I was fortunate to have just two principals in my career. Both were very supportive. Mine was a unique class. Students worked in groups throughout much of the day. They worked hard and were very creative. As one student said, “We get to do stuff others don’t get to do.” Basically, it was STEAM before it was a thing.

I strongly believe in building student independence and responsibility. To an outside observer, my class may have looked like chaos. It was anything but. Students were always hard at work.

Still, in many ways, I often wish I had been better, but I did my best.

• My students and I won well over 150 Richland District One Visual Literacy Awards (photography, websites, book production, computer, editorial cartoons). This includes 2 Group Grand Prizes (best of all the grade levels) and 2 Individual Creative Excellence Awards.
• My class took fifteenth place in the 2009 worldwide online World Maths Day (basic facts) competition (over 5,000 schools entered). Kind of like the Challenge Station. (You may be interested in doing this. https://www.3plearning.com/world-maths-day/) My students ran to my room in the morning, came in at night, and worked at home to do this.
• My students took third place in a statewide (SCIWAY) website contest.
• 2004 Caughman Teacher of the Year (I had no interest in being named, but people kept pushing.)
• After winning Math Mountain in the early years (with 4th & 5th graders vs. 5th graders) we stopped competing as a class and I had my students help run it. We even took it on the road – running it at five other Richland District One schools (for grades 2 to 5). The District wanted to run it as a District-wide championship, but it never materialized.
• My class went on many unique field trips. Among them were trips to Frankie’s Fun Park for hands-on math activities, and water pollution testing around Columbia with the SRO in tow. We went to Sesquicentennial, Table Rock, Lee, Greenwood, Edisto, and Huntington Beach State Parks – where the students worked hard on science and math activities while having a blast. We camped in tents at all but Lee. Students were also responsible for everything from setting up and taking down their own tents to making breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Imagine the looks of fellow campers when a school bus rolled up. They soon discovered that these were active, but respectful children – receiving many compliments (and many comments of how surprised they were that we were from a public school).