And the winner of the Muscogee County 2022 Teacher of the Year award is ...
Vanessa Ellis of Veterans Memorial Middle School is the Muscogee County School District 2022 Teacher of the Year.
The Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation, which conducts MCSD’s Teacher of the Year program, announced the winner during its gala Thursday night in the Columbus Convention & Trade Center.
A sellout crowd of more than 1,000 honored the 52 nominees as the foundation returned to an in-person celebration after a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ellis is an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Veterans. The other two finalists were Gena Davis, a K-5 special education teacher at Dimon Magnet Academy, and Andrea McCarthy, a seventh-grade English language arts teacher at Richards Middle School.
Ellis received $5,000 and will be featured on an Outfront Media digital billboard and in a full-page ad in the Ledger-Enquirer. At the gala, each nominee received a framed certificate of recognition and a $100 honorarium. The semifinalists received $500. The finalists received $1,000.
The foundation announced the finalists March 29 as board members made surprise visits to their classrooms.
The 52 nominees, designated by their school’s staff, were announced in January. The 10 semifinalists were announced March 9 after the selection committee reviewing each nominee’s application. The committee, comprising local business and education leaders, interviewed the semifinalists to determine the finalists, then observed the finalists teaching in their classroom to determine the winner.
More humanity in education
“Wow,” Ellis said as she began her acceptance speech. “What an incredible honor.”
After she thanked those who helped her on her “educational journey,” Ellis explained what she intends to do with her platform during her year representing MCSD teachers.
Referring to the collective feeling of teachers who have persevered the past two years, Ellis said, “We are tired — and not a normal teacher-tired — but an intense exhaustion resulting from a pandemic, student-learning loss, staff shortages and a general lack of respect for teachers.”
Ellis called for rethinking and restructuring education “in ways that honor the humanity of the teachers and the students in our classrooms.”
To do that, Ellis said, teacher and student wellness must be part of every decision made in education.
“There needs to be a reckoning between what needs to be done and what teachers can realistically do,” she said. “Teachers’ time, mental health and professionalism must be taken into consideration. Schools cannot continue to perpetuate burnout by overworking and overextending our teachers. We must reimagine education so it is sustainable at least and life-giving at best.”
So teachers should be heard and treated professionally, Ellis said.
“Teacher concerns are not complaints nor deficits,” she said. “They are legitimate cries for help. … We need to center and amplify teacher voices.”
Then students will have a better chance of replicating such respect for teachers in their schools, Ellis said.
“Teachers want to work with parents to rekindle trust in our educational institutions,” she said. “We want more than anything for schools and families to be allies, not adversaries. We just ask you to recognize our service to this community, empathize with us and believe that teachers have children’s best interest at heart.”
Ellis also urged her fellow teachers to help uplift their profession.
“What we say in our classroom, to our colleagues and to people in the community matters,” she said. “We have to put our best foot forward for teacher candidates who come into our classroom, as well as be a good role model for our students who may one day become educators themselves.”
To improve the humanity in students, Ellis said, their diversity should be valued.
“As teachers, we have to go beyond looking at students as data points, demographics and rows on spreadsheets, which reduces students to numbers,” she said.
Creating relationships is key, Ellis said.
“Students need love, guidance and assistance as they navigate school,” she said.
To humanize education, Ellis said, it must be personalized, “tailoring learning for students’ strengths, needs and interest, Enabling students, we can tweak the what, how, when and where they learn. and provide flexibility to meet the needs of all students.”
Every community resident can help produce and sustain this change, Ellis said.
“Together, we must be a united force in the fight for the humanity of education,” she said.
Homegrown teacher
Ellis was educated in the community where she teaches. She attended Dawson Elementary School and Rothschild Middle School and graduated from Jordan Vocational High School. She earned her bachelor’s (2011) and master’s (2019) degrees in history and secondary education from Columbus State University. And she has worked her entire 11-year teaching career in MCSD, six years at Fort Middle School and the past five years at Veterans.
“As a teacher, my students are my ultimate source of joy,” Ellis wrote in her Teacher of the Year application. “I live for those moments when my students start taking responsibility for their own learning — I’ll always be their teacher — but it’s a great moment when you see students begin to fall in love with learning.”
The selection committee was impressed with the connection Ellis has with her students and her commitment to helping them become vital members of their community, the foundation said in its news release.
Selection committee member Carl Brown of C. Brown & Associates said he was awestruck with the students’ rapt attention as Ellis guided their discussion about how a legislative bill becomes a law.
“The students were engaged as Vanessa led them through the complex process,” Brown said in the news release. “They weren’t just listening to a lecture; they were actively participating in their own learning.”
Selection committee member Dacia Sheffield, a Baker Middle School academic coach, was the MCSD 2019 Teacher of the Year when she taught math at Baker and her last name was Irvin. She called Ellis an education advocate.
“She encourages people to go into teaching,” Sheffield said in the news release. “... She serves as a mentor for student teachers. Her passion for her profession is palpable, and I’m glad she supports all of us in the teaching profession.”
The other selection committee members are:
- Donovan Granville of Social Security Administration
- Sheryl Green, MCSD’s 2015 Teacher of the Year
- Tom Hackett (chairman), retired educator
- Donna Kemp, retired educator
- Shane Larkin, MCSD’s 2017 Teacher of the Year
- Marquette McKnight of Media, Marketing and More
- Josh Reynolds of TSYS/Global Payments
- Len Williams of Columbus Affordable Housing Services.
The nominees were honored in March at a breakfast with MCSD 2021 Teacher of the Year Lisa Seegar of Britt David Magnet Academy and the national Teacher of the Year as speakers.
The role of continuing education
MEEF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering educational excellence by focusing on teachers who are innovative and exceptionally effective. In its 26-year history, the foundation has awarded more than $2.9 million to such educators through the Teacher of the Year and Harvard Fellows programs and other grants.
As a 2017 MCSD Teacher of the Year semifinalist, Ellis was eligible to be a Harvard Fellow the following year, when MEEF funded an all-expenses-paid week of professional development at Harvard University for her and other previous semifinalists.
“This session fundamentally transformed my teaching,” Ellis wrote in her application. “I discovered the importance of reflection, teaching for understanding and thinking routines that make critical thinking habitual. It was one of the most impactful professional developments I’ve ever attended and I’m forever thankful for this once in a lifetime opportunity that made me a better teacher.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2022 at 9:12 PM.
