Beth Green became a teacher simply to inspire.
While growing up watching her mother teach and helping her set up her classroom during the summer, Green was encouraged to follow in her mother’s footsteps.
With wanting to help the next generation as much as she can, Green put in the hard work and dedication needed. Her hard work has not gone unnoticed. Not only have her students recognized her want to help – so have her peers.
This January, Green was honored as one of the 2020 Cinnaminson Educators of the Year.
“It was very surreal,” Green said. “It’s such a great honor. We have such an amazing staff here so any teacher in this building could have received it.”
“I am still a little in shock. It’s surreal. I can’t believe they recognized me out of everybody,” she added.
Throughout Green’s journey to education, she originally thought that she wanted to teach younger students in fourth and fifth grade, however, while working at a charter school in Philadelphia as a reading specialist, she found herself gravitating to children in middle school.
“As a reading specialist, I got to work with all different age groups and I found myself gravitating toward middle school,” said Green.
“I love this age.”
According to Green, some teachers feel that the middle school age group is when some students start to not like school as much as they did in elementary school. However, with the way Green develops her lesson plans, she doesn’t see that within her students.
“It’s important to keep this age engaged and it’s important to also get to know them on a personal level,” Green said. “I do a lot of character education and I like to put that in my lessons.
“Since I teach reading, I am lucky because I have the ability to discuss current topics. Different themes in the stories relate a lot to their own lives so we get to talk about a lot of things. I get to know them in a way that maybe other subjects and classes wouldn’t.”
While Green has figured out how to connect with her students, which ultimately led to her winning Educator of the Year, teaching didn’t necessarily come naturally to Green. There was a learning curve.
“I look back at some of my lessons from the first couple of years and I wouldn’t necessarily do that again, but I always knew that you had to have the kids buy in, especially at this age,” Green said.
“I try to be relevant to them, but It was definitely hard in the beginning with not really knowing what to expect or how the kids are going to respond,” she added.
