ESK Voices: Jeannie Hoover
Our culture of lifelong learning begins with our faculty. We hire teachers who are experts in their subject area and passionate about sharing their knowledge with students. We then commit to their professional development to assure they are always expanding their knowledge base in both their subject area and how to best engage students in the classroom. Students can feel the authenticity of their teachers’ interest in them and their subject. Our culture of trust, honesty, integrity, and close faculty/student relationships creates an atmosphere of safety and personal well-being where extraordinary learning takes place. In our ESK Voices series, you will get a unique look at the faculty that make ESK what it is.
Today, we continue with a teacher who has been at ESK for 14 years, Fourth Grade teacher Jeannie Hoover.
See below for more from Jeannie.
What is your favorite part of the school day and why?
My favorite part of the school day is anytime I get to work with the kids. I also love chapel as it’s a great way to start the day.
In what ways can you teach/engage children at ESK that you couldn’t at other schools?
The list is long. We get to develop our own curriculum and we have one project that is near and dear to my heart where the children are historians. We have so many people who have witnessed history who are still alive, so the children go and interview people who have experienced integration/segregation difficulties. This is part of our Civil Rights unit, which has been very exciting. We also give the kids choices, choices in books that they want read and we don’t read from a basal. There are just so many things we get to do that we never got to when I taught in public school.
How do you incorporate your personal interests into your teaching methods or activities?
Well, I’m crazy about history, so the kids study a famous Tennessean and create that character and interview that person and present it to the class.
What aspect of teaching at ESK are you most passionate about?
Getting the children involved in whatever it is that we do. When I can get them to be thinking about how their learning is going on, that’s the best.
When did you decide to become a teacher and why did you make that decision?
I decided to become a teacher when I had my first child. I was amazed by how much she was learning and I was just mesmerized by it. So I started studying every step in her learning and that inspired me to go back and get my masters at the University of Colorado in Education.
What is the most challenging part of being a teacher at ESK?
The most challenging thing about being a teacher is you’re never really sure how your actions affect a child. You’re teaching 18 children and you may say something and it may not come across as you want it to for all 18 children. That’s the most challenging aspect and I work on that, think about that, and craft that constantly.
Do you have a child/story which captures something you believe makes ESK special?
I have so many stories that are special, so many stories that tell you how special ESK is. I know students that start out in 1st grade and they struggle and then we see them in Middle School and they’ve just blossomed and they’re wonderful. I remember one in particular who was traumatized by public school and he came, his mother works here actually, it was like a little new bird that had fallen out of a nest. He was so fragile and I worked with him that year and to see him blossom, he’s one of the smartest kids I’ve ever taught, still gives me chills when I think about it. He’s in a fabulous university now and it’s just wonderful.
How is ESK different from what you experienced as a child in school?
[Laughs] ESK is very different from the schools that I attended. The kids have choices and that’s one of the reasons I teach the way I do and make sure the children have choices. I remember being told I had to read a book and I had to read this book and I had to read that paragraph. I started school as a reader and I ended up graduating as a non-reader. It was until I graduated from high school that I read all those books I was supposed to read. So I make sure that the kids have choices and they’re excited about what they’re reading and have the opportunity to talk to a group of people about what they’re reading. So I try to create some excitement around reading. Overall, it’s very different.