Christi Wiggins McCollum
2003 South Carolina Teacher of the Year
Ms. McCollum has sixteen years teaching experience. She is currently teaching all subjects to grades four and five at Bookman Road Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
"According to Webster’s Dictionary, a teacher is someone who imparts knowledge, gives instruction and helps to learn by example. It sounds quite easy, but when you have seen ‘real teaching’ taking place, it is as awesome as watching the artist’s canvas as his masterpiece comes to life. With every stroke of the brush the picture changes until the work is complete and the masterpiece is unlike any other. Like the skill of the artist, there is skill in good teaching. Each day brings refinement and change of techniques to enhance the beauty of the canvases of children’s lives within my classroom. Although I may never see the finished masterpieces of my work, I know that my time with them is as valuable as that of the artist’s first strokes with his brush.

There is no higher calling for me than to be a teacher. I cannot imagine doing anything else, and although there are days when the politics and paperwork of this profession become overwhelming, the majority of my days are filled with the elation I derive from teaching. Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher, once said, ‘My heart is singing for joy this morning. A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed!’ I know that joy of which Ms. Sullivan speaks. I have known that joy many times during the past sixteen years. The time when Genaro, who was nine years old, shouted with exuberance, ‘Mrs. McCollum, I can read! I read it all by myself!’ Moments are sweet when I catch myself so into my job that the tears flow freely from my eyes while hearing a child’s unexpected response. That joy comes not only from teaching lessons of math, reading and writing, but also from the lessons I teach by my actions and my attitudes. My students are such keen observers. I want them to know that knowledge without goodness is wasted. I want them to understand that good character speaks volumes about who you really are as a person. I have the skills to give each child the tools that can turn on the “light of understanding” and open the world for them.

My philosophy boils down to three simple P’s: passion, purpose and personal best. Firstly, all teachers must have passion for teaching. They must have a passion for delivering knowledge in a creative and useful way, passion for the hearts of their students and for imparting knowledge that will make a difference for them. There must be passion that goes beyond textbooks and rote lesson plans. It is this passion that drives good teachers to stay up late at night creating different ways to reach hard-to-reach children when every other method has failed. Regardless of financial compensation, passion is the Foundation of what every good teacher must possess. It is the passion alone that truly sustains us. It drives us to do what we do each day.

Secondly, there must be purpose. My purpose is to teach the value of education and lifelong learning. Above all, I want my students to know that I can improve and can always find ways to learn more. Simply stated, if I am not learning new things that will make me a better educator tomorrow than I am today, then I have not only failed myself, but I have failed my students. By my example, they can see the value of education and lifelong learning.

Lastly, there must be personal best. Yes, there are days when I feel as if everything in my personal world has gone wrong but, I must still walk into my classroom ready to give my students my personal best. As educators, personal best is a conscious decision to give all that you have each day. It’s no surprise that as we give our best, our students give their best in return. These three P’s may sound too simplistic for education in the twenty-first century; however, success does not need to be so complicated. Success for my students and for me is beautifully interwoven with passion, purpose and personal best. Each one of them gives beauty and strength to the finished masterpiece.

I’m certain there are those who say that there are more prestigious professions than teaching. I need only to look into the eyes of the children I teach to find my reward in my profession. The skeptics will never know the satisfaction and joy I receive from seeing the light of understanding shine in the children’s faces and knowing they are forever changed. My legacy as a teacher comes down to this: ‘Years from now, I want the children I have taught to know that there is no higher calling than teaching.’ I do it with love. I do it with pride. I do it with honor. I do it with a passion, purpose and personal best so that every child can grow and succeed. This is what all children deserve and what good teaching accomplishes."

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
"Most of my students would tell you I am not a typical teacher. Helping students to turn on their light of understanding often means stepping out of the traditional way of teaching. On the first day of school, my students meet ‘Dr. McCollum.’ I enter the room garbed in surgical attire carrying a mysteriously large bag. They laugh and hang onto my every word as I unveil our patients. Reaching my rubber-gloved hands into the bag, I pull out the Sunkist Family. Oranges are placed on each table as the students relate the different layers of the orange to the human brain’s skull and hemispheres. Years later, I still have students tell me they never eat an orange without recalling that lesson. As students hold and dissect a human brain, they discover how the brain learns and apply this knowledge to how they learn. Real learning for real life – that is the heart of what I do. That is what makes my teaching different from the norm. Every standard is taught through hands-on thematic units where lessons are directed, not by text books, but by guest speakers. The speakers share about being in the German concentration camps during World War II and reading novels that reflect that time period. Students study the economy and conduct interviews with family members who lived during that time and then set up a museum in the classroom. Students have choices in how they present the material they have learned incorporating brain research that tells us that all students learn differently and have unique ways to convey the knowledge they have learned. I want my students to be able to instantly apply what has been learned in the classroom to real-life situations. After all, application of skills learned shows true mastery of the skills."

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
"My greatest accomplishment during the past sixteen years in the classroom happened just a few years ago. A student came into my fourth grade class against the advice of school officials who felt he should be placed in a special education classroom. His parents felt that he had abilities and wanted their son to have a chance at normal education. During the next two years with Josh in fourth and fifth grades, I watched as he worked diligently to learn to read and write, but more importantly, learned how to be successful with his peers. That success made the most difference in his academics. I worked many long hours with Josh for two years but it was all worth it. This child who wouldn't even speak when he came to me participated in class discussions and class projects. He smiled, he laughed, and he grew tremendously in his academic ability. His family says that I gave Josh a gift those two years in fourth and fifth grades. They were wrong. Josh gave me the greatest gift a teacher can ever have - the gift of watching a child learn and grow."

What's the most critical issue facing educators?
"It was Herbert Spencer, a British philosopher and sociologist, who once said, ‘Education has for its object the formation of character.’ That has never been truer than in today’s society. In the past few years, we have seen school violence rise. It seems that every week we hear another horrifying story of children who have planned shocking massacres in their schools. We all shake our heads and ask, ‘How can this happen?’

For this question, there is no simple answer. I believe it stems from many factors including violence viewed by children on television and movies, through music, and the decline of healthy families. It all rests on the unfortunate fact that children are simply not being taught or seeing modeled how to treat themselves or others with respect and how to tolerate and respect differences among people.

We see the effects of the changes in our homes and throughout the country played out in the tragedies that plague our schools today. We are now seeing children being bullied and afraid for their very lives, children bringing guns and bombs to schools, children committing hideous crimes against their peers and teachers, and children in rage with no idea of how to cope. We find ourselves asking what can we do but the truth is that we ignore the peer subculture that exists in our schools. We know that it is there. We hear the talk on the playground and listen as a child tells another child, ‘We don’t want to play with you anymore.’ We see children ridiculed in PE classes when they are awkward, and know that they will be the last person chosen for the team games. As educators, we are all too aware of the problems our students face with their peers. The put-downs from their peers are often more than they can bear, and we then witness the horrifying effects as a child acts on that frustration. With the implications of the new federal legislation from No Child Left Behind, we can no longer ignore this. Being labeled as a persistently dangerous school will have lasting consequences on students, teachers and the community. So, what are we to do?

Above all, every educator must care. We have to hear the remarks and see the rolling eyes and the body language that so interrupts the learning of our students. No child can learn if he does not feel safe and the environment is not conducive to learning. Therefore, it has become the school’s responsibility to teach, not values, but good character. Values still need to be taught in the home. Values include opinions on topics that parents feel strongly about, and therefore, teach and model for their children. Character includes respect, caring, integrity, responsibility, resourcefulness, friendship, trustworthiness, truthfulness and other traits that build success in the workplace and society. In June of 2002, President Bush spoke about character at the White House Conference on Character and Community and said, ‘We’ve got to do more than just teacher our children skills and knowledge. We also want to make sure they’re kind and decent, compassionate and responsible, honest and self-disciplined. Our children must learn to make a living, but even more, they must learn how to live.’ Just as President Bush has recognized there is a problem, we all have to work together to find the solution."

What do you think can be done to solve this issue?
"I believe that solution comes first in teachers making it clear to students that this year will be different. In this class we are going to treat one another with respect and we will support each other. This occurs when teachers teach and model good character for children on a daily basis. If we train people in schools and communities to exhibit character traits, then character education becomes not just a program but a way of life. As we teach children these character traits, we must take the time to make sure they understand and practice each trait. Students need to be able to go beyond definitions of the character traits, but to also be able to tell what the trait looks like, sounds like and feels like as they are living it. In other words, we need to help students internalize good character.

As educators, we must also have high expectations of what our students can achieve. In my years in the classroom, I have learned that every year I get a new batch of really great kids. I hear all the remarks about the terrors that I am getting from the grade before mine, but I have learned that one of the best things I can do for my students is to greet them the first day with high academic and behavioral expectations. From the start, I communicate to my students that I believe that they are competent, caring and great individuals, and I am glad for the opportunity to work with them. My students never disappoint me. They always reflect my original expectations. Educators must also teach them how to resolve conflict peacefully and show tolerance for those who hold different views or who look or act differently from them. We must be willing to make all students a part of the learning community so that no child is forgotten or feels like an outcast. We need to communicate to our students that we are human beings with the ability to talk and reason our way through whatever conflicts we face.

Education is certainly about the acquisition of academic knowledge, but it is so much more. Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘To educate a man in the mind but not in the morals is to educate a menace to society.’ Good character can be woven into our schools in ways that enrich curricula and the entire school culture. Character education can be an important force in furthering not only school safety but also school reform and dramatically improving academic performance. Research now gives evidence that there is a direct correlation between character traits and high academic performance. Character education must be taught directly and indirectly by modeling and formal lessons, throughout our children’s education. The future of our schools, and more importantly, the future of our children depend upon it."

One thought to inspire teachers to excel
"When all is said and done, the children and the future of our nation all depend on us. We cannot let them down."

One lesson every student should learn
"Knowledge without goodness is wasted."