Two Teachers Worth Listening To
If you’re heading to Portland this June for the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference, you already know the energy in that room is going to be something. But before you get there, it’s worth getting to know two of the people who will be on that stage: Bryan Butcher Jr., the 2025 Oregon Teacher of the Year, and Ashlie Crosson, the 2025 National Teacher of the Year. Both recently sat down for interviews with Kappan, and both had a lot to say that’s worth your time.
Bryan Butcher Jr.: Teaching Is Already Leadership
Bryan Butcher Jr. teaches seventh-grade math at Beaumont Middle School in Portland, the same city he grew up in. He’s the kind of teacher who brings corner store candy into a lesson on equations and makes it work. But what stands out in his interview isn’t just the classroom creativity. It’s how clearly he sees the bigger picture of what teaching is.
Butcher didn’t start out planning to teach. He was coaching Little League, refereeing games, and tutoring kids at a community center before it finally clicked. It took until his junior year of college to name what he’d already been doing. That honesty is refreshing, and it’s something a lot of you in Educators Rising might recognize in yourselves.
One of the most useful things he said is about what it means to lead. When students start thinking about teaching, leadership often sounds like something that comes later, after you’ve put in years and earned a title. Butcher pushes back on that. “You are a leader when you walk into your classroom,” he said, and he means it literally. Day one counts.
He also talked about his first year, which was hard. His solution was a daily journal: one thing that went well, one thing to improve, one thing that made him smile, one thing to remember. He kept it up every day for a month and a half, then tapered off as the habit of reflection became automatic. That’s a genuinely practical piece of advice, not just an inspirational one.
And then there’s this, which might be the most memorable line in the whole interview: “I like to think of teaching as an art form, and art is never done.” For anyone who’s anxious about being ready enough, that framing offers something real.
Ashlie Crosson: Give Back What Was Given to You
Ashlie Crosson teaches English and AP Language at Mifflin County High School in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, the same rural district where she was a student. She’s a first-generation college student who originally enrolled to study journalism before changing course. Now she teaches at the school that shaped her, and she revived its journalism program along the way.
Her Kappan interview is worth reading in full, but the thread that runs through all of it is this: teachers are the reason she’s standing where she is. “It was my teachers and guidance counselors who helped me make that dream happen,” she said. “They saw my potential before I saw it myself.” That became her reason for teaching. She wanted to give back what had been given to her.
The way she describes her classroom reflects that. Her students do projects: digital ones, handmade ones, partner projects, solo projects. She teaches English, but her real goal is helping students find the way they best communicate. When that clicks, she says, they’re not just finding their voice. They’re ready to use it for what they actually care about.
Her advice to students considering teaching but feeling unsure is direct and worth sitting with. “The impact of a teacher is not hypothetical or theoretical,” she said. “We inspire real humans, and we change real lives.”
Why This Matters for You
Both Butcher and Crosson are talking to you, even if the interviews were written for a broader audience. They both came to teaching through a process, not a single moment of certainty. They both had years where they weren’t sure they were doing it right. And they both stayed.
If you’re at the conference in Portland from June 20 to 23, you’ll hear from them in person. Read the full interviews from our Kappan editor, Kathleen Vail, first. You’ll have a lot more to take away from their keynotes if you walk in already knowing their stories.
