JACKSON TEACHER HONORED AS `OUTSTANDING' BEGINNER

Amy Worley goes over a board problem with Chad Pulley, 14, who is in her foreign language class at R.O. Hawkins Junior High. Jackson USA/Scott Moyers

Worley teaches about 156 eighth-graders French and Spanish.

While Worley loves teaching French and Spanish, she also feels that teaching discipline is a part of her job.

Amy Worley goes over a board problem with Chad Pulley, 14, who is in her foreign language class at R.O. Hawkins Junior High.

Amy Worley, a foreign language teacher at R.O. Hawkins Junior High School in Jackson, was one of two area teachers recently named Outstanding Beginning Teacher by the Missouri Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Worley, of Cape Girardeau, graduated from Southeast in December 1994 with a 4.0 grade point average and a bachelor of science degree in secondary education with a Spanish major.

She was nominated by her principal, Dennis Parham, who praised Worley for her teaching skills.

"She has done very well for her first year," Parham said. "She has a really good rapport with the students. She has high expectations for the students to achieve.

"She's probably one of the best first-year teachers I've ever seen."

Worley says she was totally caught off guard to learn she had received such a high honor.

"I don't feel very outstanding," Worley said, modestly. "I feel like every day I just get through it. I try to do my best."

She said she'd love to read what Parham wrote about her in his application, because she feels like she's just "plodding along."

She only learned of Parham's nomination a week before it was announced that she would receive the award. Parham sent her a memo telling her what a fine job he thought she has been doing.

In fact, Worley still has it. It reads: "Amy, I've nominated you for this honor. I've been pleased with the work you're doing. Keep up the good work."

Why did Worley decide to become a teacher? One might say teaching is in Worley's blood.

"I guess I'm one of the lucky ones," she said. "I've always known I wanted to teach. Both of my parents were teachers and I like to work with people."

Every day is a new experience for Worley, who says she learns something new each and every day right along with her students.

She teaches 156 eighth graders, and that must give her an abundance of new experiences.

"At their age, they're really going through a difficult time. They're worried about making friends, they're starting to date.

"Sometimes you have to get around that. These kids are trying to fit in," she said.

Worley says that sometimes she becomes friends with students and that makes the job easier. Having a close relationship with a student makes them perform better, she said.

But one of the hardest parts of Worley's job involves discipline, which, she says, they didn't teach her in college.

"You don't know how to do it until you're thrown in there. Experience is the only teacher."

Her strength is her love for the subject matter. She developed a love for French while in high school at Notre Dame in Cape.

And she says she's not afraid to challenge the students to go the extra mile.

And while Worley loves teaching Spanish and French to her students, she says there's more to her class than learning new languages.

"Kids need to have respect," she said. "And they need to know some of the basics in life -- values, being honest, and not putting other students down, which is very common at this age."

She thinks kids need to show respect because that is how she was raised.

"That's the way I was brought up. If you can't get along with others you are not going to be successful, at least in my eyes."

If her strength is her love of the language and challenging students, then her weakness is patience, or a lack thereof, rather.

"Every teacher has to have it and every teacher could use a little more," she said.

As a new teacher she has her good days and bad days and teachers have to have the patience to stick it out.

"You have to be flexible. As a teacher, if I can provide a safe and positive place for the students to come and experience another culture and come out and feel good about it, I feel like I've done my job."