In Beth Ashmore’s third-grade classroom at Edgar L. Padgett Elementary School in north Lakeland, any lesson she teaches is almost always turned into a game.
“Learning should be fun,” said Ashmore, who was named Polk County Public Schools’ 2024 Teacher of the Year earlier this month. “I want my kids to want to come to school and say, ‘Ok, what are we going to learn today? What game are we doing to play today? What’s Miss Ashmore going to do today?”
For instance, she cleverly disguised concepts of engineering by incorporating the game Jenga, which involves removing wooden pieces from a tower and ensuring it doesn’t topple, into a recent science lesson.
“Engagement to me is one of the biggest pieces because I can teach a benchmark to its fullest extent and complexity, but if I don’t have my students with me, if they’re not engaged with me in some way, then it’s not going to matter what I’m presenting to them,” Ashmore told PCPS officials. “I like to do a lot of games that are learning a lot of things — I get them moving and excited about it because learning should be fun. Learning should be exciting. I want the kids to come to school and be like, this is the best place that I can be today.”
Padgett Principal Joette Burse said Ashmore, who is in her 18th year in the classroom, doesn’t just engage her students; she also helps her colleagues.
“One thing I love the most about Miss Ashmore is her positivity,” Burse said. “She is our teacher ambassador, which means she takes time each month at least, or every other week, to reach out to our new teachers and encourage them with positive notes. And she’s so positive with her students. The ones in her class know that they can trust her.”
Burse also praised Ashmore’s “Level Up” program. Ashmore said she learned about it during a professional development program for teachers several years ago at the Ron Clark Academy, an acclaimed, nonprofit middle school located in Southeast Atlanta that has become internationally renowned for creating a loving, dynamic learning environment that promotes academic excellence and fosters leadership among students and teachers of all backgrounds. Clark has also written “The Essential 55,” an award-winning guide for teachers on how to foster positive classroom environments.
Ashmore said her parents gifted her and her sister, an education administrator, with the $800 to pay for the course several years ago.
Each week at Padgett, one student from each of the third-grade classes at the school earns a T-shirt with that year’s theme by showing character and academic growth. Selection is based on three things:
- Having good relationships.
- Having good character traits.
- And having good grades.
“They want to earn that Level Up shirt,” Ashmore said. “It almost becomes that self-reflection piece when you have that third grader asking, ‘What do I have to do to earn that shirt?’ I tell them, ‘We’re waiting for that little spark from you where you’ve had that moment where you come into your greatness and you shine for everyone.’”
She and her colleagues gather their classes in the hallway and announce the winners with a lot of fanfare — and 100 of the students’ classmates cheering them on.
“It’s become our legacy,” Ashmore said. “I put their pictures in the hallway and just make it a place where they feel seen and they feel heard.”
She said students will continue to wear that T-shirt in fourth and fifth grades and often tell her they want to return to the third grade.
“They’re not necessarily remembering that great multiplication lesson or that dynamic central idea lesson,” Ashmore said. “They’re remembering Level Up. They’re remembering being seen and being heard for who they are as an individual. I think that’s the best thing that we can give to a kid.”
The third-grade hallway at Padgett has a theme each year. This year, students walk into the jungle of Jurassic Park — the entranceway is covered in jungle-like material and there are dinosaur pictures on one bulletin board and a world map with more pictures on another bulletin board.
“Miss Ashmore is nice, she’s loving and whenever, like, anything goes wrong, we need help at all, she helps and she’s really nice,” said student Scott Walker.
Teaching inspiration
Ashmore comes from a teaching family. Both her mother and sister taught at Padgett and her father is a pastor.
She said she was always expected to follow in her mother’s footsteps, but she resisted that for a long time.
“I was in the car with dad and he asked me why I didn’t want to be a teacher and I said it was expected of me,” she recalled. “And he said what about those kids that don’t have anyone expecting anything from them. There’s so many possibilities out there and I just want the kids to see they could create something that they love.”
She credits her family with putting her on the path to earning her bachelor’s degree, along with two master’s degrees in education.
“But most importantly, they taught me take your talents, gifts and abilities and use them to serve others and glorify God in how much you can do,” she told the audience during her acceptance speech during the award ceremony.
During the early months of the COVID pandemic, when schools were completely closed for two and a half months, Ashmore had to get even more creative. She said when she realized that school was going to be closed for a while, she sent the kids’ books home with them, but also packed a mystery bag for the kids with small fun items that she incorporated into her lessons.
And her family got involved in some of her work. She and her sister taught a lesson on bioluminescence by turning out the lights at her house and using glow sticks and neon paper.
She said she always sees bits and pieces of her family in her students.
“How can I teach like my mom taught for so long and instill that love and that creativity? How can I take some leadership skills like my sister does as an administrator and help my grade level or help my school?” Ashmore said. “And then how do I take needs that my brother had as a student and meet those needs in my students? What inspires me to keep teaching is knowing that there’s always a student who needs something — what do they need? Well, they need guidance, they need encouragement, they need the content. So whatever it is that student needs, I feel that when I have them for that 180 days it’s my job to give it to them.”
The pandemic, though, along with increasingly onerous statutes handed down by the state and a growing lack of respect for the profession among some groups, have caused many teachers to flee the profession and some college students to rethink teaching as a career choice. But there are also many dedicated professionals like Ashmore who manage to look past all that and only see the faces of the students who need them.
“There’s so many things that can cause us to grow weary IN what we do, but my hope and my prayer will be that we never grow weary OF what we get to do,” Ashmore told the audience during her acceptance speech.
Richard Reich, the registrar at East Area Adult School, was named the district’s School-Related Employee of the Year. He was once a GED student himself, so he said he understands the importance of adult education and helping people succeed in life.
Ashmore and Reich each received cash prizes donated by MIDFLORIDA Credit Union, custom rings by Herff Jones, and other gifts. As Teacher of the Year, Ashmore will also receive a cash prize from Jarrett Gordon Ford.
Other finalists
The finalists in both categories were also celebrated at this month’s Inspire Awards.
PCPS finalists for Teacher of the Year:
- Sherrie Blackwood from Citrus Ridge: A Civics Academy.
- Robert Brown from Winter Haven High School.
- Kara Holt from Sleepy Hill Middle School.
- Kelly Larrow from Mulberry Middle School.
- Kelsea Matthews from Pinewood Elementary.
- Christina Wainwright from Medulla Elementary.
The district’s finalists for School-Related Employee of the Year:
- Matthew Brojanowski from Roosevelt Academy.
- Alberto L. Cosme from Boone MiddleSchool.
- Debra Glisson from Griffin Elementary School.
- Laura Kovachy from Lake Gibson Middle School.
- Angela Love from Fort Meade-Middle Senior School.
- Teri Whitehead-Richardson from Lakeland High School.
Ashmore and Reich will move on to compete for the state titles. Those winners will be announced next year.
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