North Carolina Teacher of the Year Jessica Garner was invited to speak yesterday at an event organized by the Teaching Fellows and open to everyone in the College of Education.

Director of Teaching Fellows Michael Clinkscales said the event began as one of the required professional development events for the Teaching Fellows but extended the invitation to the College of Education.

“We have recently begun opening our forums to the entire College of Education,” Clinkscales said. “The event was open to all who wanted to hear the Teacher of the Year speak.”

Garner was originally invited to speak during American Education week, however, Clinkscales said, her visit was rescheduled due to a prior commitment.  

Gianna Jernigan, sophomore in history within the College of Education, said she felt honored to have Garner as a speaker.  

“I feel like it is an amazing opportunity to come and listen to someone who I aspire to become eventually,” Jernigan said. “Teaching is such an unappreciated career and it is a privilege to hear from someone who has taken it so seriously and achieved so much.”

The event is one of the many stops on the N.C. Teacher of the Year tour, Garner said.  

“The main goal of the Teacher of the Year is recruitment and retaining teachers,” Garner said. “I spend most of my time traveling to colleges and universities around North Carolina speaking to future teachers. The hardest part of this is not being able to teach this year.”

Garner said her goal for the speech was to tell the future teachers in the audience what they need to know before stepping into the classroom.

“If you think that your sole job when you step into the classroom is to teach your students the content, you are highly mistaken,” Garner said. “Our students go through K-12 and that is all they really get to come out into the world to be productive members of society.”

One of the reasons, Clinkscales said, he invited Garner to speak was to show his students the range of teaching styles, from the more conservative approach normally thought of to Garner’s more unconventional and creative experience.  

“Jessica brings more than content to the classroom; she brings a more creative style of teaching, an idea of 21st century classroom management styles,” Clinkscales said.

To be successful teachers, Garner said, future teachers should use athletics as an example for education.

“We want our students to compete and collaborate,” Garner said. “If we want to teach our students to be globally competitive we have to think like a coach and really get to know our opponent. I think that North Carolina is ahead in many areas of education nationally, but I think we can all, always do better.”

President of Teaching Fellows Matt Hovis said he felt the advice Garner gave was beneficial and encouraging to everyone in the audience.  

“Teaching Fellows does a good job of providing speakers who improve our professional development not only on a local level but also on a global scale,” Hovis said. “I definitely feel more prepared to produce cultural competence in my classroom from year one.”