Teacher of the Month
Stephanie Huff
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Congratulations to our May teacher of the month, Stephanie Huff! Mrs. Huff is a third-grade PLATO teacher at Highland Park Elementary in Roanoke City. Mrs. Huff started teaching 28 years ago and has been in the PLATO classroom for eight years. While she’s taught all subjects over the years, this year, she’s teaching math to two classes. (When she was in third grade herself, Mrs. Huff’s best subject was reading. She says, “I teach math in hopes that my students will be better at it than I was at that age!”) She also teaches language arts, spelling, science, and social studies to her homeroom. Of course, now that schools are shut down, Mrs. Huff is using Zoom, email, and more virtual tools to teach her classes. “We’ve distributed novels, paper packets on reading and math, and a logic packet for gifted learners,” she says. Her students log in to their Clever portal to find links and apps — including Highland Park’s very own YouTube channel. “Our newest tool is
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Family • May 2020
Flipgrid, a platform where students can respond in video form to teach others about a topic or show what they know about a given topic.”
in their classrooms! That, or working with animals. (One of the things she loves doing when she isn’t at school is spending time with her pets — her dogs, Daisy and Lavender, and four cats.)
Third grade, she says, is a “pivotal moment in a student’s school career, where they become a ‘big kid.’” It’s her favorite part of teaching this age group; the kids change and grow so much during this year.
Of all the lessons Mrs. Huff teaches her students, the one she hopes sticks the most is that they be problem-solvers. “I also want them to learn it’s okay to make mistakes,” she adds, “and to dream big.” Sometimes, the lessons we learn from our mistakes can be humorous, like when one student recently tried to “save” their popsicle for later in their lunch box. “A great lesson was learned that day,” Mrs. Huff says.
If you can imagine a room Mrs. Huff doesn’t teach music, so her full of twenty or students might be surprised to know so eight-year-olds, that when she was in high school, she you might wonder how played the flute and was even the one teacher can hold the attention drum major in the band! necessary for learning, especially during the year The 1989 film Steel “I want SOLs start up. Her tactic? Magnolias is Mrs. Huff’s them to “I create lessons I would favorite movie, and it’s also enjoy doing myself. I like the source of her favorite learn it’s to keep students active and quote: “I’d rather have okay to engaged. I also share lots of thirty minutes of wonderful stories about myself at that than a lifetime of nothing make age, as well as tales of my special.” She also loves mistakes, reading mysteries and two grown sons.” watching shows that are and to It works. Just take it from suspenseful or that make one of her current students, dream big.” her laugh. “I also like to see Alasdair Hackworth, who Tom Brady play football, nominated her for this teacher of the cheer on UVA basketball, and hang with month recognition. “Mrs. Huff is nice my family and teacher friends.” and makes learning fun, especially when we get to do STEM activities.” We love educators like Stephanie Huff, who make learning fun and engaging, Lesson planning is absolutely Mrs. whose classrooms are places of warmth Huff’s forte. As a matter of fact, if and laughter, and whose passion for she wasn’t a teacher, she says she’d teaching makes a real difference in the be creating lessons for teachers to use lives of our kids and communities.
