The Marvelous Mrs. Marla Poling of Hardin Valley Middle has been building children up for nearly 30 years. See how she uses US History to help students find their future.
Where were you born?
Marla Poling: Knoxville.
Adam Wilson: Which hospital?
Marla Poling: UT hospital
What was your middle school mascot?
Marla Poling: Red Devil.
Adam: Red Devils of Halls Middle.
Marla Poling: You got it! I think actually we were the demons back then. I don’t know if they still do that because we were like little baby devils so I don’t know if they still do that.
What college did you go to?
Marla Poling: I did not stray too far – UT!
Adam: What did you major in?
Marla Poling: Back then you majored in history, minored in elementary ed and then you got your masters in a year long internship with curriculum and instruction.
How many years have you taught?
Marla Poling: I’m probably pushing 30 years. I did a year of teaching where I interned and then my husband and I moved out of state. I taught for a year in Massachusetts, a year in North Carolina and then came back in 98 with Knox County.
Adam: And you’ve been at Hardin Valley Middle since the beginning, correct?
Marla Poling: Since the beginning. (Rocky Hill Elementary before HVMS)
What subjects are you teaching this year?
Marla Poling: Eighth grade US history. From the pilgrims to the Civil War, so it is the good stuff! And they do review it again in high school. They had a little bit in fourth and fifth grade, so they think they know it. So I can build off of that. It’s not as intimidating as a math or science class where you could be years behind. We all just feel good here, thank goodness!
Do you sponsor any clubs?
Marla Poling: I have in the past. The last couple of years, Merry Anderson and I have sponsored YOKE. I did not know anything about YOKE until I came here to middle school and found out the background of it. I was familiar with FCA and Young Life and kind of the bigger name, bigger clubs. YOKE meets on Tuesdays from 7-8 PM.
Adam: Tell me more about YOKE.
Marla Poling: Merry Anderson, another eighth grade teacher and her husband were heavily involved. She asked me to cover for her one night because the teacher sponsor has to be in the building. I started talking to the college kids and the leaders over it and they were so excited. And then I loved it! I thought it was worth my time to actually come and see the kids. And when they see me, I don’t mean to sound like I’m a superstar, but when they see their teacher here and I’m believing in it, they’ll show up and then they’ll tell me who they’re going to bring. And then another teacher’s stepson is one of the college kids that helps. So it just kind of kept drawing me in and we’re trying to make it bigger.
Why did you get into teaching?
Marla Poling:
I guess I’ve always loved being around kids is probably the honest, simplest answer. When I first started teaching, it was a lot of creativity. It was a lot of movement. It was a lot of “do-what-you-want,” this is your own kingdom. Now we’re a little more pressed for scores and data and accountability, which I am all good with. But, I try to keep the fun and to keep the lightheartedness in the class so we can still make this fun. Let’s not worry about the test. Let’s do this. We’re not supposed to play the Salem Witch trial game, we’re still gonna play it, even though it really has nothing to do with the standard. It’s just worth my time and your time and a memory. They’re not gonna remember all these other things, but they’re gonna remember the fun activities and the working in the groups and the “attaboys” that they get.
What’s your funniest teaching story?
Marla Poling:
I don’t even know where to start with that one. I guess this was kind of a funny on me in the sense of, the first year, I had a child that spoke zero English and he was actually from Bosnia. A church had sponsored the family to come over and he showed up in my fourth grade classroom, not speaking any English but picked it up amazingly fast. Just crazy fast to the point I would sometimes forget that his English was limited. And one day he had done something unacceptable and I was in a portable classroom. And I told him, you need to meet me on the porch, which is where I would have the meeting when I had a problem with the kiddos to talk about what they had done. And he just stood there. I asked him two or three more times saying, “I need you to go to the porch,” and he didn’t move. He didn’t understand what a porch was and just looked at me. By that time, whatever he had done was kind of beside the point because the kids all burst out laughing because they realized, we all realized, the poor little thing didn’t even know what was happening. So, we took it as a vocabulary lesson and talked about synonyms for the porch, the deck, the front door – all the things.But, my proudest moment was when he scored perfect on math at the end of the year. That’s always struck me funny, just how I need to slow down and think.
Adam Wilson:
As opposed to it escalating and defiant. You’re going outside!
Marla Poling:
Yes! But it’s just this little blank stare of, “What?” So yes, it was adorable.
What’s your most heartwarming teaching story?
Marla Poling:
Heartwarming. It’s kind of heartbreaking, but I guess it ended up being heartwarming. We had a family where a grandmother was raising five children of her son’s and decided she couldn’t do it anymore. She was going to take them to the Methodist Home for Children in Sevierville and drop them off. Luckily, she told us in advance because there was practically a child in every elementary school grade. I had one in my class and all of us, all the teachers, not just me, all the teachers, we couldn’t figure out what to do. And the kids weren’t at school very often anyway, so we started talking to our kiddos trying to explain that he was moving; he was living with his grandmother. We were trying to be vague while trying to explain why there would be a disappearance. We were trying to think, “What’s something special we can do?” And the students said that whenever they get sad, they love their stuffed animals. So we did this huge, brand new stuffed animal drive and we donated tons to the children’s home. Our class picked a favorite and we gave it to him. Then we gave him stocking stuffers, things like a toothbrush and PJ’s. I guess it’s more heartbreaking than heartwarming, but I just hope we sent him off with a warm fuzzy. I hope it was as good as it could have been because he wasn’t in a very good situation to begin with. But the kindness of the kids, especially from first grade to fifth grade. They really put thought into, “What can we do for this little kid?” And I don’t know what happened to them.
That’s the hardest part: not knowing where some of them end up.
Adam Wilson:
I think that’s the heaviness that you can’t fully appreciate unless you’re in education.
Marla Poling:
Yes. I talked with the principal (this was the elementary school) and she approved the transfer we were going to offer, not county transportation, because I knew he would fail if he went to this new zone school. He hung around good kids at our school and we were kind of protecting him, but the grandmother refused it and it was just heartbreaking: with all the things you try to do and you know, he’s not mine. I can’t make those decisions.
Adam Wilson:
Every score on every test comes with an asterisk.
Marla Poling:
Yes it does.
What would you do if you weren’t teaching?
Marla Poling:
I joke with my husband that when I retire, I’m going to work in an attorney’s office, or somewhere downtown, and just get into that whole world. I love the police/detective, “how-it- all-comes-down to,” the lawyers and the courtrooms. I could just go live in a courtroom and watch the whole system/how it works for good or bad. That’s probably what I would have done: something more in the law world somewhere.
Adam Wilson:
Do you watch shows or read books?
Marla Poling:
Books. I don’t really like many law shows. I do, however, like a couple like the “Lincoln Lawyer” (guilty pleasure). I read the books, then I saw the movie and now they have a series, but it’s never as good as the book. I do like a David Baldacci, a good FBI-I love all that. I think that’s one thing that I want to pass on to my students too. There are so many jobs you don’t know to go after. I didn’t know of that many occupations, so I thought, “I love kids, so a teacher is the obvious choice!
Who was your favorite teacher when you were a student?
Marla Poling:
Probably Ms. Miller. She was my first grade teacher. I still see her. She sings in the choir church. In first grade, I loved to read, LOVED to read. I was probably reading on a third to fourth grade level and Ms. Miller always made it fun for me because she would let me get to a special section of the library. Now don’t get me wrong, I was no child genius (math was never my thing), but it was just the way she made all of this feel special in some kind of way. I still try to do that, especially with my quieter kids. I was painfully shy and I did not speak in elementary, but she made me feel so special. Thinking back, she was just wonderful to all the kids.
Adam Wilson:
You’ve come out of your shell!
Marla Poling:
<Laugh>, just a little <laugh>.
Adam Wilson:
Do you know how that happened?
Marla Poling:
No, I don’t know why it happened, but it happened in middle school of all places, which is a terrible place to navigate all the things. I guess that’s why I always try to make sure I go after my quiet ones: I understand that it’s kind of lonely being in the background. The teacher always speaks and they always see the loud, needy or active ones. Those quiet ones are the ones I always try to reach out to the most to get them out of their shell. I want them to advocate for themselves because they’re the ones that’ll just accept whatever and it’s okay. I want to make sure they’re included. My teachers must have done that in middle school to the point where I got so comfortable that I did start talking to the other kids. I did start getting marks on behavior, but they’re the ones we kind of forget about because they’re being good and quiet and we don’t always have time for them anymore due to a variety of reasons.
Which educator at Hardin Valley Middle have you learned the most from?
Marla Poling:
I knew almost nothing about middle school when I accepted the job and the first couple weeks I thought I made a terrible mistake and really wanted to go back to elementary. I think it would have to be Merry Anderson because of her humor; she’s easygoing and understanding. Her years in middle school just taught me how to deal with the kids, how to roll with the punches and how to discipline them appropriately. I couldn’t treat them like I treated elementary school students. They’re also not high school age yet; their brains are definitely not fully formed. Keeping the respect and not going over the top with my discipline is what I learned the most from Merry. She just somehow made it all work and she’s one that I’ve really modeled myself after.
Adam Wilson:
That’s a good one to model yourself after.
Marla Poling:
She’s a really good one.
Adam Wilson:
She’s a really good one.
Marla Poling:
She’s a good ear and a good mentor because it was hard to feel new again after all these years. Also, I’m definitely a creature of habit, so after 20 years in elementary (one elementary school for 20 years) to uproot and do something was a big deal.
Adam Wilson:
A shock to the system.
Marla Poling:
Yes, it was.
Have you earned any professional awards?
Marla Poling:
I was teacher of the year at my elementary school [Rocky Hill). I did a Smoky Mountain Reading Award years ago when I used to present on the elementary level. One year my children put my name in the hat for the B 97.5 Teacher of the Month and completely surprised me. The Bee and the radio show showed up and the Bee costume was hitting the kids in the face- it was just absolutely amazing. My favorite part was that they had misspelled my name and put Maria Poling. Even my children in second grade got that they had misspelled it to which I just had to put my fingers to my lips thinking, “Now’s not the time,” but it was the running joke for the rest of the year. Just the thought that my parents took the time to fill out the paperwork and had gotten together. It was very sweet.
What personal accomplishment are you most proud of?
Marla Poling:
Besides lasting this long? <Laugh>
Adam Wilson:
<Laugh>
Marla Poling:
I hope just keeping the kids involved in school and letting them know we care, that they can come back and see me and that they can always count on me for whatever they need even as far as a reference. I’ve been a job reference, a college reference, a personal reference. It’s the takeaway that I hope I’m a good role model for them and I’ll support them in whatever they want to do.
A couple of my 8th grade students came up to me sheepishly, they’re college oriented now. One of my little girls came up and we were talking about high school classes and she said “I want to take cosmetology.” I told her, “Oh my gosh, that’s great. My grandmother was a cosmetologist and my mom was a cosmetologist but obviously I’m not a cosmetologist.” That was just to make her feel like it’s okay and it’s not less: it’s just different. Just doing my best to make them feel successful in going forward and to have a plan. “Let me help you with your plan and let us show you your plan doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s plan.”
What do you wish every parent knew?
Marla Poling:
How important their attitude towards school is and that, when they make school and education a priority. The kids bring that with them and then it’s so much easier to make them successful. However, when the parents have the attitude that education isn’t important because they’ve been burned by a school or a teacher, that attitude of “it’s okay to talk poorly about education for their kids or a teacher”- that is really hard to undo. If we just had kids that love school and valued school, that would make my job a lot easier. Overall, I can teach you and model how to be nice and can teach you all the other things, but it’s really hard to convince you that school is important when your parents don’t believe that and don’t want you to be better than them. That is a problem I didn’t hit until middle school.
Adam Wilson:
Yeah. The real work begins now.
Marla Poling:
The real work begins, yeah.
Adam Wilson:
What do you wish every student knew?
Marla Poling:
Kids around eighth grade or so are college-prep ready and I wish they knew that they don’t have to be. They just have to have a plan and that plan can change; just be prepared! Finish high school, think of the things you love and go after them. Whether it be vocational, whether it be police academy, whether it be beauty school, whether it be whatever: just have a plan. I understand if you don’t like school, but finish it out and see your other options. I think that’s something we, as a school system, are working toward and I think it could still be better, but working toward showcasing other things besides college is the challenge. The college kids are going to get there. We know how to tell them to get there, but I don’t know how to tell them to get to all these other things.
What’s the difference between a good and a great teacher?
Marla Poling:
A good teacher is efficient. A good teacher gets the job done, the material taught, probably has good classroom behavior, sponsors clubs and does the checklist. I think a great teacher is the one who pours their heart into it a little more and doesn’t just go by the book; they go off track on their own sometimes and make it more memorable for the kids instead of just a checkoff. They try to be a good role model for the kids and they’re honest with them. Sometimes some of my best days are when I’m upfront with the kids to say, “This isn’t going to be a very interesting day, but let’s get through it together.” and they appreciate that honesty. It’s just more genuine when you’re in it for the kids and you’re not in it for your test scores, feedback or accolades: it’s, “Did they feel successful today?”
What improvement would you most like to see made to public education?
Marla Poling:
Going to elementary, I would love to see smaller class sizes. I know that has been voted down by a lot of people (I’m sure research could prove that it doesn’t matter), but it does matter. I think having smaller classrooms is worth investing in more teachers and getting the kids actually involved. When you’re talking about a class of 35, it’s hard to be an effective teacher to the ones that are between the cracks or the quiet ones or the struggling ones that don’t receive any other help. This list could go on and on. That’s just one thing that I always think of: how awesome it would be if I could lower that class ratio and we would be allowed to do more things and have more time? Instead of making sure 35 mastered, I could do 20 mastered and then we could do this extension activity or actually do the curriculum in a year when, now, we are not always able to do so.
Adam Wilson:
If you could half the class size or double teacher pay, what do you think would have a more profound impact?
Marla Poling:
Half the classroom size…I think double the pay you’re getting into it for the wrong reasons. Although I obviously would still take my new raise I just received today <laugh>, that may attract people that are in it for the wrong reasons. It’s the same thing with nursing. I’ve heard a lot of things about how nursing has kind of changed. A lot of people went into it for travel nurse salaries and they don’t have a calling. I think nurses have callings and I think teachers have callings. You just have to have that compassion. It’s not about the paycheck.
Adam Wilson:
You put your money where your mouth is; I respect it!
What’s something that you could use in your classroom?
Marla Poling:
Besides three other teachers, <laugh>? I’m pretty good. I sent out an Amazon wishlist and I’ve had over-the-top generosity just showered upon me. I think everything was taken off my Amazon wishlist except for a few little things. We just had a lot of parents that reached out to all of us ao I’m down to the little things that I’ll be picking up at the grocery store. We do Jolly Ranchers for test review, so that’s something I always go back around. But big things, I guess I’ve been in it long enough that I’ve minimized my things since leaving elementary. I actually can’t think of a single thing. Oh! I would love a printer.
What hobbies do you have?
Marla Poling:
So it’s grading papers, <laugh> Reading, which I haven’t been reading as much as I used to. My kids are grown and their hobbies used to be my hobbies. Soccer was a really big deal even though I didn’t play. Reading is my only one, but this empty nest thing is giving me more time than I know what to do with, so I have to find some new ones. I love to make little cute photo books on Shutterfly, but that’s a retirement project.I’m gonna have to find me some hobbies.
What’s a good way for a student or a parent to spoil you?
Marla Poling:
Food. Always food. Lunch is the one thing we can’t do easily. We could DoorDash. You know PTO lunches? If PTO only knew how much we truly appreciate those old school things. For teacher appreciation week, parents sign up every day and you have whatever you tell them and they will go to the ends of the Earth, You want a Calhoun’s chicken salad? Done. You want a steak? Whatever you want. It was the biggest treat, and even if it was just Chick-fil-A and wasn’t the fanciest meal, it was the fact that they would literally go do that for me. It’s something I can’t do: I can’t leave the building and get food during the day and I love lunch. Lunch is where I spend all my money in the summer. It’s just something other professions take for granted and my husband offers lunches to all offices all the time and I don’t get to enjoy that. So yeah, lunches.
Who is your star student and why do you appreciate them?
Marla Poling:
Lizzie Sagraves was one of the kindest, most mature, easy going, and all around a star. In class, she was attentive, helpful, and always kind enough to laugh at any corny history jokes thrown her way. To others, she would help anyone in need and do anything asked of her with a smile on her face. When asked who she wanted to room with on an overnight field trip, her response was simply that it will be great with whoever. She made my day, she made me want to do a better job, she made me happy that I’m a teacher.
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