Congratulations to TC’s Early Childhood Education Teacher
T.C. teacher Kimberly Wilson was recently honored with the National Teacher of the Year Award. This award is sponsored by the Association for Career and Technical Education.
“It is a very humbling experience…for them to recognize [my] hard work,” said Wilson, “It is really a blessing.”
Located in a classroom behind the gym, Wilson teaches Early Childhood Education, a class for students who are planning to pursue a career as a teacher. While in Wilson’s class, students have hands-on opportunities to work with children from elementary schools and daycares to help prepare them for teaching.
“I have truly found my passion, I love teaching,” said Wilson, reflecting on her nine years at T.C. However, being a teacher was not always her dream. Originally, Wilson wanted to become a fashion designer. “28 years ago I was introduced to the field of education and I have not looked back,” she said.
Teachers, like Wilson, have an important role in students’ lives, especially at this level of education. Students often look up to their teachers as role models. Wilson is aware of of the responsibility that comes with this role. “[Teachers] are on stage…from the moment we walk in the door,” she said.
But Wilson often cultivates relationships with her students that go past typical student-teacher relationships. Some of her students even affectionately refer to her as “Mamma Wilson.” Forming these bonds with her students is something that Wilson describes as easy, “I often think about my experiences and think about what my teachers did for me,” she said.
Wilson’s goals to affect her students extends beyond just teaching them to be educators, but also includes changing their vocabulary. For example, she teaches her students to remove “can’t” from their vocabularies and replace it with the phrase “can-do.” Like many teachers, she wants to teach her students that they can do anything if they put in the hard work to achieve it.
Wilson believes that the important characteristic in a teacher is to have is an open mind towards students. “What we as realize as educators is that our experiences, our backgrounds, and the things we had the opportunity to do or see, that not all students have had that opportunity,” she said.
