Christine Clay, 5th grade teacher at Hilldale Elementary School, has been a part of Putnam City since she was a child, attending Western Oaks Elementary School and Western Oaks Middle School and graduating from Putnam City West High School. Clay has taught for 10 years, all of them at Hilldale Elementary. Below are some of her thoughts on teaching.

I am a part of the world’s greatest profession. I could not imagine myself doing anything else. Being a teacher is so much a part of who I am. I have always been a teacher. As a high school student, I was a part of a free tutoring program for at-risk students, as well as a mentor to elementary students in the district. I worked as a lifeguard at a city pool and taught swimming lessons. All of these experiences led me to major in education as I entered college. Once I started spending more time in the schools through volunteer work and practicum assignments, I knew this was where I was meant to be.

The experiences I have had with my students and the special moments we have shared are what teaching is all about. The relationship I build with my students is priceless. We truly become a part of each other’s lives. Many times, we keep in contact long after they have left my classroom. Through the years, I am blessed with the opportunity to watch them mature, and in some ways I feel as though I had a part in who they’ve become.

Children achieve success in school the same way they will achieve success later in life. It requires the ability to recognize their strengths and build upon them, as well as recognizing and managing their weaknesses. The focus can not only be on weaknesses. Teachers and parents need to shift the focus to children’s strengths and use those strengths to help them overcome their weaknesses.

Parents need to be involved. This doesn’t have to mean volunteering at the school. It simply means become a part of their learning. Children should know that learning is a lifelong process that doesn’t stop when they leave school. Parents have opportunities to bring learning to the real world in ways that teachers don’t. If children are learning about measurement, let them measure the ingredients for dinner tonight. If they are learning how to summarize a story, have them retell the main points of the TV program they just watched. Parent involvement is crucial to academic success.

When you look at national statistics, you see the achievement gap between low income, minority students and their counterparts is significant. It has been found that in high-poverty schools as many as 70 percent of students read below grade level. The teachers at Hilldale Elementary were determined that this statistic would not be reflective of the students in our classrooms. I am proud to say through the dedication of our teachers and the hard work of our students, our reading Academic Performance Index for last year was 1307, surpassing both state and national averages. This is a success for our students, our teachers and ultimately our community.