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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Katie Thompson, a special education teacher at Riverchase Elementary, meets with her students after being named Elementary Teacher of the Year for Hoover City Schools.
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Photo by Jon Anderson.
Hoover City Schools central office staff and Debra Smith, principal at the Riverchase Career Connection Center, inform Pam McClendon, the lead teacher in the Cyber Innovation Academy at RC3, on screen, that she has been selected as the 2020-21 Hoover City Schools Secondary Teacher of the Year on Dec. 17. McClendon was in Montgomery for a family funeral.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Katie Thompson, the special education instructor at Riverchase Elementary School, reacts as she’s surprised to be named the Elementary Teacher of the Year by Hoover City Schools on Dec. 17.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Pam McClendon works with Ryan Walker, a senior at Homewood High School, during McClendon’s APCSA Java class at the Riverchase Career Connection Center on Jan. 19. McClendon was named the Teacher of the Year for secondary schools by Hoover City Schools in December.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Katie Thompson, the special education instructor at Riverchase Elementary School, hugs her student, A’nya Jack, 6, after she was named the Elementary Teacher of the Year.
Not everybody is cut out to be a teacher, but for many teachers, it’s a calling that’s hard to deny.
Hoover’s elementary and secondary Teachers of the Year for this school year both started their work lives in the business arena, but that calling to be a teacher burned in their souls.
Katie Thompson, Hoover’s 2020-21 Elementary Teacher of the Year, is a special education teacher at Riverchase Elementary School, but she worked in the corporate world for about 10 years after college.
She was a marketing assistant at the Balch & Bingham law firm for about five years and then worked as a communications specialist at Southern Company Services before her department was eliminated in 2011 due to tough economic times, she said.
Thompson had been volunteering with the Service Guild of Birmingham at the Bell Center, an early intervention program in Birmingham for young children with special needs, for seven years and decided to shift gears and get into that field professionally.
She worked as an aide in Trussville City Schools for two years while she earned a master’s degree in collaborative special education and then spent two years teaching at Pinson Elementary before coming to Riverchase. This is Thompson’s fourth year at Riverchase.
Now, “I can’t imagine being anywhere else but in a classroom,” she said. “I feel at home. I feel like they are my people. I’m just thrilled I get to help families of children with special needs navigate their educational journey.”
This year, she is teaching 11 students with special needs, many of whom are non-verbal, in a self-contained classroom with the assistance of four teaching aides. Due to COVID-19, she is teaching four of them virtually, which is challenging, particularly with non-verbal students, she said.
But with the help of their parents and special communication devices most of the non-verbal students have, they are making it work, Thompson said.
She meets at length with her virtual students twice a week but carves out time each weekday for a group lesson for both students at home and in the classroom, she said.
“My students thrive in an environment where there is consistency,” she said. “They feed off consistency. I feel like they learn better when they’re on a schedule or a routine.”
Riverchase Elementary Principal Alice Turney said Thompson is an excellent teacher who would do anything for the children she teaches. She thinks outside the box to find ways to help children with special needs, and communicates so well with parents, art teachers, occupational therapists and others involved in the students’education, Turney said. “She really has a strong passion for making sure her kids get the best.”
Thompson said it’s important to her to build relationships with the families of her students. It can be hard for many parents to accept that their child has special needs, and she has a lot of counseling sessions with them.
“I am very close with all of my parents,” she said. “They know they can talk to me like if they were talking to their friends.”
Since coming to Riverchase, Thompson obtained a grant from the Hoover City Schools Foundation to expand the school’s garden to include a sensory garden that allows children to more fully use all five senses as they learn about the environment and nature around them. The sensory garden helped bring the garden to life for all students, regardless of their abilities, Thompson said.
Thompson is a big advocate for meaningful inclusion of students with special needs with non-disabled peers.
“My students, regardless of skill, severity of disability or academic performance are given daily opportunities to be involved with their non-disabled peers in the general education setting,” Thompson wrote in an essay. “While this can become a scheduling nightmare for myself, I have seen year after year the benefits outweigh the scheduling challenges.”
Evandra Jackson, a parent who relocated from Maryland to Alabama in 2019, said moving in and of itself can be stressful for families, but it’s especially challenging for a child with special needs who is experiencing school for the first time.
Thompson listened to her and allowed her to be a “helicopter mom” without making her feel bad about it and readily adapted lessons and behavior modifications for her “savory kindergartner,” Jackson wrote in a letter nominating Thompson for Teacher of the Year.
“Mrs. Thompson is firm, fair and super loving,” Jackson wrote. “She’s gone out of her way to make sure that my child’s academic and social needs are met.”
Thompson said she was shocked, amazed, humbled and honored to be named Hoover’s Elementary Teacher of the Year. She and her husband, Brandon, live in Heatherwood with their two sons, Cooper and Brice.
SECONDARY TEACHER OF THE YEAR
Pam McClendon, the lead teacher for the Cyber Innovation Academy at the Riverchase Career Connection Center (RC3), was selected as Hoover City Schools’ 2020-21 Secondary Teacher of the Year.
Like Thompson, McClendon also came into education as a second career. She spent time as a U.S. Marine and about 10 years putting her business degree to work before realizing she needed to be in education. “Teaching was just my love,” she said.
She went back to school and got a master’s degree in education in 2002 and is now in her 19th year as a teacher. She spent four years at Bottenfield Middle School (now Minor Middle School), seven years at Hueytown High School, seven years at Oak Grove High School and one year at Minor High School before being recruited to the Cyber Innovation Academy at RC3 when it started in the fall of 2019.
When the lead teacher of the academy had to leave, McClendon stepped into that role in January 2020 and now teaches introduction to computer science, Advanced Place-ment computer science and a Java computer programming course.
Debra Smith, her principal, said McClendon certainly has the skills needed to be a good teacher, but what makes her unique is the heart and passion she has for teaching and her students.
“McClendon is able to connect with students and get them excited about being at school and learning,” Smith said. “Even in such a difficult year, personally and professionally, McClendon has been able to come to school every day, be prepared, connect with the students and give all she has to them.”
“One of her greatest qualities is her tenacity,” Smith wrote in a nomination letter. “She is a trailblazer, overcoming personal obstacles and challenges while setting an amazing example of what can be accomplished in a field where she is considered a double minority. In spite of the multiple “no’s” she has been given, she has continued to excel and is a leader among her peers in her field. Her passion is palpable, and I enjoy watching her interact with, and instruct, her students. While I often do not understand the conversation, it is easy to see her connection with her students as they excitedly demonstrate what they learned.”
McClendon established the computer science programs at Oak Grove and Minor high schools and helped develop Jefferson County’s career prep curriculum. She is on Gov. Kay Ivey’s Computer Science Advisory Council and is a trainer for the A+ College Ready Advanced Placement computer science program.
She was named the 2020 Computer Science Teacher of the Year by the National Center for Women & Information Technology and was a 2015 finalist for Jefferson County Teacher of the year.
McClendon said she was inspired to teach by her 10th and 11th grade English teacher, who saw abilities in her that no one else saw, encouraged her and changed the way she saw herself.
Now, she loves working with students and helping them see their worth, power, strength and abilities, she said.
“We may have something different to offer, but we all have something to offer,” McClendon said. “Every student can be successful. It may take a different path. Some go to college. Some go straight into the workforce.”
But she wants all of them to know they can be successful, she said.
McClendon lives in McCalla with her husband, Isiah. They have two sons: Darius, an environmental scientist in Dayton, Ohio, and Matthew, a junior at Shelton State Community College.
McClendon said she, too, was very humbled to be named Hoover’s Secondary Teacher of the Year. There are so many great teachers in Hoover schools, including at RC3, she said.
“You never think that you’re worthy of something so elite,” McClendon said. “I don’t see myself as being a great teacher. I just see myself as being someone who really cares about kids.”
