By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
Andrew Smith was a student at South Rowan High School when biology teacher Tonya Brinegar-German told him he would end up being a teacher.
“I always said, ‘I will be a doctor,’ ” he recalled. ” ‘I will not be a teacher. I am not going to Wake Forest to be a teacher.’ ”
Smith was in an organic chemistry class at Wake one day when he realized how meaningful it would be to teach.
“I called her immediately afterward and said, ‘I think I want to teach,’ ” he said. “You could tell by her voice she was excited …
“She put that seed in my mind, and I decided to do it.”
Alexis Jennings was also in college when she decided to become a teacher.
“It was actually my first year at Livingstone College,” she said. “I was offered a full academic scholarship in the teaching profession and I took it. I know this is what I want to do.”
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Smith and Jennings are among 41 first-year teachers in the Rowan-Salisbury School System who participated in the New Teacher Orientation Week Aug. 10-14.
Susan Heaggans, beginning teacher coordinator for the school system, said many businesses in the community sponsored food and donated supplies and door prizes to give to new teachers throughout the week.
“Although our number of beginning teachers was lower than the previous year,” she said, “the quality was definitely present. The ‘best and the brightest’ are ready to embark on a new school year and they are thoroughly prepared to inspire, challenge and empower students to reach their highest potential. …
“We wish them all a wonderful school year.”
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Smith included memorabilia from his alma mater, Wake Forest University, in the decor for his biology classroom at East Rowan High School along with colorful biology posters he made himself. He prepared two aquariums last Thursday and plans to add a 55-gallon one at some point.
A Rowan County native, Smith graduated from South Rowan High School in 2004. “I had a wonderful experience there,” he said.
As a freshman at Wake Forest, Smith said he applied for an resident adviser position and was deferred to a waiting list. “My biggest inspiration is this,” he said. “If life doesn’t go as planned, it really motivates me to do something else.”
So when he saw a university poster advertising tryouts for a Demon Deacon mascot, Smith says he thought to himself, “That would be really cool.”
The tryout lasted six hours. “You danced around and you danced to music and choreographed and stuff.”
Smith was selected for the position and remained a mascot for the next four years.
The next day, he received a call from the Residential Adviser Committee offering him a position, so he did both. “But had it not happened in that order,” he said, “I would not have been the mascot.”
As part of his graduate program for a master’s in education, Smith worked with the Center for Excellence in Research Teaching and Learning for at-risk students. One hundred percent of the students passed, he said, “which is unheard of for the at-risk students we had.”
During his freshman and sophomore years at Wake Forest, Smith worked with NASA and the medical school’s OB/GYN department doing research on birth in space. “We sent rats to space,” he said.
Smith said the research determined that at least for rats, it is very easy to give birth in space. “It happens almost just as naturally as it does on earth,” he said. “The next step will be to send a larger organism and see how it does.”
He majored in biology and minored in secondary education.
“I definitely think I’ll be in education my entire life,” Smith said. “I’m putting into the 401(k) because I plan to be here.”
When he decided to switch from pre-med to biology, Smith said he received some puzzled looks from his friends. They were like, “Why teaching?” he recalled. “I said, ‘Why not teaching? You can’t influence as many people any other way.’ ”
Smith said he is concerned that longtime teachers haven’t received enough respect and wants to help change the image of teaching. “We really need people who are inspired to come into the classrooms and be professional and have a lot of vigor and show students that being a teacher is a respectable profession.”
Teachers need to be a master of the subjects they teach, he said, and passionate about what they’re doing. It’s also important to build strong relationships with students and attend their events, have parental contact and be involved in the community. “We get the summers off but we can use that time to better our community.”
The son of Crystal and Curt Smith of China Grove, Smith is currently renovating his grandmother’s home in Kannapolis, where he plans to live.
He is a Deacon Club member and attends all the Wake Forest games. Having served as a drum major at South Rowan, he will be helping with the East Rowan Marching Band.
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Jennings spent last Wednesday working on a massive bulletin board for her fifth-graders and arranged chairs and desks in her classroom. It took a lot of work to get everything in order, but her excitement about the start of school kept her working steadily.
Jennings is a familiar face at Isenberg, having started working there in January as a Title I tutor and transferring in April to an interim second-grade teacher position. She’s excited about teaching older students and has been reviewing the fifth-grade curriculum in preparation for the start of school.
With the school system cutting teachers’ supplements for school supplies, Jennings said she took advantage of school supply giveaways at Staples, Office Depot and Just the Thing.
“I was at Staples at about 7:50 before it opened at 9 a.m.,” she said. “Then from Staples, I went to Office Depot and from there to Just the Thing. There were lines everywhere.”
A native of Bridgeport, Conn., where some of her family still lives, Jennings did her student teaching at Millbridge Elementary. She joined the Student North Carolina Association of Educators at Livingstone, serving as president and vice president. “We went to workshops and did things on campus,” she said. “It just gave us an overview of the profession.”
Jennings said she has planned a lot of hands-on activities for her students and believes her greatest offering as a teacher is her understanding nature.
“I realize that students have different learning styles and needs and that I need to adapt to them,” she said. “They don’t have to adapt to me.”
Contact Kathy Chaffin at704-797-4249,