By Tim Reaves
BCS Communications Department
Charles D. Owen Middle School sixth-grade language arts teacher Caroline Ayers works every day to make her classroom feel like a family.
She posts comic book covers on her walls to show that all kinds of reading are acceptable. She treats her students politely and expects them to treat her and each other the same way. Each class often begins with a group reading that focuses on life lessons and empathy.
“I take time each day to talk to my kids and get to know them,” she said. “I want to show my students, through my actions, that they do matter, and that everyone has something to give and say.”
Ayers is Owen Middle’s
Teacher of the Year, and last month she became Teacher of the Year for the whole Owen District. Principal Jim Lewis described her as “caring, colorful, interested, deep-learning, and exciting”
“She loves to instill the love of reading,” he said. “She wants every one of her students to succeed, and students just love being in her class.”
Academic standards matter, he added, but Ms. Ayers wants her students to be better people.
Middle school is a time of great physical and psychological change, and Ms. Ayers has identified three questions she says define adolescence: “Who am I?” “Do I matter?” “Does anyone else feel like me?”
“Kids in adolescence are truly hungering to define themselves and see where they fit in this world,” she said. “It’s my job to teach my students that the things they say and do have an effect on those around them, to help them understand empathy and compassion, and to build relationships of comfort with those around them.”
An Appalachian State University alumna, Ms. Ayers has been teaching at Owen Middle for six years.
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Ayers is one of seven classroom teachers selected as a district teacher of the year out of the 1,650 teachers in the BCS system. She and the other six district winners will be featured in an upcoming special video produced by the
BCS Communications Department. One of the seven district winners will be selected as the overall BCS Teacher of the Year.
