For Serita Palmer, teaching is more than a profession — it’s a way to contribute to the community she grew up in.
The Champaign Central graduate, who attended Robeson Elementary School and Franklin Middle School, has taught at Booker T. Washington STEM Academy for the last eight years after spending two years at Garden Hills Academy.
Her first exposure to teaching, though, came at the pre-kindergarten level at Bundles of Joy Learning Center and Chesterbrook Academy. As a way of contributing to her community, Palmer still teaches that level during the summer and one Saturday a month with DREAAM.
I find my work important because ... it is important to be a contributing member of the community that I grew up in. I meet new people every day; they also remember attending school and they share their positive life experiences. I hope that my students will have similar stories as they grow and come back to share them.
I became a teacher because ... I’ve always had a passion for learning and helping others; even when I was younger I played “school.” Teaching kindergarten is unique in the sense that you are with the students at the beginning of their educational journey, and watching them grow and change is rewarding.
My favorite or most unique lesson that I teach is ... the marshmallow toes experiment on the 100th day of school. We make predictions about where we think we will land after taking 100 steps out of our classroom. I am always amazed by my students’ perspectives and the engagements before and after the lesson.
My most fulfilling moments on the job are when ... my students make authentic connections to something they’ve learned and are excited to tell me or show me.
I keep students engaged by ... letting them take turns being the teacher on the smartboard. I remember my eighth-grade teacher Mrs. Walters doing that for me while she pretended to be me, and I think that is what inspired me most to teach.
Something else I’m passionate about is ... making other people happy through service activities and baking.
My favorite teacher and subject to study in school was ... science with Christopher Schultz in both seventh grade (Franklin Middle) and 11th grade (Central).
If I weren’t a teacher, I would be ... a nurse/health care worker.
— ANTHONY ZILIS