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Hartselle Enquirer

Teachers of the year

Morgan County Supt. Bill Hopkins Jr. surprises Kathleen Larsen as Secondary Teacher of the Year. | Randy Garrison
Morgan County Supt. Bill Hopkins Jr. surprises Kathleen Larsen as Secondary Teacher of the Year. | Randy Garrison

Morgan County honors teachers and support person

Randy Garrison

Hartselle Enquirer

 

Last Fri., Jan 15, three Morgan County Board of Education employees had a huge surprise at their respective schools. The Secondary and Elementary Teachers of the Year and the Support Person of the Year were announced and recognized.  A large black Hummer limousine pulled up to each school and Superintendent Bill Hopkins Jr., bearing a bouquet of flowers and balloons, walked into their room, and made the announcement of their selection in front of their students. Patrick Patterson, Dr. Cherie Humphries, Alana Tew and Connie Goode also accompanied Hopkins to pick up each winner.

Hopkins announced that a limo was waiting to take them to lunch and they would have the rest of the day off.

After photos were taken and congratulations from students and teachers alike, the limo made the rounds to all three schools, finally arriving at Oh! Bryans in Hartselle. All three winners were treated to lunch courtesy of  Oh! Bryans. After lunch, the limo delivered the winners back to their respective schools. From the announcements to the trip back all three had a great day.

From the congratulations of their fellow teachers and co-workers and kind words from each principal, it was evident all three were well deserving of their recognition.

Also true to their dedication to their profession and concern for their students, each winner asked “what about my kids” when they were told to get their coats and purses and head to the limo.

GE of Decatur, a Partner in Education for the system, provided the limo for the winners.

 

Larsen Morgan

County’s Secondary Teacher of the Year

 

While she may have not won the lottery earlier in the week, the look on Kathleen Larsen’s face when Superintendent Bill Hopkins Jr. told her she was the Secondary Teacher of the Year, was one of pure shock and surprise.

Larsen has been at Brewer High School for 13 years where she teaches grades 9-12 Honors English. She also teaches dual enrollment with Wallace State Community College.

While she is a native Floridian, Larsen has lived in Alabama for 30 years.

She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Middle Tennessee State and also holds a Master’s in Teaching from Rollins College.

Larsen taught in Florida prior to a family move to Alabama in 1986. She spent several years raising her son Justin, an Austin High graduate who now lives in Missouri.

She also taught at Decatur High School, Decatur Heritage and at the Huntsville campus of Calhoun College before coming to Brewer in 2003.

Larsen also had a 7-year opera career as a dramatic soprano. She also sang with the Huntsville Opera Theatre and did theatre there as well. She was also involved with the Decatur Civic Chorus and Bank St. Players.

She is a member of Central Baptist Church of Decatur, loves gardening and volunteering through the Volunteer Center of Morgan County.

In addition to teaching at Brewer, she also sponsors the National Honor Society. She wants to inspire her students to be deeply involved in community service. Brewer students have worked with Toys for Tots, Read Across America and also read to elementary and junior high students at other schools in the system.

Her favorite part of teaching is being able to help students apply knowledge in order to learn. She loves to see the “light bulb moment” in her students. She loves creating project-based activities. She feels all students can be involved according to their abilities. Larsen also enjoys taking an idea and making it fit to what each student needs. “So many things can be learned by broadening a student’s horizons. This type of learning does not happen when you are just teaching to a test,” Larsen commented.

Larsen was also named Brewer High School’s Teacher of the Year for 2015-2016.

 

Owens is Elementary Teacher of the Year

 

Paula Owens could not hold back her emotions as tears quickly formed when Superintendent Hopkins told her she was the Elementary Teacher of the Year. The Falkville Elementary 4th and 5th grade science teacher is in year 12 of her teaching career.

Owns is a 1987 graduate of Brewer High School who spent 15 years as a Medical Lab Technologist before entering teaching. She was working third shift and every other weekend and holiday at Parkway in Decatur. She also taught professional development at the hospital, when a friend told her she should be a teacher.

So she asked God to close the door at her current job if she was supposed to move on and become a teacher.

She began her journey to becoming a teacher while working full time and going to school full time. She knew she was moving in the right direction because she felt a sense of peace and there was not a struggle as a mom, with her job or even at school.

Owens received her B.S. in Education from Athens State College and is currently working on her masters at the University of West Alabama.

She credits her dad, Floyd McNutt for stressing the importance and value of education to his kids. Her dad grew up as a sharecropper and only had a 7th grade education. When it was time to work the fields, school was not a priority and he fell behind in school and finally quit school altogether. He has worked hard all of his life and wanted his kids to have a better life and their education was one of he and his wife’s priorities for their children. Her mother passed away in 2014.

Owens husband John works for U.S. Steel in Birmingham. They have three daughters, Hillary, 24, who works for Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Heather, 18, a Calhoun student and Hailey her youngest is a seventh grader at Falkville who plays basketball and softball.

Owens favorite part of teaching is getting her students excited about learning. She knows when they are smiling they are engaged. She teaches with a mixture of hands on learning. She believes the days of rote memorization for tests are gone. She is also proud to have the only science lab in the county. She wants to expose her students to things they would not have in the regular classroom. She believes she is where she needs to be. The kids know this as well and love their teacher, they formed two lines as she walked down the sidewalk and cheered for her as she walked to the limo.

Her hobbies are following her kids around. She attends Nature’s Trail Church in Priceville and loves her church. Most of her free time is spent at sports practices and games.

 

Jewellson chosen as Support Person of the Year

 

“She has a servant’s heart”  were the words Sparkman School Principal Layne Dillard used in describing Darlene Jewellson. She shows compassion, dedication and does selfless acts for each child who comes into her cafeteria.

Dillard mentioned that Jewellson never gets upset when the children rush into the cafeteria. She knows some of them may have not eaten since the day before and are simply hungry. She also never complains about spills and even seems to count it as a joy to help the kids.

Jewellson has been the Child Nutrition Manager at  Sparkman for three years. She began with the school system in 1993, working at Lacey’s Spring for six years before moving to Sparkman in 1997.

She lives on Black Rd. in Somerville and has three children. Her son, age 31, lives in Tennessee, one daughter, age 29 lives in Georgia and her youngest daughter, 28 lives in Decatur. She also has two grandsons ages 6 and 7 months and one on the way. Her son-in-law is in the military at Ft. Stewart and she proudly wears a T-shirt showing her support for the military, especially red on Fridays. Jewellson was born in Arab but grew up in the Neel community of Morgan County.

She loves her kids and the best part of her job is cooking for them. She always wants to make sure they have something good to eat.

She also says she has great co-workers and called them all by name. Denise Lambert, Leigh Ann Adcock, Jessica Crawford and Darlene Grantland all work in the cafeteria at Sparkman. Jewellson also says she enjoys working with her great principal Layne Dillard and assistant principal Mr. Johnson.

Jewellson enjoys walking, playing with her grandchildren and also likes to crochet.

She attends Union Church of Christ in Somerville. She cooks for the sick or those who have lost loved ones and teaches baby Bible classes from birth to two years every Sunday.

Her favorite TV show is NCIS and her favorite reading is the Bible.

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