Two of Reeltown Elementary School’s educators were recently awarded Teacher and Support Staff of the Year for the work they put into the classroom each day.
Teacher of the Year
First grade teacher Brandy Sheppard has been at RES for the past six years but has taught all over the country as her husband was in the Marine Corps. After 20 years of teaching, she decided to make Alabama their home.
Before going into education, Sheppard was a practice manager for physicians. However, while she and her family were living on base in Japan, she decided to work part-time at the elementary school and fell in love with teaching.
Sheppard has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in math. She has taught second, fourth and kindergarten in the past as well.
Being one of the first grade teachers, Sheppard has a second-grader in-training program for the later half of the year to get her first graders motivated for their next step.
“We really talk about not that we are halfway through first grade, but we are halfway to second grade,” Sheppard said. “So we are really pushing that second grade is our goal.”
She said, with having a variety of personalities and learning styles in the classroom, the main challenge is making sure students' needs are met. But that’s also part of the joy as well.
“The most rewarding part is when they get the skill that you are teaching and have strategies to grow in that skill — whether it’s in math or reading, etc. and you actually see that come together,” Sheppard said. “For example, we are working on venn diagrams in first grade and we just had our first test. Independently they were able to compare and contrast two stories and fill out their venn diagram.”
Sheppard said she likes to implement a lot of projects throughout her class. One of the upcoming projects is all about animals. Soon, her students will be researching different animals and then pick a favorite to write a paper about.
While Sheppard puts a lot of work into making learning fun, she didn’t expect to receive Teacher of the Year.
“I was honored and humbled that my colleagues felt that way about me,” Sheppard said.
Support Staff of the Year
Jadie Hood, instructional assistant and special education paraprofessional, has been at RES for the past five years. Hood was a stay-at-home mom when God opened a door for her to work at the school.
“A week before my youngest started to go into kindergarten I got a phone call from the school that said, ‘Hey we need a position filled and we would love to have you here,’” Hood said. “I have been here ever since and I love it.”
Hood said one of the most rewarding parts of her job is seeing the students make accomplishments, especially since most of the students she works with have different challenges compared to the average student. Advocating for her students, Hood also helped spearhead the new playground for RES this year that would allow more independent play for special education students.
Hood said another great thing about this school is all the kids are very welcoming. They also seem to understand some students have different needs and jump in to help whenever.
As a paraprofessional, Hood is in and out of classrooms across the school and gets to see all the different teachers and students. Hood’s first year at RES she was put into Sheppard’s classroom to help a student and she got to see first-hand how amazing of a teacher she is. So she feels especially honored to be alongside Sheppard with this award.
“I was really surprised; I had no idea whatsoever,” Hood said. “It’s really nice to be recognized this way, but I don’t do it for the recognition, I do it because I love my job.”
