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Alive In The Classroom!
Teacher Of Year Brings Enthusiasm, Energy To Role
BY SUSAN USHKR
Don't ever try fencing in May Moorc.While oth
ers describe her as articulate, outspoken, ener
getic and dedicated, Brunswick County's new
Teacher of the Year describes herself as a "gcncralist"
and "a lifelong learner," with broad-ranging interests
from politics to SCUBA diving.
The combination has paid off in the classroom with
a flexibility and enthusiasm that her students appreciate
and thrive on, and won her the respect of her peers.
Along the way she has also gained a reputation, she
says, of being somewhat "controversial" because she
doesn't hesitate to speak up for what she believes when
it comes to education.
Moore was stunned and momentarily moved to tears
when notified last Wednesday evening by central office
administrator Freeman Gausc that a panel had choscn
her from among 11 nominees as Brunswick County's
Teacher of the Year. She will represent Brunswick
County next spring in regional competition.
She said the designation was earned this year by
Brunswick County teachers as a whole, that it's an in
dication "we've got some great things going on over
all."
"It's not me," she insisted. "I am not the best
teacher."
During her 18 years in the classroom Moore's taught
communications, math, remedial reading, social studies
and science, and taught at the elementary, middle and
high school levels.
She prefers to change grade level, or subject, every
few years, "otherwise you become stale, stagnant," she
said. She never teaches a course the same way twice,
adding new materials, trying new approaches, seeing
what works with each group of students.
"Middlcrs," youngsters in sixth through eighth
grade, arc her favorite age level to teach, perhaps be
cause of the challenge they represent as "neither fish
nor fowl, adult or child."
Her additional responsibilities as a teacher have in
cluded serving on the superintendent's teacher advisory
council, the county's performance-based accountability
plan committee, and roles as mentor, team leader,
grade chairman and effective teacher trainer, among
others.
One of the professional efforts of which she is
proudest was a teacher cadet peer tutoring and leader
ship program she initiated at South Brunswick Middle,
using a Hilda Maehling Fellowship grant. "You could
just sec the children blossom," she said.
Last Thursday her students didn't know Moore had
been named Teacher of the Year, that didn't stop them
from singing her praises as a teacher who delivers, a
teacher who has earned their respect.
That day they were learning about chance and prob
ability, and eagerly applying their skills to several
games.
"We can learn a lot from Mrs. Moore," Julie Willetts
observed. "She makes it fun to lcam."
Added Synthia Reynolds, "She doesn't throw it to
gether like most teachers and she takes her time and
explains."
Ryan Hcwctt hasn't always found math easy, but
changed his mind this year. "I like it. She teaches it in a
way that makes it easy."
His table partner, Keith Bowling, especially liked us
ing manipulatives when the class studied geometric
figures because "we got to make cones and cylinders."
Students like these are why she teaches.
"I love dealing with young people and seeing their
eyes light up when they understand something," said
Moore.
Her aim in the classroom is to motivate youngsters,
that education is learning, not teaching. "I try to bring
the idea into the classroom that people lcam when they
believe they can and when they believe in themselves."
While her background is in language arts, she enjoys
STAff PHOTO BY SUSAN USHER
TEACHER OF THE YEAR May \V. Moore leaves her seventh grade classroom at South Brunswick Middle School each day "exhausted, but never
bored."
(caching malh. The subjects share the opportunity to
help students learn to think and reason, to move be
tween the concrete and the abstract.
Moore says that while she never meant to teach, she
must have been meant to teach, because circumstances
have worked time and again to bring her back to the
classroom.
The Oxford native was a National Merit Scholar at
Duke University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1964.
She had a husband, a child, a bachelor of arts in history
and plans to return to graduate or law school as soon as
possible, but no teaching ccrtificatc.
That fall, with no credentials, she accepted a teach
ing job here in Brunswick County, her then-husband's
home community. At the end of that year, she was
pregnant with her second child. She didn't return to the
classroom then, and became involved in community is
sues, working toward successful passage of the bond
issue that financed the last major round of school con
struction in Brunswick County more than 20 years ago.
In 1970 she was elected to the school board. Within
the week that followed the sitting board resigned, she
was sworn in, and her third child and only son, Gibson,
was bom.
She eventually returned to education as a carccr, run
ning Southeastern Community College's night program
in Brunswick County two years and earning her teach
ing certification in language arts and social studies at
the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
By 1976 she was back in the classroom and loving
it. In 1979, as a single mother with three school-age
children, she relocated temporarily to Chapel Hill,
where she earned a master's degree in reading and lan
guage arts and her principal's certificate before return
ing. It's the one credential Moore hasn't been given the
opportunity to use in the local school system.
A common concern weaves like a thread over the
years through her roles as parent, community leader
and teacher continuous concern about the quality of
public education and about the teaching profession.
She has been and is a strong advocate for excellence in
both.
Before Moore was named South Brunswick
Middle's Teacher of the Year, acting principal and
Assistant Superintendent Mose Lewis wrote a letter
recommending her consideration for an administrative
post. Along with praising her ability as an cducator and
leader, he said that during the 11 years he has known
her, Moore has been "an outspoken spokesman for ex
cellence in education."
After 12 years of leadership in the North Carolina
Association for Educators, including stints as local and
district president, Moore has stepped back a litdc. But
she continues to fight for those issues about which she
feels strongly, including better pay. She's been there,
trying to raise a family on a teacher's salary.
Moore also finds the energy to pursue other inter
ests. Since 1983 she's served on the Yaupon Beach
governing board and has been mayor since 1987. She
chaired her Democratic precinct for five years, serves
on the Oak Island Library Boosters Grant Writing
Committee and teaches church school at St. Philip's
Episcopal.
She draws on that energy, enthusiasm and knowl
edge in the classroom as she interacts with students.
Her classes are typically lively, with plenty of hands-on
activities, student discussion and interaction.
"It's never dull," she said. "I'm exhausted every day,
but I'm never bored...I'll teach as long as I enjoy it,
and I really do love it."
Students Kick The Habit
-With A Little Help From Their Friend
BY LYNN CARLSON
It's Week Number 8, and though it hasn't been easy.
Amy Hutchins has managed to kick a three-year,
two-pack-a-day cigarette habit?with just a little
backsliding here and there.
The jitters and irritability only lasted a few days. But
now there's the infinite process of avoiding temptation,
staying committed and dealing with the fact that the
taste for tobacco will linger for months or even years af
ter the physical withdrawal is over.
Amy didn't go cold turkey. It was more like "warm
chicken" with the help of a dedicated health educator
and some strong support from family and friends.
First, she set a quit date. Then she began "brand-fad
ing," smoking increasingly milder low-tar cigarettes un
til she gave up early bccause the Carltons tasted so aw
ful compared to the Marlboros which had been her
brand for so long.
Then came the important process of changing her dai
ly routine to try to eliminate the behavioral "triggers"
which remind smokers to smoke. She got rid of her ash
trays and moved the bedside table where she normally
kept the pack she automatically had reached for each
day upon awakening.
She learned how to control her urges by closing her
eyes, thinking pleasant thoughts, and taking carefully
controlled breaths.
She got the driver to start dropping her off a half
block ahead of her house, changing the daily route on
which she always used to smoke a cigarette on the walk
home from the school bus.
The school bus? That's right Amy is an eighth-grader
at Shalloue Middle School. The pretty 15-year-old
blonde is proud that she quit, but insists that her case is
not at all unusual. She knows lots of kids who started
smoking at 7; she refers to an 8-year-old in her neigh
borhood "who can really bum 'em down."
Amy, worrying a little about her morning cough and
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SMfF PHOTO BY LYNN CAILSON
KICKING THE HABIT isn't so bail with the help of peers and a plan, says Amy Hutchins (right). She
is shown with Jan Reichenbach, health educator for the Brunswick County Health Department.
occasional shortness of brcaih during exercise, joined educator with the Brunswick County Department of
the smoking cessation classes offered at Shallottc Health.
Middle School and taught by Jan Reichenbach, health "People don't realize how hard it is for kids to quit,"
Reichenbach said. "They'll be told, 'Well, it shouldn't
be hard for you to quit because you haven't been smok
ing that long. They have physical withdrawal symptoms
just like adults, plus they have this incredible peer pres
sure and lots of stress in their lives from all the changes
they're going through."
Amy is the most dedicated of 18 students who came
to Reichenbach's program, which has whittled itself
down to 6 "pretty committed" would-be nonsmokcrs.
They're not there because they got caught?the course is
strictly voluntary?and they have parental consent to at
tend.
Many, like Amy, have been allowed to smoke at home
in front of parents who just didn't want them sneaking
around. Amy's mom, a nonsmokcr, was solidly behind
her decision to quit, and exiled the smokers in their
household to the outdoors. She credits her mother's sup
port and encouragement?along with her boyfriend's
and her best friend's?for much of her success so far.
There have been times when temptation got the better
of her, but Amy keeps forging ahead. That's the beauty
of working with adolescents, Reichenbach says. Their
peer pressure may be intense, but they have an uncanny
ability not to let their slip-ups derail them.
Despite surgeon general's warnings and schools' anti
smoking curricula, the pressure to start and keep smok
ing is almost everywhere kids look. Amy thinks there
should be tighter controls on advertising tobacco prod
ucts. She and all of her friends know how to collect
"cash points" to gel free merchandise with proof of ciga
rette purchases. They even pre-arrange to wear their
Camel T-shirts or their Marlboro hats on the same day.
"There's a lot going on in these kids' lives," says
Rcichenbach, whose warmth, accessibility and and non
judgmental attitude make it possible for her to reach
these young smokers.
"I hope every one of them knows how proud I am of
them. I hope they realize how they've changed their
lives, and that they're in charge."