Chamber honors area teachers

The area’s top teachers were honored during the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Teacher of the Year Banquet on Wednesday evening.

Seven teachers from Three Rivers College, Poplar Bluff R-1, Sacred Heart and Westwood Baptist Academy were recognized for their dedication and service to area students.

“We’re proud to honor these educators who prepare the leaders of our community,” President of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce Steve Halter said. “We believe it’s important that education and business work together to train the future workers for our businesses.”

Poplar Bluff R-1 Teachers of the Year were recognized at the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet. From left to right include Christie Risinger, O’Neal Elementary; Traci Durham-Allen, Early Childhood Center; Jennifer Morin, Eugene Field Elementary; Kasi Aldridge, Lake Road Elementary; Becky Ingle, Oak Grove Elementary; Britney Stahl, Poplar Bluff Junior High and Denni White, Technical Career Center. DAR/Denise Kinder

Poplar Bluff R-1 Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill said the one of the reasons he chose the Poplar Bluff School District was because of the evenings like the Chamber Teacher of Year Banquet.

Dill praised the way the business community wraps itself around the educational institutions and provides support.

“We are one family with one goal and that is to make sure our school and our community is a better place,” he said.

Amanda Summers was named the 2019-20 Kindergarten Center, elementary grade level and District Teacher of the Year. She has been with the R-1 School District since 2006 and began at the Kindergarten Center in 2012.

Summers said teaching kindergarten is special because the students are always so excited for the things adults take for granted.

She encouraged her fellow teachers to not try to go at the job alone and utilize the people around them.

“Teaching is not an easy job, so it’s important to find your tribe,” she said.

James Hunt was named the Poplar Bluff Middle School 2019-20 Teacher of the Year and middle school grade level Teacher of the Year.

Hunt has been with the R-1 School District since 2014 as a paraprofessional. In 2016, he was hired as a special education teacher before moving to sixth grade math and science in 2017.

Anytime a student takes something they are learning in class and uses it in a situation to never forget is what Hunt said are his favorite teaching moments.

He also encouraged other teachers to not be afraid to try something new, even if it fails.

“You can learn from that,” he said.

Meg Daniels was selected as the Poplar Bluff High School 2019-20 Teacher of the Year as well as secondary grade level Teacher of the Year.

She has been with the R-1 School District as a high school art teacher since 2014.

Daniels said her favorite teaching moment comes when her students realize there is no right or wrong way to create.

“Teaching is challenging, but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” she said.

Kristy Niblock, Three Rivers College recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, is an assistant professor in social science and has been an instructor at the college for seven years.

Niblock shared a story when her first student could see the world from a sociological lens.

“That means students are truly absorbing what they are learning in class,” she said.

Loving what you do is the advice Niblock shared with fellow teachers because students notice and in turn it helps promote engagement in class.

Carol Davis, Three Rivers College recipient of the Adjunct of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching, is an instructor of English and speech classes.

She has been a teacher for well over two-thirds of her life.

Through her many years of teaching, she could not pick one having taught all grade levels.

Some of the highlights included when children learn to read, the look of third grade students when seeing how something works in science and encouraging a 6-foot-8 basketball player in her TRC speech class to overcome his fear of public speaking.

“Be a teacher who can impart knowledge with wisdom and intensity of importance to learn,” she told her fellow teachers.

Christie Fain is a first grade teacher at Westwood Baptist Church and Academy. She has been with the school for three years.

Not one moment in particular stood out as a favorite teaching moment for Fain, but watching first grade students learn to read is a highlight.

“At the end of the year hearing them be able to read is pretty amazing to see how far they came over the year,” she said.

Fain encouraged teachers to enjoy being with their students and get to know them by spending time with them.

Sister Nelly Rivera is a kindergarten teacher at Sacred Heart School. She has been with the school for three years.

Rivera shared a story of a kindergarten student she had several years ago who cussed a lot in class.

She explained to him this was not a friendly thing to do and had to come up with some way to stop the student from using the word. Rivera told the boy to open the window in class and say the word as many times as he could and when he was done, the word would be gone.

After hoping no one was in listening distance, Rivera said the student thought yelling out the window helped. The “word” apparently returned when the boy was at home, so he yelled out his back door. After his mother heard him, the boy explained Sister Rivera didn’t want him to use the word at school and now it was truly gone.

“He was so serious about it and from that day on he quit cussing,” Rivera said with a grin.

By loving teaching and being passionate about it, Rivera told fellow teachers they could change a student’s life in so many ways.

“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes,” she said. “We are all learning.”

Poplar Bluff R-1 teachers from each building in the district were also recognized at the banquet with a plaque.

Those included Traci Durham-Allen, Early Childhood Center; Jennifer Morin, Eugene Field; Kasi Aldridge, Lake Road; Becky Ingle, Oak Grove; Christie Risinger, O’Neal; Britney Stahl, Junior High and Denni White, Technical Career Center.