by Rachel Shelton (West Scholar Cohort '11)

As part of its annual teacher of the year presentation, the Academy for Teaching at Catawba College welcomed the 2012-2013 Teacher of the Year, Darcy Grimes.

Grimes, a teacher for the past six years, has spent the last three at Bethel Elementary School in Watauga County. This school has had a great impact on what she finds most important for her students, and really changed her views as a teacher. The school has one classroom and teacher per grade; therefore, each year the students simply change rooms and content, and the actual students in the class rarely change.

Grimes discussed the idea of global education, and how both this topic as well as the integration of technology is crucial in the classroom. In addition, she spoke about what skills students need to be successful, as well as the importance of listening to your students to be able to figure out and meet their needs. She made it clear that technology and interactions with others makes learning more real for the students, and that once the technology is set up it will be our jobs as teachers to simply facilitate the learning.

Grimes concluded with how each of us should all become lifetime learners, so that our students may be inspired to do the same.

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