What is your name? Where do you teach? My name is Angie McGee. I teach at Honey Island Elementary School

What subject(s) do you teach? I teach a self-contained third grade class, which means I teach English, reading, spelling, math, social studies and handwriting.

What is your favorite thing about the subject(s) you teach? One of my favorite things about teaching is the ability to integrate technology into my lessons.

Angie Mcgee

How long have you been a teacher? This is my 20th year to teach.

How has the profession of teaching changed since you started? I was 21 when I begin teaching one of the first pilot prekindergarten classes in Mississippi. At this time early childhood education was just forming. It is so exciting to see the focus and importance placed on early childhood development.

Technology was virtually not existent at that time. I typed my lesson plans and there was little integration of technology into lessons. Today it is unthinkable not to have a variety of technological tools in the classroom

Why did you become a teacher? I have realized that an amazing teacher influenced my love of learning and my path to becoming a teacher. As a 5-year-old, I remember holding my black and white book satchel as I walked into Mrs. Jackson’s first grade classroom. She never raised her voice and I remember having fun in her class. She inspired in me a love of learning and was a positive role model.

What is your favorite thing about teaching? My greatest contributions and accomplishments are not immense or impressive undertakings. My greatest accomplishments are the successes I observe daily. These small accomplishments make me feel blessed to be a teacher. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” My greatest contribution is that I care. I care about our students and their parents. I care about our teachers and I care about our school. My success is wrapped in their success. There is nothing like the feeling when you are walking down the aisles at Wal-Mart and meet former parents and you stand there and talk like old friends about their children’s accomplishments. What a blessing to have been part of their lives!

Do you do anything special in the classroom to get through to your students? An import contribution I have made is providing a nurturing a place for students to learn in meaningful ways. It is my goal that they would leave my classroom with the idea that learning matters and learning is fun forever. In my classroom, I promote opportunities for students to express their thoughts and opinions in a risk free environment. I promote Morning Meetings in my classroom. This meeting time is one way I build a classroom community of learners who support and teach each other.

What is the hardest part of your job? The hardest part of my job would be keeping everything balance in my life.

Are you involved in any extra curricular activities at the school? Over the past 12 years I have been actively involved with the Slidell Cleanest School Contest. Participating in this project has led to many innovative projects and activities. I am currently working with a group of teachers and students on an Earth Day musical. For the last three years, I have published student books with Nationwide Publishing.

I have also been involved with “Relay for Life” for the last 10 years.

Do you utilize any special technology in the classroom? I embrace and promote the love of technology in my classroom. My students are exposed to a variety of technological tools. I feel it is important for students to know how to use equipment responsibly and correctly, so mini lessons are taught as the need arises. Because I believe so strongly in the use of a variety of technology in the classroom, students in my room are proficient in creating PowerPoint presentations, web camera commercials, writing word documents, Promethean Flip Charts, researching using search engines and corresponding with me through their EAGLE email accounts.

Have you received any grants to aid you in the classroom? Providing my students with every available resource is a reason that drives me to write grants. Over the years, I have written several grants that have impacted many students and communities. The first grant I wrote provided over $15,000 in materials and supplies for my school. The Learn and Serve grant developed partnerships between local businesses and my school. The purpose of the grant was to teach the students that they could learn about the environment and serve others at the same time. The other grants I have written have provided manipulatives and technology for hands on learning in my classroom.

Grants Received

· QSM Grant- Louisiana Dept. of Ed. QSM Grant- 2009- Value $ 641

· Honey Island Elementary PTA Mini Grant 2009 – “Practice With Purpose”–value $491

· Honey Island Mini Grant-2008- “Teaching the Information Generation”- awarded a Promethean Board, computer and projector, value over $5,000

· Donorschoose.org -2008 – “Teaching the Information Generation” – value $157

· Honey Island Elementary PTA Mini Grant -2007-“Morning Meeting” value $500

· Project K.O.L.(Kids Outside Learning) -1996 - Awarded a Learn and Serve Grant – value over $15,000

What do you do during your summer vacations? My summers begin with a Honey Island Elementary school retreat for the weekend where we celebrate the end of school year and prepare for the next.

Throughout the summer we take several vacations to spend time with our extended family. I also enjoy gardening. This year I am in the process of creating a small vegetable garden in my backyard. The public library is one of my favorite places to hang out in the summer, as I am an avid reader. I also intend to create abstract art for my house.

I plan to watch my son, Hayden, at football practice in the afternoons in late summer. My oldest son, Mason, will be attending Southeastern in the fall. I know helping him prepare will be so exciting.

Do you aspire to become a principal one day? I had considered a leadership role at one time, but I realized that the role of teacher where my heart lies. Teaching is a complex job, but I know that I have been called to instill in students a love of learning.

It is crucial to love what you do each day, if you are a role model for young people. They will easily see if you are not sincere and if your work is drudgery for you.

I love to play and have fun with students, engaging them in meaningful activities and helping them to feel fulfilled as people.

What’s the craziest thing that has ever happened while you were teaching? One of the sweetest stories, and I have a lot, is about a little boy named Jim Bob. It was my first year of teaching and I was working with 3- and 4-year old students at Hazlehurst Elementary. Jim Bob had found a penny and was showing me how his daddy had taught him to flip it in the air.

As I talked to him, I took the penny and flicked in the air and caught it in my hand. I quickly covered it up with my other hand and said to Jim Bob, “Call it.”

He looked at me with his round little face and big brown eyes and said, “Here, Penny, Penny, Penny!”

Watch what you say to children, they take it to heart.