Without further ado, here’s the interview we did with Keri Treadway!
Angela: We hear you support teachers in a variety of ways. Tell us a little about your goal in supporting teachers?
Keri: Teaching can be an isolating and challenging job. It’s a career where we often disappear into our own rooms and have few opportunities to collaborate or talk with our colleagues. Although teaching can be extremely rewarding, some days it feels like we’re spending the majority of our time dealing with implementing the latest mandated educational trend, or trying to make do with sparse resources, crumbling buildings, and declining support staff. I was lucky enough to have some amazing educators take me under their wing when I first started my career. One of the things they taught me was no matter what, we have to support one another, both inside and outside of the classroom. They taught me that it’s wasn’t just about mentoring new teachers, but also encouraging all educators to not be afraid to speak up, to speak out, and to be heard. We must commit ourselves to be more visible and more vocal by sharing stories from our classrooms. Only we can share an honest vision of our students’ needs. The complexities involved in our work are often misunderstood by the public at large as well as our policymakers. Advocacy is a shared responsibility, which allows us to unite our voices and have a greater impact as we move forward in the fight for strong public schools.
Angela: What do you think is the most important thing a teacher can do for their students?
Keri: Teach them to treat others (and themselves) with compassion and respect. Model it. Live it. Work to create a classroom environment where children feel well cared for and safe – a place where they feel valued as individuals and where their needs for attention, approval, and affection are supported. Teach them that it is okay to make mistakes, because that just provides another opportunity to learn and grow. Our classroom environment should be a place where children can acquire not just a strong educational foundation, but also foster their social-emotional development.
Angela: Why did you get into teaching?
Keri: I grew up in center city Allentown in a poor/working-class neighborhood. My family didn’t have a ton of money, but that didn’t matter because both my parents and my first-grade teacher instilled in me a love of learning. I absolutely idolized my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Wolff. I vividly remember her smile, love, encouragement, and patience. It was sometime during that year that a spark ignited in me. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to grow up to be just like Mrs. Wollf. She was truly an inspiration throughout the years, and I can only hope that I’ve made her proud!
Angela: What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen as a teacher?
Keri: This is a tough one to answer! There are so many funny things that my kids say/do on a daily basis. The one that really comes to mind (and cracks me up every time I think of it) was during our end of the year splash party. One little boy (I bet you remember who) was just getting ready to participate in the water balloon toss. After getting the whole class lined up with their partners, I noticed out of the corner of my eye water squirting from one of the balloons that this little boy was holding. Upon further inspection, I quickly discovered that it wasn’t his water balloon that was leaking….it was actually him. He was so worried about missing the water balloon contest that he decided it was best to pull down his bathing suit a bit and “just go there” because everyone was already wet anyway. Gotta love kindergartners!
Angela: Anything else you want fans of Vacas to know?
Keri: Get involved with the fight for more education funding! It’s been over a decade since the last recession and our schools still haven’t recovered. We need to demand more from our elected officials and it’s time that we fund our schools, fix our crumbling buildings, and treat teachers with respect.
*** Remember, Vacas gives K-12 Teachers a 15% discount. Just enter discount code teacher15 when checking out a product on our website, myvacas.com.
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This current quandary is how Vacas came to life. The company would have never been created if the founder would have continued teaching full-time. Angela Smith launched Vacas in 2019 after a decade long career as an elementary teacher. From a young age, she knew her calling in life was to teach children. Throughout high school and college, Angela worked for the Boys and Girls Club and a children's gymnastics school. Upon graduation, she went directly into teaching elementary students and truly believed she would retire from that occupation.
Fast forward ten years, a mortgage, one husband, and two kids later, Angela began to second guess her career choice. The job she used to love was changing. And it wasn't the students. They were great! It was everything else. The standardized testing, the absent parents, bureaucracy, and red tape galore. Over countless nights, Angela and I (her husband) had many discussions about her future as a teacher. It was hard for her to even imagine doing something else.
In the end, she decided her sanity and self-worth was worth more than the salary and respect she was receiving. Many people argue that teachers get paid plenty because of the summers off. Then they say things like, “If they don’t like it, then they should quit”. Well, that’s what my wife did! And that’s what many other teachers are doing every day!
Because Angela loves children, she’ll always teach in some form. She continues to teach spanish part-time. But she’s no longer dedicating her full-time career to a system that does not fully support her. This is the backstory of how Vacas was created. It’s weird to see my wife going through the entrepreneurial journey after years of working a job that has nothing to do with business. It’s actually really neat to see her tackle this new challenge, and exciting to see how other teachers are transitioning to all sorts of different paths. One point is becoming blatantly clear. The teachers don’t need us like we want to believe. We need them. Isn’t it about time we started treating them that way?
]]>After launching Vacas to the world this year, there was a big question surrounding how our company would give back to the community. This was very important to me. It needed to be something that Vacas could be part of in a helpful way, and create a voice for good. It didn’t take long for me to choose our K-12 school teachers.
I began my first career as a teacher in 2008 for the city of Richmond. In my 10 year career, I went on to teach kindergarten, 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades. Being a teacher is in my blood. I loved the students and all of my fellow teachers as well. It makes me sad to see teachers leaving the profession. It makes me even sadder knowing there won’t be enough qualified teachers to fill the spots opening up, translating to larger classes and more stress on the teachers still there. This isn’t good for anyone. These days, teacher shortages are happening across the country, specifically in urban areas of poverty. Just recently, the Economic Policy Institute warned there could be a shortage of over 100,000 teaching jobs nationally. A shortage is defined as “the inability to staff vacancies at current wages with individuals qualified to teach in the fields needed.” What’s worse than knowing there aren’t enough teachers for our children is knowing that current teachers are having significant moral issues. Just like me, there are thousands of teachers leaving the field every day, with nothing major being done to fix the problem.
After I knew I wanted my business to support teachers, I had a hard time figuring out how we would do it. I wanted to do more than just cut a non-profit a check at the end of the year. It had to be something that could connect me directly to the teachers in the classroom. In a conversation with my husband, who is a veteran, he said that his favorite benefit received from companies supporting veterans is the extra discount. He gave examples of Lowe’s and Bass Pro Shops. You know, guy stuff. They give a 5% - 10% discount to veterans. This puts money right back into my husband’s pocket, and he says that’s what he likes.
So that’s what we decided to do. Except when I started looking at the discounts offered from companies for veterans, teachers, etc., I started to notice that most of them were always just 5%-10%. This discount is great, but I was thinking mine could be better. Something to really differentiate teachers from the rest of the world. This is how we came up with a 15% teacher discount, no questions asked. Just type in teacher15 into the discount code field when checking out, and wham! There you go! What’s even cooler about Vacas giving 15% off to teachers is knowing how these teachers will benefit further from the conversations with students about their unique shoes. Kids absolutely love them. At the end of the day, knowing that Vacas can put a few dollars back into a teacher’s pocket, while also helping them engage their classrooms just a little bit more, put’s warmth in my heart. Cheers to all you teachers out there!
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