Of the 13 people named the state’s top teacher since 1993, only four are still in the classroom.

Education leaders and the teachers themselves don’t see a problem. Just like any other profession, they say, people have the right to pursue new challenges and bigger paychecks.

“In my head, I never thought about anything other than going back to teach kids,” said 2003 Teacher of the Year Christi McCollum, who taught in Richland 2. “That was my passion.”

McCollum now coaches first- and second-year teachers at the district’s 13 elementary schools.

Richland 2 employs four former teacher of the year honorees — three of whom no longer have a permanent classroom assignment.

Dodie Burns Rogers, the fourth, is the lead teacher at the district’s Clemson Road Child Development Center, a job with some administrative responsibilities.

Richland 2’s senior administrators say more students benefit from the talents and skills of former winners if they work at helping teachers across the district improve their skills.

“You’ve impacted 30 kids a year,” McCollum recalls Richland 2 superintendent Steve Hefner telling her. “If we can put you in a lot of classrooms... look at the impact you could have.”

During McCollum’s first year back, she spent half of her day tutoring children behind in their class work. The rest of her work day she spent observing and coaching other teachers. Today, she does that full time.

Of the 13 most recent teachers of the year:

• Seven have new roles in public education, typically working as coaches and mentors to younger teachers, or as supervisors.

• Four are still teaching.

• One is completing work on a doctorate in curriculum development and teacher education.

• One is retired.

“The Teacher of the Year program provides people with an opportunity to experience a spectrum of programs and ideas,” said Gayle Sawyer, director of South Carolina’s teacher recruitment center in Rock Hill.

“We’ve found they’ve learned they have skills they didn’t know they had... that they can use in another capacity.”

Jon Quam, who coordinates the national Teacher of the Year program, said the experience of serving as a state-level winner has a profound effect on participants.

While no formal survey or study has been done, Quam said, some national winners return to teaching, while others take on new jobs in the field.

“The important thing to remember,” he said, “is that they are all still educators.”

STAYING IN THE CLASSROOM

Kelly McCalla is among those who returned to the classroom. The second-grade teacher at Oakland Elementary School in Greenwood 50 was named Teacher of the Year in 1997.

“I love the classroom and feel this is where I am most effective,” McCalla said. “I have often wondered why being selected as teacher of the year seems to be an invitation to leave the very place where your skills were recognized — the classroom.

“To me, it is an honor to still be a classroom teacher.”

Debra Templin, another past winner, also chose to return to a Newberry County classroom after her year as the 1996 state Teacher of the Year.

“When I went back... I felt like I had come off of a rocket ship going 25,000 mph and hit a brick wall.” she said. “It was hard to slow down and not make too many changes at once with colleagues and students.”

Today, she teaches fourth graders at Prosperity-Rikard Elementary. She also helps design curriculums, trains other teachers and advocates for education issues at the state level.

“It is my responsibility,” Templin said, “to give back to the teaching profession what it has so richly given to me — the opportunity to grow as a learner and as a teacher-leader.”

Top public education policy makers, including state education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, have made attracting and keeping high-quality teachers in the classroom a priority.

“Teacher quality — ensuring that every classroom and every school has caring, qualified teachers” is something the state must continue to emphasize, Tenenbaum told an audience of educators in June.

Last year’s Teacher of the Year, Stephanie Seay, who is back teaching kindergartners at Wellford Elementary in Spartanburg County, puts her return to the classroom in a very personal perspective.

“After 12 years of teaching, I am still moved by the excitement a child demonstrates when she independently writes her name for the first time,” Seay said, “or the perplexed expression a child demonstrates when he discovers that some light objects sink and some heavy objects float.”

SUBHEAD

The teachers of the year who wind up leaving the classroom often do so with mixed emotions.

Cookie Winburn, the 2005 honoree and a middle school social studies teacher, coaches first- and second-year teachers in Richland 2’s middle and high schools.

Like McCollum, Winburn is in classrooms daily. Sometimes she observes. Sometimes she team-teaches. Sometimes she’ll deliver a lesson “to model what I’m trying to communicate.”

“I would miss the kids if I wasn’t with them every day,” she said. “It has been a wonderful experience. I stay excited every day. I feel like I’m affecting many, many more students.”

Charlene Herring, Richland 2’s chief academic officer, said the district regularly studies just how effective Winburn and others are in their coaching. Preliminary findings are encouraging.

“We’re very focused on recruitment, retention and developing leadership,” she said.

That’s Jason Fulmer’s job description now.

Fulmer had been an elementary teacher in Aiken County for four years when he was named 2004 Teacher of the Year. After a year sabbatical, he coached entry-level teachers in his home district for two years.

This year and next, however, he is working for the state’s Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement as a regional teacher- in-residence.

In 21 districts, Fulmer conducts workshops, mentors young teachers, coaches teachers seeking national accreditation and meets with administrators on services the recruitment center can provide.

“I miss having my own group of students,” he said. “I’m open to opening that classroom door again in the future.”

Reach Robinson at (803) 771-8482.