Teaching is challenging, yet fascinating and fun. It is the only profession that allows you to collaborate with other people. Our common goal is to ensure each and every person involved experiences success. The most rewarding thing about teaching is the “aha” moment. The “aha” moment is birthed after a teacher has poured her heart and soul into a child and day after day receiving the same results. It may take weeks and sometimes months, finally the child understands and that is known as the “aha” moment. At this time the entire class rejoices because someone has succeeded.

I value the stance of interdisciplinary instruction. Interdisciplinary instruction permits students to see connectedness from separate fields of study. Students are allowed to carry over ideas from one subject area to another. As the children begin to expand upon prior knowledge from previous discussions, learning becomes a vehicle by which teachers transport students through a world of learning and allowing them to build upon their own core of knowledge. My goal for my students is to become investigators and thinkers for themselves. This in turn will ignite a fire that becomes an ongoing curiosity for the love of learning. It is my purpose to provide a haven for students to feel safe and appreciated so that lifelong learning and thinking is able to take place.

The factors that influenced me to be a teacher are not what people are used to hearing. I enrolled in Volunteer State Community College in the fall of 1995. My major at this time was X-ray technology. I wanted to be an Ultra-Sound Technician. The joy of watching parents seeing their babies for the first time was something I wanted to experience. However, after completing my first night of clinicals in 1997 and having to deal with livers, spleens and kidneys my mind was changed immediately.

It was the grossest thing that I had ever taken part in. I went home and asked myself “Is this really what you want to do for the rest of your life? Would it make you happy even if you were not getting a paycheck?” The thing that brought me joy each day was entering Baptist Hospital Child Care Center. It moved me to see children recognize the letters in their name and to count to ten for the first time without the teachers help.

I had become a part of laying a foundation of learning for several children in our society. They would start each day with morning review and the children would be just as happy as they were the day before. As a teacher I came to work excited and enjoyed the things I was doing. I found my purpose! However, teachers attended school the same length of time as engineers, business administrators, and physical therapists but their salaries did not compare to these other professionals. As a single woman would I ever be able to afford to buy a house?

The following day I changed my major to Elementary Education. My new academic advisor was Sydney Hardyway. He was exceptional. He taught me that if you lived your life fulfilling God’s purpose that all the other things would be added unto me. He told me teaching had many rewards and a paycheck was the least of them. He said touching lives allowed me to leave heart-prints across the world.

My greatest contribution repeats itself each year, knowing that I have the ability to bring households from different socioeconomic backgrounds together as a family. The children are able to rejoice when someone learns to tie their shoe for the first time. The children share with their parents when another child learns all of their letters and sounds. It is amazing to see the children celebrate each others accomplishments. The joy of watching a child celebrate another child is the most rewarding thing that I have ever experienced.

2004-2005..........Beverly Vannoy, Guidance Counselor