Passion and learning continue to motivate veteran teachers

Aug. 4—Sparkman Elementary Principal Layne Dillard remembers overhearing a student say with determination that he would be the first person in his immediate family to graduate from high school.

"I thought to myself, if he is thinking that way in the eighth grade, then maybe we have a chance," Dillard said.

That student graduated from Brewer High School last year.

Dillard and other veteran educators in the area enter the new school year with a passion for seeing students succeed and have a willingness to learn new ways of delivering instruction.

Dillard is introducing a new workforce training program that will be sponsored by Nucor Steel in Decatur. This training will help develop soft skills, including punctuality and attendance.

"Every child that walks in wears a badge, and every day they earn credit. We really try to work on their soft skills with this program. If we're going to work with these students and help them develop a mindset of wanting to get into the workforce, it has to start while they're young."

Dillard has spent 25 years in education and initially started out pursuing journalism, earning her undergraduate degree at the University of North Alabama. Feeling the call to teach, she went on to earn another degree in education.

"I started out in journalism, but I missed people. Really, I felt it was a calling."

Other veteran teachers plan to implement new programs such as phonemic awareness in classrooms in Decatur City Schools. Phonemic awareness skills include identifying and using units of oral language, such as words, syllables, onsets and rhymes. Phonics is a method that teaches people to read by associating sounds with letters or groups of letters.

"We have been taking a course called LETRS," said Walter Jackson Elementary teacher Beth Green, who is entering her 12th year as an educator. "Phonemic awareness and phonics skills that we've learned from LETRS, we will be implementing this fall."

LETRS, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, is a state-funded course that teaches educators the science of reading so they can teach language and literacy to every student. The biggest thing that Green and fellow Decatur City Schools teacher Melissa Herring want to focus on is literacy.

"Last year we had a big focus on phonemic awareness and phonics," Herring said, "This year, we will be focusing on writing and comprehension."

Herring is a reading specialist at Woodmeade Elementary School and has spent 18 years in education. She is a native of Decatur and earned her undergraduate degrees at Calhoun Community College and Athens State University, and earned her master's degree at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi.

In her 18 years of teaching, Herring has noticed the most positive changes in education have involved the increased amount of training that educators have to undertake.

"There is a lot more training out there now," she said. "Whatever I need, I can find it."

Hartselle City Schools teacher Leah Roden also said that training has been convenient for teachers and said Alabama has always been a state that promotes education, ever since she began teaching in January 1991.

"I have always had a love for learning, and I attribute that to many of the teachers that I had throughout my childhood. ... They instilled in me this love of teaching. When I grew up, I wanted to do that exact same thing."

Brandy Quattlebaum will be the new assistant principal of Priceville Elementary this school year. She has been a teacher for Morgan County Schools for 15 years at Sparkman and Priceville Elementary and was named 2019 Teacher of the Year.

Building relationships with her students will be her main focus for 2021.

"The most important thing is relationships, building relationships and meeting the needs of the students. We are still dealing with the effects of COVID."

She said the best advice she can give to first-year educators is to also build relationships with their students.

"Get to know your kids. If you build that relationship with your students, they are going to do their very best. If you have good relationships like that, then your students will be able to meet and exceed high expectations."

—wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.