This spotlight is on Bruce and Sharon Camblin of Bellingham, Washington. They are professional partners in the consulting firm, Change Systems for Educators, and the only husband and wife team working as trainers for MRSH.

Sharon’s expertise as a leadership development consultant lies in the areas of change and project management. With earlier degrees in music education and music performance, Sharon earned her doctorate in education administration. She estimates that her work with Modern Red constitutes about 15% of her professional time; the rest is spent in research, writing for publication, conducting workshops/making presentations for clients, or doing select graduate level teaching.

Recently, Sharon worked with the Hawaii Department of Education through the auspices of the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) to “help them develop standards and a certification system for their administrators. The work will continue this summer with other Micronesian countries. Bruce and I have both provided inservice institutes for the Republic of Palau and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.” Bruce continues in his role as Senior Associate for Mathematics and Assessment for PREL.

Bruce also completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education, with an undergraduate minor in mathematics. Math is his recognized area of expertise, and he is often introduced as Bruce, the Math Guy. “I am flattered and challenged by people using this terminology,” he says. “I try to help teachers understand and appreciate the need for change as they help their students learn and apply the language of mathematics and find at least one additional approach that will connect with the struggling student and build successful learning. Since 1966, the motto for all my classes has been, ‘Not to do it again, but to do it better!’” In his math trainings, Bruce often adjusts a quote from the book, Teaching Mathematically, which says, “…as teachers… we must learn to teach our subject artistically…with passion, with a clear demonstration of our love for the subject, and with the conviction that we can motivate our students to study and learn the subject matter that we teach.”

The Camblins are dedicated to the process of individualizing services for all their clients. They most enjoy multiple visits with individual schools and teachers since they agree that “you can never create effective change with one or two sessions. The continuum of knowledge and learning is so long, we hardly ever begin at the beginning or the same place. We need to visit this continuum many times to effect and accomplish change.” In fact, their best piece of advice for schools seeking to improve their performance is to understand that “school change has to become systemic to be effective and sustainable. This means that the building leadership must be involved and participatory in the trainings.” Leaders not only “demonstrate the importance of the changes we suggest by their participation,” but they also need to attend in order to “understand and support the change efforts of their staffs.”

When asked how they connected with Modern Red SchoolHouse in the first place, Bruce responded, “I saw an advertisement in Ed Week in November 1999 asking for interested parties to apply for a consulting position. So I did.” The wait seemed endless, but after a telephone interview the following March, he was invited to Nashville and joined the “Class of 2000.” Bruce mentioned Sharon’s interest a year later, and she also flew in to join the MRSH family. The best part, according to them both, is “having the opportunity to work with teachers and administrators in schools across the country and to work with the dedicated MRSH staff. The fun happens when the people you are working with begin to see and understand the need for change, the changes needed, and where they can begin to make those changes.”

Their commitment as educators can be summed up by a quote Sharon chose from Parker Palmer’s The Courage to Teach, 1998: “I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom where I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illumined by the lightning-life of the mind – then teaching is the finest work I know.”

April 2004