch. If anything, it’s gotten rid of a lot of pointless legwork my team and I did in years past and made it easier to jump into the work. Now I don’t need to think about what my lesson planning document design looks like or my unit design. As a design teacher, I could agonize over those things if you let me, so it’s helpful that Common Curriculum gives me an effective design I can jump into without even having to think about what the interface looks like. Getting straight to the work minimizes a lot of the prep I do every year. It also makes having daily lesson plans a lot less intimidating since I can re-use from years past, set up templates for commonly occurring lessons, and see how my lessons flow into one another with their unit planner screen.

What is one cool thing you’re working on outside the classroom?

Outside of the classroom, I’m an illustrator. At present, I’m helping a friend to illustrate her cookbook, which comes with the perk of eating her delicious food. I love being able to focus on my own art and having time to do that — it helps me feel restored when I come into the classroom every day and also helps the kids see their teacher never stops learning, nor should they. In addition to illustration, I’m also an amateur builder and just built a new table for my apartment this summer, with a few new projects coming up so I can play with my new orbital sander!

What has been your proudest/most challenging moment as a teacher?

My proudest moment as a teacher was also my most challenging. Last school year, 23 of my 26 seniors passed the Adobe Illustrator Adobe Certified Associate exam. It was an amazing accomplishment and I’m so proud of them. Learning what it means to push every student to pass that exam and really showing them that they can, never letting them give up on themselves — that was the hard but very worthwhile part. While it was a challenge, I never questioned what my kids could or could not do. I just knew we would work at it until we hit our goal… and then we surpassed it!

You can follow Meghann and her students on Instagram @bdsgraphicdesign and support her classroom directly with a donation.

You can also hear from Meghan herself why she loves using Cc to plan in this video. Then, check out Cc 5.0 for yourself, here! Sign up for your free account and start a Pro trial at any time. Stay up to date on all new Cc things by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.