What does a hearing impaired teacher, science teacher and social studies teacher have in common? They represent the specialties of this year’s finalists for the 2006 Fayette County Teacher of the Year.

The Fayette County Teacher of the Year prize patrol made its rounds Jan. 31 to surprise the three finalists selected to vie for the honor of being the county’s 2006 TOTY.

This year’s finalists are Shelly McLemore of Flat Rock Middle, Robin Daniels of Peeples Elementary and Susan King of Starr’s Mill High.

McLemore has worked in Fayette for six years as a science teacher at Flat Rock. Unlike many teachers she knows, McLemore cannot say that she always wanted to be a teacher but she said she did love school. As a youngster and adolescent she found solace in school because it was a refuge from her unstable home life.

“My school and my teachers were always the one thing I could count on, the one right thing in my life,” said McLemore.

Due to lack of money for college, McLemore graduated high school and went straight into the workforce as a bank teller. It wasn’t until the death of her younger sister that she realized she wanted to do something to make a difference in people’s lives.

“My 16-year-old sister committed suicide. I know that it was this tragedy that led me to where I am today,” she said. “I wanted to make a difference in the world, and maybe because no one had done so for my sister, I especially wanted to make a difference in the lives of young people.”

At the age of 30, McLemore graduated college and began teaching sixth-grade science. She said she strives to develop trust and respect from her students because when trust and respect exists, her students are willing to open their minds to her and the real learning begins. McLemore also integrates art into her classroom in an effort to reach students at all academic levels. She uses a variety of art modalities including poetry, drama and music.

“I work very hard to grab my students’ attention and not let go. Sometimes this means beginning the lesson with a song or blindfolding students to have them experience a lesson using only sound and touch,” she said. “I guess one might say I have the gift of creativity. My willingness to try new things and expand my creativity has a wonderful effect on my students. It gives them the courage to do the same.”

Daniels has taught hearing-impaired students in Fayette for eight years at Peeples Elementary. She had never considered specifically working with hearing-impaired students until a deaf child was placed in her regular education third-grade class two years into her career.

“The methods used by the teacher of hearing-impaired, the relationship the two developed and the progress that I witnessed in this child were incredible. A seed was planted in my brain,” she said.

It would take 12 years for the seed to come to fruition. After having taken a break from teaching to stay at home with her two sons, she enrolled in American Sign Language classes at Georgia Perimeter College and went on to earn a master’s degree in deaf education.

Daniels said that her profession allows her the means to impact the world in a positive way by enabling young people to pursue their dreams.

“The fact that my students have hearing impairments should not limit them in life. Each child in my class has her own story of defeating the odds and rising to rigorous challenges, making it my hope and desire that I can educate these children so that they are able to live satisfying, full lives,” she said.

Daniels is on a mission to inspire more young people to enter deaf education. Through her love of her career, Daniels believes she can help young teachers understand the joys of working with deaf students.

“I have reached out to prospective teachers, welcoming them to observe my class and offering advice and assistance. A great feeling of accomplishment overwhelms me when someone chooses to spend their life dedicated to teaching students who are deaf/hard of hearing,” she said.

King has worked for the school system for five years teaching social studies at Starr’s Mill High. In high school she realized two things early on: she loved history but did not like to sit at a desk. Her challenge would be to figure out a way to combine the lure of history with a career that did not tie her to a desk.

Majoring in archaeology at the University of Georgia, King had the opportunity during her sophomore year to spend a semester at Oxford University in England. That was where she had a life-changing experience.

“I had to combine my love of history with active debate. Unlike any other class I had ever been in, the Oxford definition of teaching was not communicating facts, but making use of them to argue a point,” King explains. “The experience made me realize that history teachers did not have to focus solely on conveying data, but that the most effective method of communicating was to combine story telling with the exercise of analyzing those narratives and using them to make a point.”

She changed her major to history and went on to complete a master’s of education in social studies. She said she was eager to be the kind of teacher she had encountered at Oxford but her student teaching experience quickly squelched those ideals.

“The combination of student ability levels and the daily rigors of teaching intimidated me, and I am sad to say that I quickly found myself falling into the pattern I had seen in high school where the students stayed in their desks and I communicated information,” she said.

Although King received high marks on her student teaching assignment, the disappointment of her ability to actively engage students led her to take a job as a judicial secretary. She was drawn back to the classroom when she went to a school to vote in a local election.

“I got chills and I knew I was suppose to be in the classroom. I decided to give it another try and I’m happy to say that I have never looked back from this momentous decision,” King said.

King said the lessons she is most pleased with are the debates she sets up where students are expected to argue questions such as “Was industrialization worth the cost of human suffering it created?” and “Is Islam a violent religion?” “What these activities have in common is that they are lessons where students can participate in what they are learning. They are engaged in dynamic interaction,” she explains.

King said since high school she has had to make peace with students sitting in desks but she realizes now that the desk can be a place for energetic interaction with the material.

These three finalists were selected from 29 teachers of the year representing each school. The faculty at each school selects their teacher of the year who then goes through an application process similar to the one used for the Georgia Teacher of the Year program. A group of independent judges made up of community leaders and retired educators read the applications and choose three finalists.

The judges will observe the three finalists in their classroom as well as conduct a face-to-face interview with each teacher. The highest scoring finalist will be named Fayette’s 2006 TOTY during a special recognition program April 27. The winner will automatically compete for the 2007 Georgia TOTY title next spring.

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