THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604120300
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 205 lines
FOR 13 KINDERGARTNERS at Simonsdale Elementary School last Tuesday morning, the story of ``The Little Red Hen'' was slowly turning into a science lesson.
``What are some things the little red hen needed for her seeds of wheat to grow tall?'' asked teacher Tonita B. Watts after reading the story aloud.
``Water,'' said Michael Reardon, 5, sitting with his fellow classmates on a rug in front of Watts.
``The sun shining down on it,'' Andrew Miltier, 5, volunteered.
``Food,'' said Joshua Tatum, 6.
``And what's that special food called that you put on plants to make them grow better?'' the teacher asked Brandon Balestino.
``Fertilizer,'' the 6-year-old responded matter-of-factly.
To Watts, recently named the city's Teacher of the Year, ``The Little Red Hen'' was more than a reading lesson set aside from 10 to 10:50 a.m. It was an opportunity for integrated teaching.
``If I'm teaching reading, I'm also teaching language, social studies, science,'' Watts said.
But to her students, it was merely a special treat - a bedtime story without having to go to bed.
A 23-year teaching veteran, Watts was named the city's top teacher after colleagues at Simonsdale Elementary first selected her as a teacher of the year for the school. She also took top honors among all elementary school teachers in Portsmouth.
``She's a very dynamic teacher,'' says Simonsdale principal Nancy Dunn.
Watts started her teaching career in Portsmouth in the fall of 1973 and has been teaching kindergarten in the city ever since.
``I have a lot of parents who request me. I have taught a lot of siblings of children that I have taught previously . . . ,'' says Watts, who is 43.
``And I am teaching a child of a child I taught. That's the first time that's happened!''
She earned her degree in early childhood education in 1973 at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. She also holds a master's in education, earned at Old Dominion University in 1979.
``Kindergarten is my passion because I think that's really where learning and a love for school begins. That's usually a child's first experience in a formal school setting.''
Growing up in Albemarle, N.C., Watts was the daughter of an elementary school principal.
``That's one reason I went into teaching because education has always been a part of my background.
``I can remember as a little girl at the age of 6 playing school. And I know every child plays school, but I really played school!''
Her desire to teach also was driven by the fact that she always liked school. That's why it's extremely important to Watts that her students enjoy class, too.
``If the children are happy and having fun, then it really makes it exciting for me, and it makes me feel like I'm doing what I need to do to help them get the most from that educational moment that they can get.''
Watts believes that her 17 students enjoy the majority of their six-hour day with her. Their favorite activity, she says, is working on the classroom computer.
``The only part of the day they probably don't like is rest, to be quite honest with you.''
Like her students, Watts says she looks forward to every new day as one of three kindergarten teachers at Simonsdale Elementary.
``I think the reason I really like kindergarten is because it's so diversified. We can do so many different things in so much of a fun way that it makes it enjoyable.''
One of Watts' former students, Lindsay Richardson, 13, agrees.
``She was a fun teacher, and she made learning fun,'' says Lindsay, now an eighth-grader at Western Branch Middle School.
She was a student of Watts' in 1988, when she and her family lived in the Hodges Manor section of Portsmouth.
``Once when we were walking down the hall, her son came by and I accidentally stepped on his book-bag string,'' Lindsay recalls.
``I fell and busted my chin open - and we've remained friends ever since.''
Watts says she enjoys keeping up with former students.
``When you've taught for 23 years, you might not be able to remember their names. But when you see them and they come up and ask, `How are you doing?' and they come to see you at school, it's a really good feeling.
``You feel like you've done your job and you've made them comfortable with themselves and helped them understand what school's all about.''
Outside the classroom, Watts spends about two and a half hours a night preparing for the next day's lessons.
Working from a TV tray in the den of her River Walk home in Chesapeake, she prepares lesson plans, organizes paperwork and makes follow-up phone calls to parents.
``I plan a week in advance. I'm real organized, and I can't go in on a Monday wondering what I'm going to do. I have to know ahead of time.''
Friday and Saturday nights, however, belong to her family. Husband William manages a warehouse in Chesapeake. Son Travis, 16, is a sophomore at Oscar Smith High School.
``I try not to do anything on those two nights,'' Watts says. ``I try to leave that time for my family. And then on Sunday nights, I start planning again.''
By the time Watts' students leave her at the end of the school year, she says, they should have an understanding of basic math concepts, letters and sounds, what print is, how letters are put together to form words and what reading involves.
``As long as they understand the concept behind reading - that sentences have to make sense, that sentences are words put together in a special way, that sentences have to have a period at the end, that they have to have a capital letter at the beginning - then the students are getting a lot of the foundation for language and learning.''
But just as important, Watts' students also will start the first grade with a keen sense of the difference between right and wrong.
``I am a very strong disciplinarian. I believe that every child must know their limits. Children must have structure.''
Setting limits and boundaries for students from the very beginning is the best advice Watts ever got as a new teacher, she says. It was given to her by a now-retired second-grade teacher, Lear Trice. Twenty-two years later, Watts' firm belief in that advice is reflected on hand-written posters hanging throughout her classroom:
Be courteous.
Be fair.
Take turns.
Don't push.
Walk, don't run.
Always say please and thank you.
``If they don't have the rules,'' Watts says, ``you can't get to anything else - until they understand what the rules are.''
For teachers new to the profession, Watts has her own advice.
``Be organized. You have to be organized and know what you're going to do. You can't go in today and decide today what you're going to do. So that's the first thing. If you're organized, it will take a lot of the stress off of you.
``The other thing is you have to love children, especially if you're working with young children.''
One of the most difficult obstacles Watts had to overcome in her 23-year career, she says, was the nervousness she felt in the very beginning.
``But I think all new teachers feel that way - even though you've been to college and you've done your student teaching. When you're put in that classroom by yourself and everything is dependent upon you, it's a whole new ball game.''
Watts says that one of her strongest skills is relating to parents, especially those who are single because she, too, was once a single parent.
``I understand how they feel - the stresses, the frustration. I can understand where they're coming from because I've been there, too.''
She also prides herself on her ability to get parents involved in their children's learning.
``Part of my job as a teacher is to help parents figure out ways that they can spend quality time with their children.
``They can do things that will be fun and will help reinforce the things that we're doing at school. Parents are an equal partner with me in the learning process.
``Because, after all, parents are the first teachers that children have.'' MEMO: TEACHER HONORS
In addition to being honored as the 1996-97 Portsmouth Public Schools
Teacher of the Year, Tonita B. Watts of Simonsdale Elementary also was
named Elementary School Teacher of the Year.
David Cornelius of Churchland Middle was selected as Portsmouth's
Middle School Teacher of the Year.
Craig Robertson of Churchland High was selected as Portsmouth's High
School Teacher of the Year.
Teacher of the Year nominees for each school included:
Brighton Elementary - Katie S. Washington
Churchland Academy - Barbara S. Ellis
Churchland Elementary - Carrie W. Pebbles
Churchland Primary and Intermediate - Kathy M. Parker
S.H. Clarke Academy - Laural J. Armstrong
Cradock Middle School - Fiona C. Nichols
DAC Center - Carol Wiers
Douglass Park Elementary - Paula F. Beckett
Emily N. Spong Elementary - Norma M. Clark
Highland-Biltmore Elementary - Mary Jo Coley
Hodges Manor Elementary - Pamalin C. Walton
Hunt-Mapp Middle School - Mary Y. Robinson
James Hurst Elementary - Sharon W. Moore
John Tyler Elementary - Lelia Anderson-Dixon
Lakeview Elementary - Sabrina G. Coleman
Mount Hermon Elementary - Angela S. Griffin
New Directions Center - Sandra Smith-Jones
Norcom High School - Judy D. Johnson
Olive Branch Elementary - Mary A. McFadden
Park View Elementary - Robin D. McNeil
Port Norfolk Elementary - Kim H. Smith
Shea Terrace Elementary - Anita M. Smith
Waters Middle School - Jeffrey A. Garris
Westhaven Elementary - Angellia Moore
Wilson High School - Timothy E. Johnson ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by MARK MITCHELL
Tonita Watts...and Mark Burbage...
Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
Using her award-winning skills, kindergarten teacher Tonita B. Watts
turns the story of ``The Little Red Hen'' into an interesting
science lesson.
Prerequisite for teaching: ``. . . You have to love children,
especially if you're working with young children,'' Watts says.
ABOVE: Tonita Watts gives individual attention to Joshua Tatum in
the classroom at Simonsdale Elementary.
AT RIGHT: At home in the River Walk area of Chesapeake, Watts works
on lesson plans in her den each night. She says she has to know what
she's going to do ahead of time.
by CNB