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Teacher of the Year finalists
Editor’s Note:
Last week we looked at three of the five finalists for Teacher of the Year in the Edmond Public School District. The winner will be announced on March 3. Last week we profiled Joran Hopper, Emily Boyett and Cindy Rosario. This week we look at Nikke Spence and Dalton Savage. The articles are by Patty Miller.
Nikki Spence
Changes career path; seeks to serve others
In her 15th year of teaching at Chisholm Elementary, Nikki Spence has been at Chisholm from the start.
She completed her student teaching there, began her career teaching third grade, and this is her 11th year teaching first grade.
She said she has never really pinpointed her reason for going into the field of education.
“In fact, when I started college, I was on the path to become a Physical Therapist,” Spence said. “I always knew growing up that I wanted to do something that would give me the opportunity to serve others.”
After her first two years of college, she started wondering if there was a different direction that she needed to explore.
“I even transferred colleges hoping that I would find the enthusiasm I once had for PT.
Spence said she often found herself touring other buildings on campus and eventually realized that she had visited the education building multiple times.
“It was then that I decided that my true calling was to focus on a career in education and I have loved every minute of it,” Spence said.
She said that staying in education has really been an easy decision for her.
“A handful of years into my teaching career, I discovered my true ‘why’, and it has helped me grow into the educator I am today,” Spence said.
A military family, she and her husband have two boys.
“During my early years of teaching, my husband deployed multiple times with the Air Force,” Spence said.
“All the deployments were tough in terms of our family learning to adjust with him gone — but we adjusted and became stronger because of it.”
She said they quickly realized that all of the deployments had changed her husband also — only the change was not a positive one.
“He was diagnosed with severe PTSD and our family essentially was diagnosed too,” Spence said. “Our two boys unfairly learned to deal with anger, isolation, quick tempered meltdowns, and many other things as their dad navigated life with PTSD. At times our family seemed to be on the brink of crumbling, but through it all, our boys remained positive and well-adjusted.”
Spence said that over a period of time it finally occurred to her that it wasn't her or their dad that had given them the skills they needed to thrive, it was their teachers.
“It was the teachers that had loved them, cheered for them, and had given them a safe place to learn. They were behind it all,” Spence said. “I knew at that moment that this was exactly the kind of teacher that I needed to be and why I needed to do it. I became the kind of teacher that made sure her students felt loved, valued and most of all had a positive, safe place to come learn, regardless of what might be happening outside of school.”
She added that through it all her husband acquired the tools to live successfully with PTSD and their family was able to learn and thrive.
Spence added her classroom is definitely an active classroom.
“I think that's probably the biggest impact on my first graders,” Spence said. “They need to get up and move. They need to be silly and at the same time, see their teacher being just as silly as they are. We dance, we exercise, make up silly handshakes and songs — pretty much anything that we can do to connect some type of movement to what we're learning.
“With all that being said, I also feel that we have a good, solid balance.”
Spence said her students are active a lot, but they also learn how to be independent workers. “So in the end my goal is to provide a learning environment that is highly engaging to all types of learners,” Spence said.
Spence said an obstacle that she personally had to overcome with remote learning was having to quickly learn the ropes of navigating and utilizing the tools she needed to successfully teach her students each day.
“Technology is an incredible thing, but it can be a bit daunting when you have to shift gears totally and rely solely on it to deliver your instruction,” Spence said.
In terms of positive outcomes from remote learning, Spence said she hast to admit there are two that really seem to be headliners for her.
“The first one is that it really gave students an opportunity to discover how they could be successful. They weren't on a daily schedule moving from one thing to another, they (along with their parents for younger students) were given the freedom to design their own day,” Spence said.
She said she believes choice can be a huge motivator and quite possibly helped many students be successful during their remote learning days.
“The second positive outcome is that I truly believe that it gave — students, teachers, families — the reminder of what matters most,” Spence said. “Living during a pandemic was uncharted territory for many of us. I think as things in life slowed down, it provided some of us with an opportunity to reassess our priorities and realize what we value most.”
She added her first grade team worked hard to make it the best possible experience for their students.
“Looking at it now, although it seemed so daunting then, we realized that just like our students, we are capable of so much!”
Spence
Dalton Savage Credits grandmother as inspiration to teach
Memorial High School’s Dalton Savage credits his grandmother Kathy, a life-long educator, as his inspiration to become a teacher.
“Her passion and dedication to her students made me realize from a young age that education was important,” Savage said. “This led me to begin ‘practice Savageteaching’.
His first experience teaching was during the summer of his fourth grade school year.
