Atholton Elementary Teacher Named Howard County Teacher of the Year

Some days during afternoon school announcements in Alaska where Lisa Young taught for six years,  students were reminded about proper moose safety.

“Stay two house-lengths away, never get between a mama and a calf and always remember your alternate route home,” Young said the school's announcer would remind students as they were leaving for the day.

Sound advice as it may be, Young doesn't have much use for the moose safety tips in her current job at Atholton Elementary School but she does credit her experience in Alaska with instilling in her a creative attitude toward teaching.

Young's approach apparently has been of substantial benefit to both her teaching colleagues and students as she recently was named Howard County Teacher of Year.

At Atholton Elementary, Young serves as a resource teacher helping guide fellow teachers in being more effective writing instructors and teaching students in the second-, third- , fourth- and fifth-grade gifted classes.

“In Alaska there wasn’t such a structured set of objectives or programs,” said Young. “You had a lot of room for creativity in teaching and that’s my strength. We created curriculum as we went, it wasn’t given to us. It allowed me to work really collaboratively with my team to come up with the most creative ways to teach our children.”

Young was honored as the county's Teacher of the Year at an annual celebration honoring excellent county teachers on May 2.

“I’m definitely honored to be named teacher of the year,” Young said. “But I think that I represent numerous teachers all over the country, not just in Howard County."

"All of us teach with the passion we have with all of our might and we have the kids' best interests at heart at all times,” added Young.

Young has been an advocate of the “Six+1 Writing Traits” model, which she has helped pioneer in elementary and middle schools throughout Howard County.

The model was originally developed in Portland, OR, and made its way throughout the Pacific Northwest. The model teaches students how to write based on seven components: ideas, organization, voice, sentence fluency, word choice, mechanics and presentation.

Young said the model helped her explain to students what makes effective writing. For example, she said, a student may be excellent at developing voice, but not have well-thought ideas in their writing. The model enables a teacher to explain to a student that one part of their writing may be good but another area needs work.

The model has helped schools move from formulaic methods of writing and has enabled students to develop more creative writing styles, Young said.

In addition to helping to set up the writing program, Young also led a team of educators and students through the green school certification process.

“She is our true green guiding light at Atholton,” said Assistant Principal Aaron Tark. “She inspired us school-wide to be more cognizant on how we impact the environment on a daily basis.”

Young created an outdoor teaching space, started a native habitat garden, placed recycling bins in the cafeteria and led an overall effort to educate students about the environment.

“I’m fortunate to not only teach the children in my classes, but also to get to touch the lives of all our children in the schools as part of the grean team to incorporate environmental learning and education throughout the school,” Young said.

Recently, Young earned a masters degree in education and a graduate certificate in administration and supervision. She is often asked if she intends to become a school administrator.

“I’m very inspired by the administrators that I’ve had the pleasure of working for,” said Young. “They are amazing people and their job is great, but it’s a job I’m not sure I want to leave the classroom to do.”

“I love teaching, it’s my passion, I do it with all my might and I think getting out of the classroom would take me out of that opportunity,” she said.

In teaching her students at Atholton, Young says that her tales of Alaska are the children's favorites.

“I find a way to teach the kids through the stories I tell," she said, "and in turn, they get to tell lots of stories too.”