Gregory Michie: Between 'Miracles and Metal Detectors'

An award-winning educator, Gregory Michie was an elementary classroom teacher for nine years before stepping into the role of teacher-educator in 2001. In 1999, he published Holler if You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students , which chronicled his struggles and successes in a Chicago classroom. A humorous and sobering account of a white, middle class teacher from Charlotte, N.C., working with Latino and African-American students from Chicago's South Side, the book peers inside Michie's classroom and provides the personal accounts of his students through their own oral histories. The second edition of the book was released recently to mark its 10th anniversary.

Awarded the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching Excellence in Chicago, Michie is an associate professor of curriculum and instruction and elementary education at the College of Education, Illinois State University.

Michie spoke with us recently about his teaching philosophy, his enduring relationships with his former students, and the experience of becoming a teacher-educator.