(R) Ms. T. White, EMS Teacher of the Year 2019-2020
I’m a teacher at heart, anyone that knows me, knows that teaching is who I am, sometimes to a fault. I’m not like most teachers, I didn’t grow up knowing I wanted to teach, I didn’t even go to college in the beginning to be a teacher. After college graduation, I actually became stock broker.
Life happened, I stayed home with my daughters and I started substituting in high school, Hephzibah High School to be exact. I fell in love with teaching. I was presented with the opportunity to become a special education teacher working with students with emotional behavior disorders. Wait, I don’t have a degree in education, I’m not certified. How can I be a teacher? I was allowed to teach on a provisional certificate while going to school. Enter my Master’s program. I earned my Masters in Special Education and because a certified teacher. I taught at Hehphzibah High for 4 years.
After the 4 years, I transferred to Langford Middle School, where my former assistant principal was currently the principal. I taught one year of special education there. The following year, a week into school, I moved to a general education ELA position. I spent 4 years teaching ELA. A couple weeks into my 10th year of teaching I was asked to move from 7th grade ELA to 6th grade math, and I did. I didn’t realize how much I would love teaching math.
The following school year I started teaching 7th grade math at Evans Middle School. I have absolutely loved teaching at Evans. I have grown as an educator and a teacher leader and continue to do so.
I am so excited to change my path a little for the upcoming school year. Next year, still at Evans, of course, I will be returning to teach special education. I look forward to learning and growing even more as an educator and being back where I started.