THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130339
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINFALL LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
Tracy M. Gregory's classroom was alive with third-graders tittering about punctuation.
The subject of commas and quotation marks had been transformed into a contest among teams of children that hustled to assemble sentence components printed on poster board and hold them up in proper order for Gregory to judge.
She had introduced quotations by leading the children in a game of ``Simon says,'' and explaining how to punctuate a person's statement. Then she tied the subject together by saying quotation marks would have helped a student's ``super'' story that she read at the beginning of class.
It was 10:30 a.m. Monday, and Gregory was hard at work despite a stunning announcement two hours earlier.
The state's top education official had made a surprise visit to Perquimans Central Elementary School to announce that Gregory has won a $25,000 prize from the Milken Family Foundation in California.
Gregory, 28, in her third year of teaching, was one of five award recipients in North Carolina, and one of 150 across the country.
``It's still a shock to me, I'll tell you,'' Gregory said a few minutes after leaving the assembly where her colleagues and students also heard the surprise announcement. ``I could not get up. I felt like somebody had laid bricks on my leg.''
In keeping with the delivery procedure used for four other educators last week, State Superintendent Bob Etheridge asked local officials to call the meeting without explaining it.
``First time we've ever had an assembly like that that was kept a secret,'' said Principal Gary Stubbins, who has been a principal in Perquimans County for 24 years. ``All the teachers here were real excited for Tracy. She does an excellent job.''
Etheridge had built suspense by slowly describing the award, highlighting a free trip to California and the $25,000 prize to a rising chorus of oohs and aahs from the 150 third-graders seated on the floor before him.
He sustained the tension by pointing to visiting Elizabeth City State University Chancellor Jimmy R. Jenkins and noting that the prize winner was an ECSU graduate, one of nine at the school.
``You have to do that, when you can,'' Etheridge said. ``It's one of those things that the children add to it.
``It's really been fun to see educators really be treated in a very special way.''
The award comes from a 12-year-old foundation set up by Michael Milken, who more recently served two years in federal prison and paid more than $1 billion in fines for breaking federal securities laws.
This is the first year North Carolina has participated in the foundation's National Educator Awards, and Etheridge told the Associated Press last week that he deliberated for a year before deciding it was all right for the state to accept money from the Milken foundation.
The program's goal is to ``give public recognition and financial reward to outstanding K-12 educators,'' according to a release from the state Department of Public Instruction. Only elementary teachers and principals were recognized this year.
Winners were nominated anonymously and chosen by a panel that Etheridge appointed.
Gregory will receive her cash award at an expenses-paid national education conference in Los Angeles in May, officials said. She will also be invited to a state luncheon in Raleigh Oct. 19.
Gregory's colleagues lauded her skill and technique after the announcement Monday.
``She's wonderful,'' said Karen Booker, a physical education teacher.
Officials said Gregory's classes received the highest end-of-grade test scores for Perquimans County in the last two years. Gregory also leads workshops for Perquimans parents.
``It's just her pleasing personality,'' Stubbins said. ``Kids just want to be in her classroom. Parents want kids to be in her classroom.''
Gregory's demeanor with her children makes it easy to see why. Buoyant and energetic, she spreads praise around the classroom like syrup on a pancake and condemns wrongdoing with a forklike stab from her eyes. She can set the children free with a ``ready, set, go'' and retrieve their attention by looking for the ``quickest, quietest, cleanest table.''
``I think the children don't care what I know until they know that I care,'' Gregory said, adding that none of her 26 students learns in exactly the same way.
``I just love children. I have a lot of patience with them. When I actually got my own classroom, it was scary. But it was a good scary.''
Born and raised in Elizabeth City, Gregory was a good student and a cheerleader at Northeastern High School. She graduated from ECSU two years ago and is working toward a master's degree through an East Carolina University program on the ECSU campus.
She lives in Elizabeth City with her husband and their 5-year-old son, Cody.
``I've always wanted to teach, and I worked hard in college,'' Gregory said. ``When I got this job it was just a godsend.
``I just enjoy it. When you get up in the morning and you want to go there, it makes a difference.'' by CNB