In Oak Ridge Schools, we value the teacher assistants who daily help our students grow. They assist in the supervision of on-going activities related to curriculum, organizing and preparing materials for instruction. They reinforce skills in small groups or with individual students, completing records, and moderating discussions. They prepare materials for students who are out, plan and supervise field trips, and oversee public activities. They make our spaces more attractive by organizing, preparing, and attending to physical climate of our classrooms. The brief biographies here will shed light on the special talents and abilities each of these staff members brings to our student body. We rely on them daily, and want to celebrate the contributions they bring.
Oak Ridge Schools Preschool: Principal, Lisa Downard; Teacher Assistant of the Year, Sandra Nichols
Sandra has been a teacher assistant with Oak Ridge Preschool for 13 years, and has been working with children for 30 years. She has worked in elementary grades K-4, but has enjoyed preschool students because of the admiration she holds for the teachers. She sees the importance of these role models to be second only to family members, and as important to the lives of these students who are our future generation.
Glenwood Elementary: Principal, Pearl Goins; Teacher Assistant of the Year, Vicki Blank
Vicki has been a teacher assistant with Glenwood Elementary School for 17 years, where she teaches, assess, and plans for tiered instruction and small group reading. She continually looks for and applies new methods to keep students’ attention, giving them intentional individual attention and building on their strengths so they can be themselves. Additionally, she fosters awareness of fellow students’ accomplishments so they can become compassionate citizens of the Glenwood community.
Linden Elementary: Principal, Roger Ward; Assistant of the Year, Deborah Dukes
Deborah has been a teacher assistant at Linden Elementary School for 10 years. She has been leading the Fresh Start Elementary Behavior Program for the past two years. Throughout her years of teaching, she has learned that each student is unique and must be treated and respected as an individual. She cultivates an environment of personalized academic, social, and emotional instruction to support the needs of each child. She emphasizes the importance of developing trust with every child to reach optimal potential.
Willow Brook Elementary: Principal, Sherrie Fairchild-Keyes; Teacher Assistant of the Year, Lori Murphree
Lori has been a teacher assistant at Willow Brook Elementary for 7 years. Lori works in many classrooms, hallways, and borrowed spaces. She teaches alongside veteran classroom teachers, leading small groups for reading and math intervention across three grade levels. Her favorite experience this year was reading the book Make a Marionette, exposing second graders to different genres, and utilizing a “how-to” as a fresh idea. The students then begged to get to make a marionette. They decided to make likenesses of characters in a wide variety of realistic fiction and non-fiction books they were reading, including an architect, I.M. Pei, who is still living and is 100 years old.
Woodland Elementary: Principal, D.T. Hobby; Teacher Assistant of the Year, Lisa LaBuy
Lisa has been in her current teacher assistant position at Woodland Elementary School for 6 years. Lisa provides focused guidance to students according to student goals. She works hard to know every student to understand unique ability levels, building relationships with trust, rapport, and humor. She incorporates hands-on learning to enhance student interest, response, and enjoyment. Lisa provides support for individual students inside and outside of the classroom so they can participate in activities with their fullest potential. Additionally, she works with students on emotional, behavioral, and social skills.
Jefferson Middle School: Principal, Phil Cox; Teacher Assistant of the Year, Dorothy Fairs
Dorothy has been a teacher assistant at Jefferson Middle School for 28 years. Her primary duties involve helping students complete school assignments either for disciplinary reasons or simply to catch up on homework in a quiet environment. In addition to her daily role in student academic support, she has also been a cheerleading coach and philanthropic leader in initiatives such as Angel Tree Projects, food drives, bus driver appreciation, grant writing, and one of her favorite clubs, SECME (Southeastern Consortium for Minorities in Engineering). Involvement with SECME in all of our secondary schools has allowed Dorothy to coordinate student visits to various colleges, distribute supplies to families in need, and support fundraisers for classroom supplies and 8th grade field trips to Williamsburg, Virginia.
Robertsville Middle School: Principal, Tonya Childress; Teacher Assistant of the Year, Julie Lee
Julie has worked for Oak Ridge Schools for 17 years, and for the past 5 has served as the teacher assistant in the Robertsville Middle School library/media center. Among many duties, Julie assists students with checking out and repair of books and computers, and assists with academic intervention. With the implementation of our one-to-one initiative, Access Oak Ridge, Julie has been involved with many aspects of the rollout and day-to-day operations. She assists parents with paperwork, helps students with technical problems, and improves student skills with learning management software and other web applications. Julie notes that she has observed and learned best practices from many successful educators, and believes that a combination of kindness, differentiation, and discipline create the best classroom learning environments.
Secret City Academy: Principal, Christopher Scott; Teacher Assistant of the Year, Belinda Donald
Belinda has been a teacher assistant in the Secret City Academy for 6 years. She serves as a behavioral interventionist, conducting Life Space interviews with students. Each interview connects feelings to actions, summarizes the chronology of incidents, and identifies alternative approaches that would have produced better results. Belinda continually supports and communicates with teachers and parents about how to make progress with students. Her additional duties during school meal times give her opportunities to continue conversations with students, developing relationships that foster further support in the classrooms. Just before students return to class from their meals, they spend some time being quiet. Belinda notes that this small climate change has resulted in a reduction of the number of classroom discipline referrals after lunch.
Oak Ridge High School: Principal, Martin McDonald; Teacher Assistant of the Year, Janice Zimprich
Janice has been a teaching assistant at Oak Ridge High School for 13 years. She has served in many capacities from athletics and National Honor Society to the classroom in every subject area and learning level. One of her most notable accomplishments includes starting a work-based learning program in our special education programs to enable students to acquire skills in sports concessions. They learned valuable life skills and job training including placing online orders, unloading and stocking supplies, taking inventory, organizing merchandise, and general maintenance. This has given several students the opportunity to work 4-5 days per week. In addition to these placements, students have also earned jobs maintaining churches and local retail stores, and caring for animals at the animal shelter. Many of these students continue to excel in places of employment in our community after graduation due to the skills they learned in this program.
