Her raps and ‘motherly love’ help students learn history. Why she’s Muscogee’s Teacher of the Year
While taking the Georgia Milestones standardized test in her social studies class last week, Veterans Memorial Middle School eighth-grader Lauren Robertson thought of various rap songs history teacher Vanessa Ellis wrote and performed for her students to help them learn the content standards.
Remembering those lyrics made tough questions easier to answer, Lauren said.
“This actually works,” she recalled thinking.
It’s one of the reasons her students say Ellis is an excellent teacher — and an example of why the Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation selected her as the Muscogee County School District 2022 Teacher of the Year.
But listen further to her students describe Ellis as a teacher and as a person and you realize, no matter how good those raps are, they wouldn’t be so memorable if Ellis didn’t first connect with them and develop a nurturing relationship.
Whether it’s standing at the door to greet them or staying after school to discuss a problem or attending their extracurricular activities, Ellis shows her students what Lauren called “motherly love.”
“She makes us feel welcome and included,” Lauren said. “… I know that I can go to Mrs. Ellis, and it’s going to stay between me and Mrs. Ellis unless she needs to tell somebody else.”
Eighth-grader Mathew Lopez said, “She’s very caring, and she’s very nice and just likes to have fun while still being able to get the work and business done. … She’s just a great person and great teacher. She really deserves this award.”
Dedication to her students is the first quality principal Robert Ogburn mentioned as he listed what stands out about Ellis. So when the caring is mutual between teacher and student, he said, more learning happens.
“The quality of her instruction and her lessons is second to none,” said Ogburn, a 17-year educator. “… The way she brings content to life and connects it to her students, it’s not just something we have to learn, but it’s why we need to learn it, and here’s how it applies to your day-to-day life and how it’s going to apply to your future.”
Friday, the day after the foundation announced the Teacher of the Year during its annual gala before a sellout crowd of more than 1,000 in the Columbus Convention & Trade Center, the Ledger-Enquirer visited Veterans to learn more about Ellis. Here are excerpts from our Q&A with her, edited for brevity and clarity:
So what’s the past 12 hours been like for you?
“It has been an absolute whirlwind. I have been inundated in the best way with just love and praise and connection from people all over the district and even outside of the district because of social media. I am just humbled to be in this position.”
Your students and principal say you make your classes meaningful because you connect with students by building relationships with them so they are more eager to learn from you. How do you do that?
“One, it starts on the first day of school and just having the mindset and willingness to say, ‘This is a new group of students. I don’t know anything about them.’ Because I teach eighth grade, and they’ve been here in sixth and seventh. There could be some stories, and just kind of block all of that out and give those kids a tabula rasa, a blank slate, and just truly and intentionally get to know them. … A lot of times students are reduced to ‘did they pass the test’ or ‘what kind of grades did they make’ or ‘how many write-up referrals do they have’ or ‘they have some type of learning disability and they are unable to do something.’ We talk about kids in this deficit-type of mode. So when you change your thinking and say, ‘OK, what gifts and talents do these kids have? Where do you come from? Where’s your family from? Do you speak any other languages? OK, you have this health condition, but what defines you outside of that?’ Those are the kinds of things when you’re intentional, mining for the good or hunting for the good, that’s how you do those relationships.’”
How do you get that information?
“I have them do interview questions. I talk to them. Every single day, I open up some space in my classroom to talk to my students one-on-one. So if it’s at the door, ‘Hey, how was your weekend’ or ‘Oh, I saw that you had a game this weekend. How did it go.’ … I have them do a lot of writing because they don’t always feel comfortable talking to you, at least not at first. So when you have kids writing about their day or checking in with you about their week, you just gain so much insight. And with that insight, you know how to deal with students because you can’t deal with students all in the same way.”
So why did you become a teacher?
“I know it’s cliché, but it is honestly the truth: I’ve always known that I wanted to be a teacher … I come from a big family. I have six younger brothers. I’m the oldest and the only girl. And so, just in my household, homework time and guiding my brothers and helping them make good choices and decisions, it kind of started as a big-sister role. In school, I noticed I would pick up things really quickly, and my friends would be struggling and say, ‘Hey, Vanessa can you explain this to me?’ … I just had a way with explaining information or having these little tricks or mnemonic devices to get my peers to understand. So between my family and just being in school myself, I was like, ‘I’m really good at this.’”
Why did you choose history as your subject to teach?
“I had a teacher in 11th grade (at Jordan Vocational High School) named Mrs. Harrison, and she was amazing, an amazing educator, because she brought history alive. It wasn’t just a set of facts or a bunch of dead people we had to remember. It was life lessons. … I knew I had to reinvest that into my own students one day.”
You earned your bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbus State University. What did CSU do to help prepare you to become such an excellent teacher?
“Everything. (Laughs.) … They had us go into the schools from very early on. … They put you at a variety of schools. I was at Blackmon Road Middle School. I was at Northside High School. Then I did my student teaching at Carver High School. So I was able to see different sides of town, different types of students, how to engage, how to appreciate diversity. . . . In terms of history education, my professors at CSU are amazing. I have learned so much about Columbus, about the United States of America and this world because of them. … We did so many local history projects. I’ve learned about Bibb City. I’ve learned about Black history in Columbus. I’ve learned about Native American history. … Our city has a rich history that the students deserve to know. I teach Georgia history now, and I’m able to incorporate Columbus history as well, so they truly have set me up for success.”
Why are you still a teacher 11 years later in a profession with a rough attrition rate?
“Of course, you question when things get tough. When they get hard, you question yourself, your effectiveness, your profession and your career choice. … But when we shut down (because of the COVID-19 pandemic) and the kids were still reaching out to me, checking on me, and I’m doing the same for them, those connections are keeping me with those babies and this community. … So even though it is the hardest year of my life, I’m going to make sure those kids at home feel like they’re in this space with me. I’m going to make sure every student in the room with me feels connected to the students online. I intentionally built a community of learners because the times are so uncertain. Remembering my why — that I love this work, I love this profession, I love my students, I love my colleagues, my school and my district — that love and appreciation carries through. It’s what gets you through the dark times.”
What’s your view about standardized testing? How should we measure student, teacher, school and school district performance?
“I try to look at standardized testing from different standpoints. From the district and state and nation, you want to have some way to gauge how the students are performing, how well the teachers are preparing those students, but it’s the weight and the emphasis on the tests that is unnecessary. First of all, learning cannot be captured in a 60-question multiple choice test. I have 180 days with my students. I see where they started from. I see where they ended up. No test can measure that. … Use that test as just a data point, and use that data to improve. … Focus on growth.”
Please help us better understand the different backgrounds your students bring to class with them. What’s going on in their lives while they’re trying to learn history from you?
“First of all, middle-schoolers, their focus is on everything else but school. They’re worried about how they look, their own insecurities. ‘Who’s watching me? Do I have friends?’ So they have all of these things that are occupying their brain space, and when they come into my classroom, I have to find a way to put that at ease and open up their brains to receive this learning so they see it as valuable. A lot of times, … they don’t understand the connection, why they’re learning this, how this is going to benefit them now and in the future. … We have students who may come in and not know any English. We have students who come from stable households. All of their economic needs are met. All of their social-emotional needs are met. And we have students who come from very struggling circumstances. They don’t have their parents with them. They have a guardian. They’re in foster care. They have to leave school and go home and take care of brothers and sisters. You have children who are struggling with their identity. They’re struggling with where they fit in this school and this world. And so, I try to create a space for students to just feel loved and accepted. They don’t have to put on. They don’t have to flex. They don’t have to show off. They know that in this room, in these 55 minutes, you’re going to be loved and honored as the human being that you are. When they feel that safe space, learning can take place.”
How do you make them feel loved and accepted in those 55 minutes?
“I’m going to greet you at the door. I’m going to call you by your name. I’m going to look in your eyes. I’m going to find something non-education related to spark up a conversation with you. … It starts with trying to exude as much love and positivity as I can to those students so they forget about or at least minimize their problems for the time being. Sometimes that can’t even be done. If kids are struggling and they need something, as a teacher you have to make a quick assessment: ‘Do I power through this lesson? Do I stop and meet this child where they are? Do they need to go to the counselor? Do they just need 5 minutes in the hallway to get it together?’ … I’m up and talking to them. I’m bending down at their level. … That one-on-one connection is what makes students feel like, ‘I can do this. I can learn this.’”
This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 12:29 PM.
