If members of the Teacher Cadet classes of Clinton High School and Laurens District High School decide ultimately that teaching is not for them, a veteran teacher asks just one thing of the students.
That their high school experience in the classes make them advocates, and voters, for the teaching profession.
Renee Atkinson, an English teacher at Aynor High School, was the featured speaker recently for the Teacher Cadets’ tour of Presbyterian College. She also spoke to the District 56 induction class for new teachers.
Speaking in Edmunds Hall, Atkinson said, “If you’re on the fence (about being a teacher) I hope this talk or this class will help you decide to be a teacher. If not that’s OK, too - just promise me if you don’t, the experience will enable you to be an advocate for teachers. They need for you to speak up for teachers and vote for teachers. BE SURE you are registered to vote.”
She guided the students through a closed eyes experience traveling back in time their favorite teacher’s classroom. “Open the door and look around, take a lap around the room, and find your seat and sit down — what makes this room and the person who led this room so special to you? Tell your shoulder partner what made that person so special to you that you would want to travel there.”
She timed out 30 seconds for discussion.
“I love this part of the conversation because you have a big smile on your faces. With my own students, no one named subjects - they wrote about the characteristics of the teacher who pushed them, the teacher who thought they could be more than they thought they could be, and loved them.”
Atkinson said using her high school yearbook, she couldn’t stop at naming one favorite teacher. She said teachers followed her throughout her life, even attending the celebration at her school when she brought back from Columbia the Teacher of the Year credential.
“At Mullins High School these teachers had these characteristics - patience, calmness, hard work - and they responded as a friend and mentor not just for a year but for the rest of my life. They instilled a love of learning.”
Atkinson said in her high school her Algebra II teacher also was the Teacher Cadet instructor, and she took the class to be with this teacher, even though in 5th grade she earned a C in a lesson on fractions, earning herself disciplinary restriction at home.
“She made me teach a math lesson for my Teacher Cadet lesson. I poured my heart and soul into that lesson, I can probably still teach that lesson to you today. When she got those test scores back, and they knocked it out of the park, on a lesson I taught, she said, ‘Renee, I think you need to be a teacher, I think you have a gift. What she did was plant a seed with me.
“I let that go, I went off to do my thing,” Atkinson said, and eventually wound up at Clemson in Chemistry receiving the gift no one ever wants to get at Christmas, the dreaded academic probation letter.
She switched her major to English and History, rediscovered Education classes, and embarked on a career of now 21 years in the classroom.
“There is always something new to learn,” Atkinson told the Teacher Cadets. “I can’t teach you the way I taught my students a couple of years ago. Technology changes. I don’t know that kids have changed that much. But you can grow to give your best. I did not aspire to be a teacher. I had a professor who helped bring me out of my shell. … I could see my path, and I took the time to get my masters degree. I encourage you to do that - the more education you have the more money you make.”
Concluding her 30-minute talk, Atkinson advised the future teachers, “We learn because of relationships. That’s when you don’t just have students for a year; you have people who will be your teacher for the rest of your lives.”
Renee’ Atkinson is the 2024 SC Teacher of the Year and the 2023 Horry County Schools Teacher of the Year. This is her 21st year serving the SC Public School System with 17 years of service in Horry County. In 2002, she received a Bachelor’s Degree from Clemson University in History with a minor in English and her teaching certification in Secondary English. In 2004, she received a Master’s in Education from Francis Marion University in Secondary English. In 2009, she received National Board Certification in English Language Arts/Adolescence and Young Adulthood. In 2013, she received her Education Specialist Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Liberty University. Atkinson is endorsed to teach AP Literature and Composition, AP Language and Composition, and IB English A: Literature; in addition, she has served as a reader and examiner for both College Board and the IB. Source: https://ed.sc.gov/educators/teacher-of-the-year/#:~:text=Bio,of%20service%20in%20Horry%20County.
https://www.presby.edu/academics/undergraduate/academic-departments-programs/education-department/
