Melissa Ellis Bartlett
2003 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
Ms. Bartlett has been teaching students English, Creative Writing, Grammar and Composition for eighteen years. She currently teaches at Statesville High School in Statesville, North Carolina.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
"With our intuitive curiosity and instinctive drive to explain and control our environments, I believe that learning is a natural behavior for humans. Given that all humans want and need to learn, it is our task as teachers to provide the most condusive environment in which this can successfully happen. Therefore, my philosophy of education has one underlying premise. Education should be an enabling activity, one which enables learners to function, to learn and to communicate successfully in real life situations – at school, at work and in their communities."

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
"My belief that learning is a natural process of individuals interacting with their environment is patently obvious in my instructional approach and design. I strive to create situations in my classroom that absolutely necessitate learning, in which exploration and discovery are a natural part and function of whatever experience is being provided for the students. This dictates that the classroom would include numerous cooperative group activities, research with public presentation in mind, and other performance-based experiences like the real-life products that might be required in today’s workplace. In order to make the learning even further relevant to my students, I involve them in the initial planning process every nine weeks and for the semester level as well."

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
"I have enjoyed many teaching accomplishments, including the opportunity to create and implement an adult ESL program that served two counties, the chance to help students produce their county's only high school literary magazine, and the responsibility for designing and implementing several workshop series that had profound effects on student achievement. Yet, through all of these experiences, it has become obvious to me that the most important accomplishments in teaching aren’t quite as tangible as a workshop or a magazine. They are the bright-eyed sparks of sudden understanding on my students’ faces, their growing self-confidence in their abilities and their unscheduled visits just to say hello."

What's the most critical issue facing educators?
"I believe one of the most critical issues facing educators today is our need to gain the expertise, resources and time to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population."

What do you think can be done to solve this issue?
“There are many initiatives in place to help us better meet the needs of every child. Increased funding under Title I and the recent reauthorization of the ESEA should help. The institutes of higher education are beginning to focus on addressing the training implications of these expanded service needs in the classroom. Focussed in-service professional development should also be part of the multi-pronged approach to address the growing needs of our diverse student body."

One thought to inspire teachers to excel
“To quote motivational speaker Larry Bell, ‘On our worst day, we're still some child's best, last hope.’"

One lesson every student should learn
“I believe every student should learn how to stand up and speak in front of a group of others. This skill will serve them well in anything they later choose to do.”