Jenny Abbott This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. The Sun News | 05/07/2006 | Teacher's maverick methods pay off

   www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/7/2006   Last Visited: 5/7/2006

   Jenny Abbott, a first-year teacher at North Myrtle Beach Primary, was in her classroom on most days by 6:45 a.m. She often stayed until 5 p.m., sometimes longer. And she attended a graduate course at Coastal Carolina University on Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
   
   That doesn't include the time spent working on weekends getting ready for the week ahead or attending a student's church to make a connection with his family. She has spent money buying treats and erasers and "pencils that motivate [students] to write." She's had to prove herself to skeptical adults - again and again and again - those who thought she was too young to teach and were happy to remind her of her age every time she made a mistake.
   
   She's had to endure handwritten letters from a parent who thought her expectations were too high and tried relentlessly to bridge the gulf with families with whom it was hard to connect. Those struggles have been offset by the pats on the back from fellow teachers and offers of free dinners and a surprise birthday party from parents.
   ...
   "I've kind of shared the burden with others, and if it weren't for them, I don't know," Abbott said.
   
   The burden also lightens each time a student excitedly tells her, "Ms. Abbott, I finally remembered that there are spaces between words," as one little boy recently did.
   
   Five times a week Abbott had to corral 23 students from broken, intact, poverty-stricken and well-off homes being raised by black parents and white parents and grandparents and those used to corporal punishment and those receiving time-outs. She's had to make them sit up straight and face forward and be quiet long enough for her to impart the basic concepts of math, writing, reading, science and "shoe tying, nose blowing and bathroom manners" while being careful not to be too soft or too aggravated after having to tell a student for the 500th time to stop poking his neighbor.
   
   From day one, like a splinter in her brain, the thought of administering her first Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test didn't leave. The test, scheduled for this week, will be recorded on official Web sites and in newspapers and used to judge her success and that of her school.
   
   "I understand that we have to be held accountable and measured," she said. "I don't think this test will show all that they learned."
   
   She's had to wonder if her teaching methods always met standards, if she had the approval of administrators, if Horry County Schools Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait would be pleased with the job she was doing.
   
   She's had to brush back the whispered rumors that a few grizzled veteran teachers believed she was being too bold in her attempts to help her students use the diversity around them to further their educational pursuits.
   
   A few months ago she began "Hearts' Stories: Vision for Change." She got the idea after reading a book recommended by the school's curriculum specialist.
   
   The program teaches kids how to use interviewing techniques to improve writing and reading comprehensive skills while connecting her classroom to the community.
   ...
   "It's teaching peace and respect and helping kids come to respect themselves and others," Abbott said. "I really think that if there is going to be a social change in the world it is going to have to start with the children."
   
   Abbott is seeking help for a trip she hopes to take with Costner to the Manhattan New School in New York May 17-19.
   
   In New York, they will meet Paula Rogovin, the author of "Classroom Interviews: A World of Learning," the book on which Abbott based her program.
   ...
   Jenny Abbott | first-year teacher at North Myrtle Beach Primary
   
   Contact ISSAC J. BAILEY at ibailey@thesunnews.com or 626-0357.