Caption: Tara Tucker is recognized as Career Tech's Teacher of the Year at the Monday, February 13th's School Board Meeting. She is pictured here with Career Tech Director Mark Hudson and QSD Superintendent Dr. Donna Boone.
Tara Tucker is Career Tech’s Teacher of the Year and Quitman School District’s teacher of teachers. For those Quitman High School students choosing to pursue a degree in elementary education, Tucker’s Early Childhood Education I classes allow for them to not only study child development, child psychology, small group communication, as well as education’s history and theories, but they also get to apply what they learn in the classroom out in the “real” world at Quitman Lower Elementary. Tucker explains, “I love this job because we can go out and put what we learn in practice. It was my job to bring it into my classroom when I was an academic teacher. Now I see how much my children learn from the teachers at QLE. It’s great when they come back to me saying, ‘I see what you mean about swing safety,’ or ‘I saw how my teacher used auditory signals to get the class’s attention.’ That’s when you know they’re getting it, but not all my students are going into elementary education. Some of them will own their own childcare centers while others will go into the medical field and work with pediatrics. Some want to be social workers, and Early Childhood Education classes prepare them.”
By the time Early Childhood Education II students complete their coursework they understand how to prepare a learning environment, write a lesson plan, describe the characteristics of a quality childcare program, manage a budget in a preschool, write a resume, complete a job application, and give a top notch interview.
There are many reasons Tucker was voted as Career Tech’s Teacher of the Year. It only takes one visit to her classroom to see why. It’s a large room filled with baby dolls, art supplies, toys, books, and workstations for each one of her students, but it’s her focus on those students, her belief in their abilities and their future, that will make Tucker’s lessons today reverberate for generations.
Sure, she is giving them the knowledge and skills they will need to go to college or obtain a career, but it’s her belief in them that may most linger.
She explains, “I wish people knew how fantastic our students are. They want to be known, and they want to be great. They are willing to work for it.”
