Peachtree – Caesar Campana is a visionary, which suits Cherokee County Schools – where he serves at an instructional coach and beginning teacher coordinator – just fine.
Guiding and inspiring new teachers, many tackling their first year of teaching through a pandemic, Campana feels right at home. So when he organized the “Spring Forward 2022 NC New Teacher Support Program Professional Development Day, CCS Beginning Teachers” on March 26, he sought out like-minded people.
This is where the dynamic Eugenia Floyd entered the agenda. Floyd, a fourth-grade teacher at Mary Scroggs Elementary School in Chapel Hill, recently won the Burroughs Wellcome Fund NC Teacher of the Year. Campana himself earned the same honor for the Western Region in 2019.
About 35 local beginning teachers met at the Tri-County Community College for a day dedicated to their instruction and support. The teachers were presented with three learning sessions tackling complicated topics such as Understanding EVAAS (Education Value-Added Assessment System) offered by Leslie Ledford, the school system’s director of accountability and testing coordinator. Ledford attempted to help the new teachers understand how to connect the high-level data culled from EVAAS into classroom level practice.
However, the darling of the day was Floyd, who provided the keynote address displaying her passion for students and mission to become a bridge rather than a barrier to education. She told the new teachers of her own first-year experience.
“I had on life vests and arm floaties just to keep my head above water,” Floyd said to nodding heads.
She said she learned her students were teachers as well.
“I had one student who always mixed his goldfish into his yogurt at snack time,” Floyd said. “I asked him why he did this, and he encouraged me to try it. Well, I thought gross, but he challenged me saying, ‘You teach us to try new things.’ ”
Floyd accepted his challenge and reported to the audience, “It’s a good thing, you should try it!”
Floyd said her #whyiloveteaching hashtag is explained in five words: “Miss Floyd, I get it!” Her confidence was matched only by her optimism.
“From the bus garage to the boardroom,” she instructed, “We all work for the kids.”
Education has become a changing landscape that places more and more responsibilities on the classroom teacher’s shoulders. Many teachers have wearied under the new pressures.
However, Floyd appeared honored to serve students in multiple capacities. She has felt tested, saying, “It can be discouraging when you do not feel fully supported. Support is when our voices are valued and heard.”
She argued that support cannot be a template pressed upon every teacher.
“Support is also differentiated so that educators, just like students, can grow in their craft,” Floyd said.
She feels the same way about students.
“There is a belief that there may be a singular issue preventing students’ growth; however, even before the pandemic, this has never been the case,” Floyd said. “The needs of our students are multifaceted, and one