Dekalb County Teacher of the Month - January 2021
Published: January 22, 2021
Alabama Teachers Credit Union is proud to present Ms. Mamie Jo Miller, educator at Fort Payne Middle School, as our January 2021 Teacher of the Month for the Dekalb County area, in partnership with Southern Torch.
Ms. Miller says she never set out to be a teacher, and was always more about sports that school work. However, her direction in life changed when she attended college at Lee University to play soccer. At Lee, Ms. Miller begin to enjoy learning and became inspired, realizing the empowerment that comes from education.
She shares the most rewarding part of her job is building relationships with students and helping them navigate the rough phase of life called adolescence. Ms. Miller believes that in order to make learning fun for her students, she needs to be having fun - and she tries to do so on a daily basis! She states the biggest challenges teachers face today, from her experience, is the mental health of students. Ms. Miller explains that adolescence is a hard time, with many external and internal pressures. She attempts to support her middle schoolers during this challenging time by living out the statement - "students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Ms. Miller encourages the community to get involved and help with these challenges by leaving us with the following quote:
- If you have a child or know a child...
- Encourage progress over perfection
- Encourage love over judgement
- Encourage kindness over popularity
- Encourage being authentic over being accepted
Congratulations, Ms. Miller and thank you for all you do for the future of our communities!