By Tim Reaves
BCS Communications Department
Beth Myers sees herself as a builder of bridges and a layer of foundations.
The Pisgah Elementary School kindergarten teacher introduces her students to global culture, active learning, and goal-oriented outlooks. She also teaches them to respect themselves and each other.
“I want to push them to the next level,” she said. “I want them to take risks, and not be afraid to fail, all while realizing that we grow at different rates and learn in different ways.”
Myers is Pisgah Elementary’s
Teacher of the Year, and last month she became Teacher of the Year for the whole Enka District. Principal Jeanann Yates described her as “energetic, dynamic, and full of love for her students.”
“She always goes above and beyond for her students,” Yates said. “She’s on too many committees to name, and she’s always looking for some way to inspire her students with art integration and hands-on learning.”
In Myer’s classroom, every experience is a tool for understanding. Even her 2017 breast cancer diagnosis became a lesson for the children.
“I worked through the entire school year while I was undergoing chemotherapy,” she said. “My students saw me with hair and without hair. We talked about how the medicine affected me, and it helped them understand. We just tried to turn it into a learning experience. The kids helped me get through those hard days and inspired me to get through my treatment.”
She felt loved by current and former students, as well as the school faculty and the larger community. Pisgah is a small school with a big footprint, she said.
“I love to see my former students out in the community making a difference,” she said. “Some of them even come back to my classroom to observe for a college course because they want to be teachers. It gives me so much joy to know that I helped start them on their journey.”
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Myers 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.