Teacher up for award

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff

On Tuesday, a contingent of The McGlothlin Awards for Teaching Excellence judges observed Allyson Willis’ second-grade class at Watauga Elementary and interviewed students, teachers and parents at the school.
Willis is a finalist, along with two other elementary school teachers in Roanoke and Montgomery counties, for the award honoring excellent elementary school and middle/high school teachers in Southwest Virginia. The award is administered by Blue Ridge PBS and the winners will be announced April 13 in Radford. E.B. Stanley Middle School teacher Karen Cross won the award in 2001.
Willis said she feels honored she was nominated but also a little uncomfortable.
“There are so many teachers that go unnoticed,” she said.
If Willis wins she’ll receive $25,000 – $10,000 of which must be spent on travel.
“I want to go to Greece and Rome and learn about their government, democracy and architecture,” she said. “My idea was to take the remaining money and take a class from Watauga to Washington, D.C., and compare our government and architecture. I feel strongly our kids need to know our country and how it works here but also know our origins…. We need to teach our children to have a voice, and in order to have a voice they need to be knowledgeable. We have to raise our children to have strong opinions, and they need to be grounded in what happens in our own government in order to understand and appreciate what’s happening worldwide.
“If you’re truly in education for the right reasons, you’re in it for the kids,” she said. “You’re their cheerleader, coach and net to catch them when they fall.”
She said she’s used to the limelight being on the kids so it feels strange that it’s pointing the other way.
“It’s been a shocker every step of the way,” she said of the award process.
She said she learns so much sitting in on other classes and getting new ideas from other teachers.
Washington County Schools Instructional Supervisor of Elementary Schools Janet Lester said, “This is my 25th year in education and she’s just about the best I’ve seen.”
She said Willis is involved outside of the classroom in professional development, such as a new way of teaching spelling called word study, with other teachers in Washington County.
“A good teacher makes things seem random, but it’s not,” Lester said. “She makes sure you’re engaged. There’s not a child that doesn’t get called on. She reads their faces and can see if they get it. She makes those kids feel important and that’s a gift she has.”
Standing before her flock of 21 crossed-legged second-graders last week Willis says, “Can we do our nines. You have a cheat sheet on your fingers that you can use and never lose because they’re always in your pocket.”
Her lessons and instructions move seamlessly.
“We’ve moved up to three-digit numbers, show me you can do it,” she said.
The room is silent except for individual whispers of the names of numbers as students work out the problem individually on their dry-erase boards in their laps.
“Kieran explain what you did,” she said.
He stands up and comes to the board. She waits, gives him time to count on his fingers as he works through the problem in front of the class.
Once they’ve worked out the correct way to solve the subtraction problem she asks if anyone made a mistake. A student raises her hand and says, “I forgot to change the one to a zero.”
“That’s a mistake we’ve all done,” Willis said. “If you recognize mistakes you’re less likely to make that mistake again.
“When we make a mistake it gives us an opportunity to …,” she says.
“Learn something,” the class echoes back.
Watauga Elementary School Principal Ann Abel said to understand, some children need to hear information or hold information or read information.
“She does a good job of recognizing that,” Abel said.  “Children learn differently. Some need direct instruction and they only get it if it’s given in a meaningful way to that particular child, and she has that sense.”
Willis said, “At this age the children learn best if they act it out.”
She rhymes and associates motions with words.
“Some can write a paragraph and another can draw a picture and say more in that picture,” she said.
She said a teacher won’t know how best a student learns unless they take one-on-one time with the students.
“I think it’s important to read to them, have them read to someone and have them read silently,” she said.
Willis’ mom was a teacher and both her dad and brother are preachers. Her mom teaches seventh grade in Wythe County.
Willis taught third grade in Shenandoah County for 10 years until her husband, who works for the Virginia State Police, was relocated to Washington County. She taught third grade at High Point Elementary School last year and then transferred to Watauga Elementary School so she could teach in the same school her children attend. This year is her first year teaching second grade.
“I take it seriously that I’m with them more than their parents during the school year,” she said.
Willis said when she first started teaching she made the mistake of assuming too much.
“I started teaching the lesson and not the student. That first year I was so intent on using every resource and the grade aspect, I didn’t stop to enjoy myself and (recognize) them as individuals,” she said.
Now she rewrites her lesson plans every year. Because each class is different, she said, they may spend more time in one area than another.
She said she also learned to be flexible.
Like one day last week she was teaching a lesson about George Washington and remembered that Watauga Elementary School had pictures and dates of all the presidents from Virginia in the hallway. So they took a little trip out of the classroom to go look.
“They would remember that walk and remember seeing those pictures and getting their hands on them,” she said.
High Point Elementary School Principal Ann Cunningham’s granddaughter is in Willis’ class.
“She says she can’t wait for Mondays,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said while Willis taught at High Point Elementary she made sure to know who “they were as little people,” what they were good at, what they needed help with and what their hobbies were. 
“Teaching is all about the relationship teachers form with their students,” Cunningham said. “She encouraged (her students) to perform regardless of their abilities and to take responsibility for their learning.
“She looks at their strength and needs and makes sure to do whatever it takes so they’ll be the best they can be,” Cunningham said.
She said Willis even called home in the evenings sometimes to check and make sure a student was doing their homework.
“They trust her… she’s a jewel,” Cunningham said. “She’s a genuine lover of kids and teaching and she’s a natural. She’s in the business she needs to be in…. She is truly the most inspiring teacher I have ever met.”
At the end of the day the second graders reach up to the hooks for their coats and wrestle with their backpacks.
“Miss Willis, Miss Willis,” one girl says.
“Yes,” Willis replies.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” the girl says and waves.
“They won’t remember everything I say,” Willis said. “But they’re going to remember the way I treated them and what we did.”
To contact Caitlin Sullivan e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call (276) 628-7101.