{"id":28718,"date":"2019-10-25T12:08:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T16:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=28718"},"modified":"2019-11-22T09:18:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T14:18:19","slug":"utc-graduate-earns-teacher-of-the-year-award-and-20-grand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2019\/10\/utc-graduate-earns-teacher-of-the-year-award-and-20-grand\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-creator of mobile classroom, Colleen Ryan selected as Toyota Family Teacher of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

For more information about the Passage, email: info@thepassage423.org<\/h4>\n
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The Passage has books, laptops, desks and learning activities onboard.<\/p><\/div>\n

Colleen Ryan thought it was just a routine school assembly in the cafeteria at Rivermont Elementary.<\/p>\n

The kindergarten teacher was told the school was being honored for reaching a Level 5 rating, the highest rank of academic growth in the Hamilton County school system. But the assembly wasn\u2019t for that accomplishment. She was told a big ol\u2019 fib.<\/p>\n

Ryan, who graduated from UTC in 2015, had been selected as Toyota Family Teacher of the Year for 2019, an award open to teachers across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u201cWhat!? I was shocked; I was stunned. I had absolutely no clue,\u201d she recalls. \u201cMy principal was in on it; everyone was in on it except me,\u201d recalls Ryan, a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in 2015.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 5, she will be honored at the annual National Center for Families Learning conference in Louisville, Ky.<\/p>\n

She received the award in part because of the Passage, a retired school bus that she and her partner, Brittany Harris, area learning coach for Harrison Bay Vocational Center who earned both her bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees at UTC, \"\"transformed into a classroom on wheels. Since November 2016, they take the bus to homes or community centers every Saturday, bringing desks, computers and learning materials to students and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe service families every Saturday for 20 to 30 minutes for each family, and it\u2019s just a time for us to build relationships and teach strategies to parents and students,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

In fact, it was Harris who nominated Ryan for Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cColleen is an overachiever that goes the extra mile for her community,\u201d Harris says. \u201cShe deserved the award for her dedication, perseverance, and innovation. Colleen found a challenge and created action steps, that provides families with the resources and knowledge needed to achieve excellence.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a beacon of light for her school and community, which strengthens and guides future leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with students from kindergarten to fifth grade, they focus on what Ryan calls \u201cbubble students.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not high-achieving but also they\u2019re not extremely low. These students get looked over a lot of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often, these students also have some behavior issues in class, sometimes reported several times a week for the way they act. But, in some cases, that\u2019s changed since the Passage drove into the picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to see growth, behavior growth,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cStudents that were getting referrals five to seven times a week are now down to about two.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair usually see two to three families a week for four weeks and have worked with about 30 families, she says. They\u2019ve also conducted programs for kids without their families at community centers. \u201cSo we\u2019ve probably serviced about 175 students,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Harris says that they knew that involving the parents was a critical piece of the puzzle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew the parents are a child\u2019s first teacher,\u201d she says. \u201cTherefore, we thought if we built a partnership with parents, this would create empowerment within the family.<\/p>\n

Through the Passage, Ryan says she has discovered that, when it comes to reaching a student, you first must develop a relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a relationship, they\u2019re not going to be able to want to learn and be excited to learn,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have to make that connection, even if it\u2019s about a book or a math problem or a science experiment. You have to make those connections, so they are excited and eager to keep continue learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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