Blake Bishop: Fifth-Generation Educator Carrying on a Learning Legacy

How long have you been a teacher? 

This is my sixth year.  

You were recently elected to the board of the Palmetto State Teachers Association, but you’ve been a part of that organization a long time, right? 

I have been a member since my senior year at Anderson. They offer student membership, so this is my seventh year as a member. 

What are some ways the Palmetto State Teachers Association benefits educators in the state? 

There are so many things. I would say that one of the things that I appreciate so much about the PSTA is how accessible leadership has been. It’s super easy to get the PSTA to show up and do professional development or to come to an event and speak about legislative issues going on in the state. They also host events like EdCamp, take current and future teachers to the state capital for their “Hill Days,” and help people across the state advocate for education. It's a fantastic resource. 

When did you decide you wanted to be a teacher?  

I have wanted to be a teacher for a long time, but you get to high school and start reevaluating all your childhood dreams. I remember taking a career cluster assignment all students get—even today—and it said, “this is the general area you need: Somewhere where you're helping people—healthcare, law enforcement or teaching.” And teaching was where I felt and still feel like I can make the biggest difference for the largest number of people. 

What subjects do you teach? 

I teach world history, government and economics.  

How did you decide to come to Anderson University? 

I looked around at other universities, but I wanted somewhere that was going to provide the support academically and spiritually that I felt I needed—and Anderson was just right for me. I'm very grateful, especially to the staff... for everything that they offered. One of the people who gave me a tour was Austin Garrett who was a Teaching Fellow and is now ... Everyone from the very beginning, before I was even a student, made it so clear that there was going to be a high level of investment in me as a student, as a future teacher. I appreciated that and continue to appreciate it.  

What are some of the ways professionally you feel AU equipped you to do what you do in the classroom?  

To paraphrase another Anderson alum, Teaching Fellows was like the cherry on top of a really great education, because it pushed me even more into placement in the schools and even more into being a servant leader. I feel like the Teaching Fellows program helped prepare me for the roles that I've been filling now and am continuing to fulfill in a leadership capacity. I just hope I'm doing justice to the program— And I keep thinking about how wonderful all my professors were and how each of them went out of their way for me. (Because of class size) I'm confident that each professor knew me.  

What are some of your favorite memories of college at AU? 

I’m going to keep leaning on the Teaching Fellows angles and the community that I was able to build up with my fellow future educators there. The support that I got from that program was really so wonderful and I'm still so grateful for it. This past year has really been an extra highlight for me on just how well that program prepared me. 

Is there an ‘aha’ moment where you saw your students grasping something you taught? 

One of my favorite moments every year is any opportunity I get to pull art and music in from history so that students can better understand the period. For example, we were talking about the Baroque Era, where we start to get a lot of what people recognize to be classical music. You start pulling in some of the famous art that was going on during that time or even immediately after. Students can look at that art and understand what the experience is or listen to that music and understand, "this is really happy and sad." Finding those different moments of emotion in the art really connects them to the people who were there, where reading someone's words might take a little bit more time for them. Seeing them really leap on the art is always a joy. 

Describe the community where you live. 

Ware Shoals is a fantastic community to be a part of. Just the level of investment that we're able to share with the community is unparalleled with anything that I've personally experienced, and it makes it really easy to do my job when I have buy in from parents and buy in from the community because even just in six years, I already know a lot of people because it's a small town. Everybody knows everybody. 

If you want to tell somebody about Ware Shoals High School, what are some positives you could share? 

Similar to PSTA, it's the accessibility. I can go to my principal, I can go to my superintendent, and I can go to our testing coordinator or chief academic officer—anybody in leadership has an open door in our district. They're not far away physically or otherwise, and we just don't have a separation that I think you would get in a larger district. We have small departments where everybody knows each other—I know everybody in my school. This may be cliché, but it feels like a family. 

What about your other involvement in the school besides classroom teaching? 

I'm the assistant director of Squad 51. They are an immediate responder group of students that I train in first aid, CPR, STOP THE BLEED®—those kinds of things. They are trained to respond in any emergency and we also have them help respond to emergencies at school, providing help until we have EMS on scene or helping with providing traffic direction or other acts of service that they can help with.  

I also assist with percussion in the marching band. 

What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a teacher? 

Teaching can be hard, but that's no reason not to do something that you love. As long as we can be realistic about those difficult moments, then everything else makes up for it. A lot of people go into education and their story is similar to mine, where everybody told them "don't do it, you're going to hate it, you don't get paid enough, you're not going to be respected enough" and all these other things that everybody's already heard. Yes, it can be hard, but it'll be worth it — because it's worth whatever you put into it. It's one of the things that I love about CERRA programs, like Teacher Cadets and Teaching Fellows, is it gets you into teaching. You can see what some of those difficult things are going to be, and you're going to get into your first year and you're going to find new difficult things, but you just have to keep going and keep investing and pushing forward to be where you're going to be able to do really awesome things and make a huge difference. 

How well do you feel AU prepared you for your graduate work? 

I had such a high expectation put on my work in undergrad that it was not at all a culture shift to go into graduate work. It was like starting right back up where I left off. 

Now I'm looking at whatever the next step's going to be. Looking at an Ed.S. (Education Specialist) more than likely.