Special Educator Named STOY
Ann Marie Taylor
ROCK HILL, S.C. — As teachers, each of you have a story to accompany your journey into one of South Carolina’s classrooms. Some more unique than others, but none the less there’s a story to be told.
For some it was a family member or a first-grade teacher who planted the seed and for others it may have been the sheer passion for affecting change in a young person’s life. For 2008 South Carolina State Teacher of the Year Ann Marie Taylor it was a middle school student in Bay City, Michigan, named Tiffany whom she grew close to while completing an undergraduate internship at Saginaw Valley State University.
When Taylor’s journey began she was uncertain, as are most college students, where the path would lead. After learning Tiffany was served by special education at her school, the spark was ignited.
“I figured out through the internship and by working with several other students that most students in the juvenile delinquency program were special ed,” said Taylor, who now lives in Camden. “Some students are diagnosed for behavioral reasons but most are learning disabled and have real problems because they were never exposed to them. No one ever read to them. No one ever talked to them about what was going on.”
The latter may be commonplace between most nurturing parent–child relationships, but the students who lit Taylor’s passion knew very little, if anything, how those positive relationships were formed. She knew she could make a difference…and she has for the past six years at Pine Tree Elementary School in Kershaw County.
Still set on a career in the criminal justice system, Taylor packed her bags and moved to South Carolina without a job waiting for her although a burgeoning prison industry across the state made for several lucrative offers. There was still the thought of Tiffany and others she was affected by through special education.
“I moved down here with hopes I would find a criminal justice job, but through the process I could not pull away from my interest in special ed, so Tiffany really led me to the classroom through special education and I decided to go back to school at Francis Marion to get my Master’s,” she said through her thick Midwestern accent.
Goodbyes are hard. New beginnings can be harder as they are filled with excitement and anxiety of the unknown. As Taylor leaves her position at Pine Tree, she rides an emotional rollercoaster.
There are the kids and families she has worked with for several years in her vibrant learning community that she shed tears with in the final days of the school year. Then she thinks of the 50,000 teachers across the state she now represents and that brings an excitement and fear that evokes a new passion—a passion and responsibility to spread the stories and needs of special education across the state, region and nation.
“I’m so excited that a special education teacher is going to be representing all the teachers of South Carolina and am ready to get involved in all the committees, workshops, CERRA and all these other things and to be able to share some of the special education needs and stories with folks that maybe haven’t heard it.”
A mother of one of her students gave her a bit of advice on how to approach the year ahead: “As much as I hate to lose you I would never be so selfish to keep you here with my child and not allow you to share what you have with everyone.“
Taylor says being able to take the passion and stories of her students nationally is simply amazing. Unbelievable and exciting she adds. Her energy is evident. Her passion, too.
As State Teacher of the Year, Taylor will participate in a yearlong residency at the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement as a Teacher in Residence.
In the year with CERRA, Taylor will work proactively with other educators in the CERRA network to recruit teachers among a myriad of other responsibilities. She can already chalk up a successful recruitment story through her departure from Pine Tree. One of her classroom assistants is participating in Project CREATE and, as Taylor hopes, will be able to work things out to fill her vacancy.
“She has a business degree and came to my room this year to purely be an assistant while her kids were at school. She wasn’t interested in changing lives at the time; but now that she is, she’ll have her Master’s degree in special ed through Project CREATE this time next year,” said an ecstatic Taylor. “It’s amazing. The awesome situation is that the passion I share with my students has rubbed off onto Jennifer and a new teacher has been created in the process. This whole thing has been amazing. It’s been one cool thing after another.”
The theme for the Teacher of the Year Banquet May 4 was that of an Edith Wharton quote: “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
As Taylor enters this year as State Teacher of the Year she is certain to be both the candle and the mirror.
June 5, 2007