MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. — We're taking you to the Shoals! It'll be a first for us at this school. It's the first time a Top Teacher has been recognized from Highland Park Elementary School. Those who know this teacher on campus say she has a kind heart and loves her kids.
Meet this week's Top Teacher, Megan Smith.
Smith has been teaching at this school for six years, eighteen overall in education. She spent most of it teaching first-graders. Her love for teaching runs deep back to when she was a student.
"I've known since I was a little girl that I wanted to be a teacher because I had such fabulous teachers myself and I just knew this was my calling," said Smith.
Smith knows it requires learning to be more catchy and creative at this early age. "At this age, engagement is important because they need to be moving. They need to be manipulating."
The lesson on this day is about storytelling. "We have been working on sequencing stories, telling stories from beginning, middle and end," said Smith.
"I feel like I can instill that at such a young age. Then I can help them to become successful adults. And just seeing the kids that I've had when I taught years ago become success people, it means the world to me," said Smith.
We asked her peers about what can sometimes be a thankless job, but her principal says it's bigger than receiving praise.
"She doesn't do what she does for those thanks. It's not for that external gratification. I think the internal gratification that she gets from, you know, changing lives and incorporating those kids lives for the better is really where the thanks and where you meet that need to do what they do every day," said Principal Wes Pounders.
Smith says progress is what motivates her every day. "Seeing their growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and just remembering my why, why I'm here? Why do I need to do this? Why do I want to do this?"
Do you know of a deserving teacher? Nominate them here!
