Photo Credit: Career Cruising[/caption]Orange High’s teacher assistant (TA) program, which gave students the chance to help out a teacher during a class period, has been suspended by the administration until further notice due to a lack of accountability. The program may be brought back in “a year from now, two years from now, we don’t know,” according to OHS Principal Jason Johnson. Johnson said the school would have to “have some accountability measures in place” before the program could come back.
The administration considered other options before deciding to end the program. “We thought about doing an independent study where teachers would write up a course for a TA and a TA would follow those guidelines, but I felt like even that was too loose,” Johnson stated. Seniors signed up to be teacher assistants will have the course removed from their schedules.
English teacher Brooke Connor said she is “really sad that we will no longer have the TA program.” Although there were issues with the program, she would have liked the school to “have tried some other solutions instead of just overhauling” it. Some possible solutions were “a 15-minute meeting with teachers to make sure that they knew their expectations before having a TA and ISS for students who skipped their TA period.” She said that “having a TA for the past couple of years has been invaluable to me” and she hates “that I will no longer be afforded that luxury.”
Senior Kayla Phillips, who was hoping to be a teacher assistant next year, said that she doesn’t “understand why it was gotten rid of since so many students loved it.”
Other similar courses, like the peer counseling and help desk worker courses, are still available.
Photo credit: Maddie Norwood[/caption]OHS staff member Shannon Braxton, who teaches Foods I and II, was chosen as Orange’s 2013-14 Teacher of the Year. According to her nomination statement, she was nominated for being “an excellent teacher” who “is very organized and professional at all times,” “imparts life skills,” and “cares about every one of her students no matter their background.”
Braxton stated, “It is a great honor to be selected by my coworkers” as Teacher of the Year. An important teaching strategy she has is trying “to understand students.” Her class is unique because it “lends itself to hands-on learning.” Braxton has wanted to teach from a young age. As a child, she used to teach her dolls. “It’s what I always wanted to do,” she said.
Braxton loves cooking, whether it is inside or outside school. She’s a self-professed foodie and she doesn’t have a favorite food. “I like all foods. I want to try everything at least once,” she stated. She said that she grew up in the country and began cooking her own meals at 10. She “learned to cook over the phone” because she often called her parents while she was cooking. Some of her favorite recipes are pastas and desserts. Her Foods I class focuses on cooking foods from the five food groups, while Foods II cooks “cakes and yeast breads.”
OHS Principal Jason Johnson described Braxton as “awesome” and the “ultimate professional.” He said that she “makes Orange High look excellent.” Junior Haylee Burton, 16, called Braxton “a very hard-working teacher who will do anything to help her students succeed.” She said that “[Braxton] is such a sweet and funny woman, and a wonderful teacher who definitely deserves to be Teacher of the Year.”
The other teachers nominated for Teacher of the Year were Javier Amador, Brooke Connor, Kelly Helner, Brian Parker, Becky Smith, and Rusty Wagoner.
Besides teaching, Braxton also likes “working on... scrapbooks” and “hanging out with friends.” Her favorite quote, by Margaret Mead, is, “Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have.” The quote helps her because “we forget that we can be that positive influence.”
“I love doing what I do. I love my job,” Braxton said.