students dressed as a character from the popular movie (and book series) “The Hunger Games.”
By Matt Wiley
The finalists have been released for the Hillsborough Education Foundation (HEF)’s annual “Teacher of the Year” award, and among them is Hunter’s Green Elementary (HGE)’s own Reagan Lawrence.
Currently in her sixth year of teaching at HGE, Lawrence — a Live Oak Preserve resident — will find out if she is the county’s “Teacher of the Year” during the annual Excellence In Education awards ceremony on Thursday, February 20, at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Tampa. If selected, Lawrence will go on to be considered for Florida’s Teacher of the Year.
“I’m so shocked (to have been chosen as a finalist),” Lawrence says. “There are so many good teachers in the (Hillsborough County School) District.”
Originally from Pasadena, MA, Lawrence moved to Florida after graduating from Stevenson University (formerly known as Villa Julie College) in Baltimore with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. She started out teaching second grade at Phillp Shore Elementary Magnet School of the Arts in Ybor City, before beginning her teaching career at HE, also teaching second grade.
Lawrence, who also recently received her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University’s Tampa campus, taught second grade for one more year at HGE, before teaching fourth grade for one year and currently is in her third year of teaching fifth grade.
“I try to go above and beyond in the classroom,” Lawrence explains. “I really care about all of my students and try to create an environment in which I can connect with them.”
To do so, Lawrence says one learning strategy she utilizes is her “Song of the Week,” always a clean “Top 40” song. Lawrence says she teaches her students the lyrics and then connects the lyrics with figurative language or poetry, in hopes that the words will help spark their memories about the concept later.
Lawrence also is one of the co-founders of the Noble Impact program at HGE, which is based on entrepreneurship and public service program for high school students. Noble Impact was started in Little Rock, Ark., in July 2013 by graduates of the Clinton School of Public Service.
Lawrence explains that Noble Impact also launched at HGE in the summer of 2013 as a four-day “institute,” during which time 80 students were introduced to entrepreneurial skills and challenged both as individuals and as teams to confront different school-related issues in hopes that they could come up with ideas for solutions. At the end of the program, the student teams pitched their solutions to fellow classmates, teachers and the parents in attendance.
“We took the high school program and rewrote it for elementary students,” Lawrence says. “It started as a summer program, but I plan to pitch it to the District and, hopefully, it can be implemented on a middle and high school level, too.”
In addition to teaching fifth grade at HGE, Lawrence also is the junior varsity volleyball coach at nearby Wharton High, with her fifth grade teaching partner and varsity volleyball coach Eric Barber.
For more info about Reagan Lawrence, please visit her website inside HuntersGreen.mysdhc.org.
Best of luck, Reagan, from the New Tampa Neighborhood News!
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