CHUH Teacher Meets the President

Before Natalie Wester and other state teachers of the year could meet President Barack Obama, they had to form a line. 

Just like in elementary school, Wester, a third-grade teacher at and Ohio’s 2010 Teacher of the Year, and the other teachers were put in order by height. Wester, who is more than 6 feet tall in heels, was at the very end of the line of more than 50 people. But she’s used to waiting. 

“I’m the tallest teacher, and I was in heels, and with a last name that starts with “W,” either way you looked at it I was going to be at the end,” she recalled, laughing.

Teachers filed into the Oval Office one at a time when their name was called to meet Obama, and each had a few minutes with the president. Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, and others chatted with teachers while they waited.

“I can’t put it into words. You realize where you are and who you’re meeting and for a moment, you’re speechless, which for a teacher is unusual,” Wester said.

Wester had one very important task — to give Obama a book her students made, titled High Notes and Low notes: Third-Graders Advice on Improving Education and Handling Adversity, by the Jazzy Geniuses of Room 109.

Teachers were not supposed to have anything in their hands, so she was stopped by security several times along the way, who inquired about and scanned the purple, laminated and bound book with a Picasso-like image of a bass player on the front.

Students wrote ideas about how to improve public education. They suggested shortening the state tests — more than two hours is not developmentally appropriate for 8- and 9-year-olds, they said. They also suggested extending the length of the school year to help improve student achievement.

They wrote poems about bullying and confidence and diversity. And they gave the president a few tips.

“Always use your strategies, show your work and explain your thinking. You’ll be OK,” Wester said, describing one student’s suggestion.

Wester watched nervously as others in front of her cried, so moved by the opportunity to meet the leader of the country.

“It’s just such a powerful, emotional moment to know where you are. And it’s not your personal recognition,” she said. “It’s a recognition of teachers, and a recognition of my colleagues. It’s a recognition of Cleveland Heights-University Heights schools. It’s a recognition of Gearity teachers. I think I was lucky enough to be chosen as a representative.”

Wester, 51, had taught for fewer than five years when she found out she was receiving the honor in 2009.

She worked in the business world for almost 22 years as a vice president and manager of media training, and started her own communications consulting business in Beachwood. She said her son sparked her interest in education.

“His struggle with a learning disability was my inspiration to go back to school and learn more about teaching,” said Wester, who lives in Orange and is a Shaker Heights High alumna. “I wasn’t sure at the time if that was going to lead me to switch careers and go into the classroom — I just needed to know and I wanted to know more about it.”

After receiving a master’s degree, her second, she pursued a teaching job and landed at Gearity in 2005. A few years later, she was getting one of the highest honors in the state. And on May 3, she met the president. 

Finally, it was her turn to meet Obama in the famous room of the White House.

“I didn’t cry, but you do feel choked up. You have that feeling in your throat and in your stomach and realize the enormity of where you are. This is once in a lifetime,” she said. 

When she met Obama, she explained that her students made her promise to hand the book to him personally.

“He laughed, and he took it and looked at the cover, and said, ‘Well, we better take a picture with this book then.’ He wasn’t missing a beat,” she said.

Teachers were told they would have one photo with the president, but Obama suggested they take two. One with the book, one without.

“Even talking about it, I still get goose bumps,” she said.

White House officials have not sent the photos yet, but she’ll have proof for her students soon enough. Wester’s son, Jackson Rock, 17, was there to take a few photos of the event in the meantime.

Wester spent four days in Washington, D.C. Teachers were honored at a ceremony at the White House, and attended receptions, panels about being a teacher leader and a gala dinner, among other events. 

“It’s certainly quite an honor … but like I said, I don’t think it’s my honor. It’s all of ours at Gearity.”