Holy Family Teacher of the Year

NAME: Veronica Allen
SCHOOL:  Holy Family Classical School
GRADE:  First
LENGTH OF SERVICE: 3 years

What made you decide to start teaching?

I have always wanted to teach.

What kind of transformation have you seen in kids from the first day of school to the last day?

It is when the students can see and witness to their own growth throughout the year that is the most rewarding. Students start off the year walking in, some familiar faces, some who are not, everyone a little shy and timid. No one quite for sure how the year is going to pan out. And by the end of the year it is a vibrant, communal, and sometimes noisy space. With good, true, and beautiful work taking place. Filled with very brief moments when, right after Mass or after a particularly good day a student looks up briefly and you can see in their eyes the acknowledgement that they knew today was a good day. When we do an activity or are discussing a reading and their excitement and collaboration with each other as they work towards a whole understanding as a group. It is almost unrecognizable to the first day of class.

Describe the importance of a prayer life in relation to teaching.

Prayer life is so important as a teacher. It gives a teacher a place to draw a center from, and a place to go at the end of the day. It is like giving someone a well, and then filling it with good water. A teacher’s first relation is with God, and then the students. When the foundations of a good prayer life are laid the students can witness that and your work grows from that center.

Why do you enjoy teaching at a Catholic school?

My faith is an integral part of what I teach. I am allowed and encouraged to teach the truths surrounding our faith, and my students are given and fed the truth of our faith. I am not asked to conform but rather to state and speak truth. I am allowed and encouraged to pray with my students, to pray in my life and bring prayer into the classroom, showing the students witness to the faith. I am asked to make time for a relationship with God within my own life, so that I may go and give truth.

How do you cultivate positive relationships with your students and create a sense of class community?

The first way this is done is outside the classroom. My students, especially in First
Grade, watch what I do and see who I am, especially when I interact with other teachers, parents, and anyone else I come into contact with in the school. When I work together with other teachers to collaborate or participate in the prayer life around campus my students see this and work to imitate this in their lives. In the classroom, we pray, eat, work, and play at recess as a unit. The First Grade is a cohort, and relationship and community are built into the day, having multiple places to stop and pray together and recognize the importance of doing so together.

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