Jean Gordon
Wednesday, October 9, 2024 9:37 am
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Ellenboro Elementary School's Tammy Conner is the recipient of the Exceptional Children's Education of Excellence award. Conner is a Rutherford County native and lived in Rutherford County all her life except two years in Texas and Colorado.
She said she always wanted to help others in some capacity, but didn't go into teaching until after college. She worked in early intervention with Rutherford County's Mental Health program with children birth to 3 years old with some developmental delay.
She said although she enjoyed the work, she decided she wanted to work with older children in furthering their education, especially those with development delays, medical issues or intellectual disorders.
She worked with Head Start for a while before moving to elementary age children as a special education teacher.
"I have spent the rest of my career teaching special education in elementary age groups," she said.
Some of her greatest joys in teaching special education is when she sees a child who has truly struggled, accomplish learning a certain skill and reaching a goal.
"The excitement in that child's eyes and in their voice is like no other," she said.
"One thing I always do is try to celebrate that accomplishment even if it is just through a pat on the back, a hug or congratulating them," Conner said.
"Teachers develop such a love for their students that causes that child's success to be so personal at times. When your classroom children struggle with a skill, it is hard not to share in their grief and frustration over that struggle, so like many other teachers, I also experience that,' she said.
"Special education is like no other profession. It is a way to give back and affect our future by being a positive, encouraging part of a child's life," Conner said.
"You have the opportunity to inspire and change a child's life by being a cheerleader and advocate for these children who could so easily be pushed by the wayside because of their learning deficits," she said.
"To motivate an academically struggling child to want to learn and help them realize that they have what it takes to make a difference in their life, is the "super power"of a special education teacher," Conner said.
She hopes to share with other future education teachers.
Prior to Ellenboro, she worked seven years in early intervention through the mental health program. She has also worked at Carver Center, Harris Elementary and Forrest Hunt Elementary.
She is just beginning her twelfth year at Ellenboro.
Conner said most of her days at school are good and one of the best times in her career was when school re-opened after Covid.
"To have children back in our classrooms looking at them face to face helping them through the struggles they were having academically, emotionally or any other way was absolutely amazing. There was a feeling of having family back after not seeing them for so long," she said.
Conner plans to continue her career at Ellenboro until retirement and at that time, she feels she will continue working part time in the special education field.