(Editor’s note: The Augusta Press will feature each of the five finalists for Richmond County’s Teacher of the Year. The winner will be announced at an Oct. 6 banquet.)
Teaching first grade at Warren Road Elementary School with her positive, upbeat attitude, Vanessa Patten has always had a love and eagerness for learning.
“Well, it started in third grade, I was one of those students who always finished whatever the teacher gave me early, and she was trying to get me to use my powers for good because I could entertain myself quietly,” she said. “So, one day she said, ‘well, I notice you’re really good at this; could you go help this student get better at it?’”
Peer tutoring was young Patten’s introduction to teaching and how good it felt to help someone else understand something difficult. She said her passion was later cemented when she volunteered in undergrad school to help adults learn to read.
“That sealed it for me. It was like, ‘yes, I know I’m going into the right profession now,’” she said.
Patten said she likes to keep her teaching high energy and motivational to keep her students’ attention and curiosity flowing.
“One of the things that I know is that what I bring to the table, as far as energy goes, that’s what they’re going to invest,” she said. “So, if I come and I’m low energy and I’m not excited about what we’re doing – they’re not going to be excited about it.”
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Patten’s class is known to sing, rhyme and engage in other fun activities to solidify the current material being taught.
“My style just has a lot of energy in it and it’s just all about students – what can I do to help the students by enlargement,” she said.
Teaching is more than just a profession or a job. To her, it is a necessary service for the future of the community.
“It is my contribution to society, because if I do my job and I do it well, I know that these students are going to be all right forever,” she said.
First grade teaches children important life skills that build them up to be successful in life such as informational writing and essential math capabilities.
“For example, in first grade, by the end of the year, they are going to be reading at least 60 words per minute with comprehension and they are going to be able to spell things. They are going to be able to do math, addition, subtraction, telling time, counting money,” she said. “They’re going to be able to write paragraphs – I’m talking narrative writings with a beginning, middle and end … leaving first grade with all of those skills, plus more, will set them up for success for the rest of their academic career.”
Patten has been an educator for 33 years and has been a part of the Richmond County School System for 26 of them. Prior to teaching, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from the University of South Carolina at Aiken and completed her master’s degree of education in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in reading from Grand Canyon University.
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Patten has also accomplished Professional Development School Master Teacher Status through Augusta University and underwent Teacher Support Training to mentor new teachers into the field.
She believes in teaching students the importance of responsibility in all that they do, and learning perseverance to handle tough situations both inside and outside the classroom.
“Perseverance is one of the character words that they learn first because we’re not going to give up. Everybody can learn and everybody might not be able to do it today, but we can come back tomorrow, and we’ll try again,” she said. “So that perseverance and responsibility because then they know, ‘hey I have control over whether or not I do this,’ and it’s a big deal in first grade.”
When students complain or want to give up, Patten said she pretends to pull out some ‘fake’ perseverance from her imaginary pocket to offer to her students to re-encourage them in their low times. After the student completes the task, Patten said the class often cheers because “perseverance wins again.”
She also said she believes students need to be taught to support one another so students feel as though their classroom is their family away from home.
“We celebrate together the good things. We’re sad together for the sad things, and we just helped to support each other,” she said. “That’s the only way you can do the academics, is if they know for sure that they’re going to be all right emotionally.”
Patten said she is thrilled, how after the pandemic, the state started requiring classes to make time in school for students to talk about how they feel in order to care for their social emotional well-being.
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“Yes, we were doing those things before, but it’s like we were using academic time to do social emotional stuff,” she said. “Now we got social emotional time where people can talk about how they feel and it’s a beautiful thing … that is the most positive thing that has come out of the pandemic – everyone now understands that children need social and emotional support.”
Patten said her most impactful teacher growing up was her first-grade teacher because she forced young Patten to think.
“She would ask me questions about why I knew something, and it’s like I wouldn’t know how I knew something – I just knew it,” she said. “By the time I hit third grade that kind of helped me to start thinking about my thinking. ‘How is this working? Why does my brain just know this?’”
As an educator, Patten said she wholeheartedly believes that everyone can learn given the right teacher and encouragement. She believes the “fire” for wanting to learn can either be dosed by a teacher or be kindled.
“I believe that every student can learn; it might not be at the same pace, or it might not be the same way, but everybody can learn. It is my job to figure out what the best way to help you learn it is, so with all my lessons I try to hit all the modalities,” she said. “My philosophy is to find out how you learn best to teach it to you so that you can grow, and even if you’re someone who is above level when I meet you – oh we’re going to push you higher. So, no one is to be stagnant in my world; I’m going to meet you where you are coming in and then I’m going to push you forward.”
Patten believes everyone should be taught to be lifelong learners by pushing others to always grow further no matter their starting level. Her goal is to make learning so enjoyable for children to where her students no longer notice they are even learning.
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“What you do is you start slow and get them hooked on success,” she said. “Then you become proud of your growth and next thing you know you’re hooked on success and you’re reading; you can’t stop yourself even if you want to because you love it. That is my goal.”
In five to ten years, Patten said she hopes to continue teaching students in the classroom, helping mold students “one mind at a time.”
The winner of Richmond County’s Teacher of the Year award will be announced on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center, 2 10th St.
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
