On October 16, 2009, Roberta Tenney sat down with Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs for an interview. She was joined by students from ASCD student chapters at Plymouth State University and Southern New Hampshire University who observed the interview.

Roberta Tenney: Dr. Jacobs, tell us about your new book.

Dr. Jacobs: My first book coming out soon is a curriculum mapping planner book to help teachers and administrators to review and update and to do gap analysis and other strategic work with content. What I always thought was this would be electronic and web based and what I like about it is software groups have picked up on it and tried to make it better. They acknowledge my contribution and influence to this progression and I appreciate it. The truth is that this is the role of a thought leader—to have a place on the continuum and to inspire others to add their expertise. I am very excited about this and think that educators will find it helpful. Mapping is all over the world today—and the State of New Hampshire is a leader in this movement providing the software necessary to do this work.
The second book is what I am sharing pieces of today. It is about essential skills for the 21st century.

Roberta Tenney: Do you do a book tour?

Dr. Jacobs: No, I share models and ideas in many ways through my workshops and the issues included in the book. ASCD does a very good job of getting ideas out there and letting teachers know what is available and helpful. I then help people with implementation in a variety of ways—workshops, lectures and summer institutes. There will be a web component for the Curriculum 21 book and I am working on interactivity.

Roberta Tenney: Will that be free?

Dr. Jacobs: Yes, now it is—the key idea is the material to be used. However, if as time goes on it costs us money for production and we need to have subscriptions we may do that. This will unfold.

Roberta Tenney: Often when I ask students what they are reading for pleasure, they tell me they do not have time because of course work demands, but you lecture and advise all over the world and still find the time to write books. How do you do that?

Dr. Jacobs: Some of my colleagues are more prolific than I am—this will sound funny but if you come up with an actionable idea in education then you need to write it—where you get in trouble is when you say I need to write a book—and go from there—I have the actionable idea and I take action. I am an early riser and I sometimes just start writing and not notice what time it is—other times I take a few minutes and write. When you start to see solutions to educational problems then you try to make those ideas actionable.

When Dr. Jacobs rejoined the larger session she shared with participants how wonderfully envious she felt watching those future teachers (students from PSU and SNHU) just starting on a career that she has found so rewarding. At the conclusion of Mrs. Tenney’s interview, Dr. Jacobs turned to the students to tell them to stay with the instrument (teaching) even if the orchestra (first teaching position) isn’t right for them. Too many good teachers give up too soon. If they love teaching try to find the right place/environment to be their best and it just may not be the first teaching position that turns out to be the correct fit.