Teacher of the Year: Renee Witherspoon

Last year, we featured Chicago teacher Renee Witherspoon in a teacher profile. Although she had years of teaching experience it was her first year teaching at a Camelot school. Just a year later, Renee has earned the title of teacher of the year! “It’s an honor to be selected as teacher of the year,” Renee said. “It shows recognition for me, but more importantly it shows recognition for our team. It’s amazing that they would recognize a teacher from a second year school. It shows our success.”

Camelot Education considers teachers at all of their campuses around the country for this honor, but Renee’s work  building relationships in her classroom while serving as a mentor to her peers made her stand out for this well-deserved honor.

How would you describe your second year teaching at Camelot versus your first year?
Like in any other school or job, in your second year you have more confidence you know what to expect going in versus your first year when everything is new. In your second year you kind of have a better plan because you have more experience.

Because this is the second year we already built relationships with students and they gained trust in us as staff and they know that we do care about them. It was a different attitude coming in from our students because they knew exactly what to expect from us and they know we care about them.

What was your favorite lesson to teach this year?

I absolutely love when we do the poetry slam for our students; it’s definitely a way to let our students know that they have a voice and that what they say matters. We get a chance to see them creatively and it always opens a door for them to express themselves.

Our students write their own poems and they present them, there’s a winner for each class and I love it. I love to see my students get into creative mode; I love for them to be able to express themselves. It’s just amazing to see some of the students who may have been shy or students who you would think would never want to speak in front of a crowd just open up.

This year, we had staff come into the classroom and write poems and present it in front of the students. That was great; it was truly amazing… in that moment, we bonded as a school.

What’s the process like to get your students ready for the poetry slam?
It starts at the beginning of the year, getting them comfortable with writing and speaking in front of an audience. You have to build an environment where they are comfortable speaking in front of people. They have to know that no matter what you say no one is going to call you stupid. We encourage everyone’s opinion in our class. We have to get their communication skills ready, their writing skills ready and their creative skills ready so they are prepared. We do a lot of creative writing projects in our class so by the time we got to April they were comfortable with thinking outside of the box in terms of writing and expressing themselves.

This is my second year as a Camelot teacher but my sixth year teaching so I’ve been able to see both sides of the spectrum. I taught in a south suburban area and here in Chicago so I know both sides of schools systems.

From your experience being in Chicago, why do you think a school like Camelot is needed to address the issues that young people are facing in the area?

Because Camelot focuses on the behavior and academics and not all schools are able to do that. When you have a High School with thousands of kids you are often forced to focus on one or the other and most schools choose to solely focus on academics. But, at Camelot it’s a smaller school with structure- that’s what these students need. They need structure, they need behavior as well as a focus on academics and I think that’s what’s needed in Chicago and outside of Chicago with students who are having trouble in school.

They need structure because they often aren’t getting it at home and they have all these influences outside. They need a place like Camelot that is going to be strict on them while still showing them love.

Why do you think you were selected to be teacher of the year?

One of the things that I hope made me stand out as a teacher is not just my hard work, but my dedication and my ability to build great relationships with my students and my ability to meet them where they are and then push them even higher and build their skills.

I do this for the love of education and the love of my students. I know that I’ve done so much in my classroom to build a rapport with my students. When you come in my classroom you feel a family environment. It’s a safe and engaging learning environment.

Being able to inspire my peers and my coworkers is also very important to me. I started what we call a teachers forum in my building. Once a week we meet as teachers and openly discuss what is working in our classroom, what’s not working and share ideas. Especially for new teachers the forum has been very beneficial. I think it’s important for us to have this environment where we can express ourselves – it’s not a complaining session- but it’s a time for us to learn from each other. Me being teacher of the year, reflects that I’m always trying to be great for my students but I’m trying to be great for my peers as well.

Why did you decide to start the teacher’s forum?

It’s just our second year as a school; we have some new teachers in the building along with veteran teachers so we are still learning the Camelot model. I heard a lot of people were still working to understand the strategies and get a handle on the model for Camelot. I just realized that we needed a day or time that we could just meet without a set agenda.  I didn’t want the school to become an environment where people were frustrated or not getting help. When students see that we support each other they know that they can’t break the relationship that we have, so they can’t ever try to put us against each other to try and get what they want. When they see the unity amongst us the unity inspires them.

What are your plans for next school year?

I will continue to do my best and be my best for my students. As I continue to work for Camelot, my goals are just to continue becoming a better person and a better educator so that I can always be the best for my students.