Heather Anderson 11/18/2019

Up until the current academic year, Heather Anderson was an award-winning English/Language Arts educator and mock trial coach at Stillwater Junior High. Heather describes the lead-up to the strike in Oklahoma in-depth. Heather's interview illuminates that teachers had been frustrated for at least the year prior with the lack of autonomy afforded to teachers in their Professional Learning community (PLC) meetings (or, meetings where teachers come together to discuss instruction, share information about how students are doing, and make plans for improvement). She describes how these 'extra-PLC' meetings, or informal gatherings of teachers after school to vent, grew and intensified as discussion of the walkouts became more tangible. Ultimately, Heather describes feeling defeated in the wake of the walkouts. Her decision to leave teaching was informed, in part, by her pregnancy and new child, and, in large part, feeling that the intensive work she put into becoming a stellar educator and professional was not valued, monetarily or otherwise.