Teacher Education students who ‘see the world just a little bit differently’ have a strong ally in Dr. Richard Fulton
At CSU, Dr. Fulton made an important discovery about himself: being a “typical” teacher wasn’t going to cut it. “I didn’t buy into the way traditional schools are developed for kids,” he says. “I never felt particularly inspired as a young student and my summer camp experiences made me realize how important it is to customize learning around each student’s interests.” Dr. Fulton opted to do his student teaching at the most unique school he could find, Jefferson County Open School—where there are no grade levels or grades, and students complete eight “self-initiated passages” to graduate. The CSU field placement coordinator told him he’d never get a job student teaching at such a place. Dr. Fulton was determined to prove him wrong. After completing his teaching licensure, Dr. Fulton accepted a position at Southwest Open High School in Cortez, a school modeled after Jeffco Open. He regularly sought state funding for the school, and those connections with the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) led to a job offer administering grants for Learn and Serve programs. After eight years with Southwest Open (five as principal), Dr. Fulton was ready for a change. The time was also right to do something he’d been thinking about for awhile: pursue his doctorate. In 1995, he moved to Greeley and began working toward his Ph.D. at the University of Northern Colorado. He commuted to Denver to work part-time at CDE. After graduating from UNC, Dr. Fulton took a one-year position back at Jeffco Open as interim principal. When a group of parents in the community who were working to develop a Montessori school heard that Dr. Fulton was available, they recruited him to apply for the principal position. In 1998, he helped open Compass Montessori in Wheat Ridge. “That’s probably the crowning achievement of my career,” says Dr. Fulton, whose two young children (a girl and a boy) began school at Compass as well. “Within three years, we had a thousand people on our waiting list. Parents walked in the doors and you didn’t even have to say anything. It was obvious what a magical place it was.” After seven years in metro Denver, Dr. Fulton and his wife were ready to leave the city, so when he came across a posting for an open position at Fort Lewis College, he jumped at it. “I’d worked with some of the Teacher Education professors while I was at Southwest Open and CDE, and I knew what kind of program Fort Lewis had,” he says. “I felt Fort Lewis was one of the most progressive, exemplary institutions in the state.” In 2005, he happily joined the Teacher Education department. Today, Dr. Fulton is happy to be able to share his philosophy on education with students—and feels that his audience is not only receptive, but excited. “I think many students who come here are looking for something different,” he says. “They’re creative, and they want to make a difference in the world, but they see the world just a little bit differently. That kind of student and our culture at Fort Lewis make for a pretty good match.” As he begins his fifth year at Fort Lewis, Dr. Fulton says he thanks his lucky stars on a daily basis. “Coming to Fort Lewis is the best thing that’s happened to me,” he says. “We have some pretty incredible faculty here who are so passionate about what they do, they up the game for the rest of us—and I’m glad to be on the team. I feel very lucky to live in this town and have this job.” |
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