All About Mrs. Pam

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My name is Pam Stephens and I love teaching young children.  They give me so much pride and so much pleasure. I will begin my 20th year of teaching this fall.  I guess it is only fitting that in this 20th year of my career, I will be "starting over".  I will no longer be a regular classroom teacher.  I have loved every minute that I've worked with my first graders.  I have watched so many of them "grow up" and become model citizens.  I'm so proud to have been a part of their lives.  However, I feel compelled to offer an opportunity to some of our students that need a different mode of learning.  Therefore, I will be beginning P.A.L. ( Program for Alternative Learning).  This will be the fulfillment of a dream that I've had for our school for a very long time. 

My credentials are my degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of South Alabama and 20 years of teaching young children to read.  My most important credential is the love I have for my students and my desire to see them succeed.  Unfortunately, not all young children learn to read with the use of conventional methods no matter how hard we try.

My journey to help children with reading difficulties has been an ongoing one.  Any teacher of young children can appreciate the frustration that we experience when all conventional methods of instruction fail to help every student to read. This frustration led me to a lecture given by Mrs. Susan Barton at the Alabama Christian Educators Conference in January of 2006. I was forever changed by that event.  I went to San Jose, California that summer and took a graduate course she offered. I brought back many of her great ideas to help my students.  However, I still could not give some of my students the individual help they required while trying to teach a regular classroom.  I also knew that the methods we were currently using, although excellent, were not working for some of our students. This began my search to find a teacher training program based on the method developed by Dr. Samuel Orton and Mrs. Anna Gillingham.  This portion of my journey took me to  Atlanta, Georgia in June of this year to study with Mrs. Rosalie Davis of the Schenck School and newly elected President of the Orton-Gillingham Academy.  The completion of this training makes me a candidate for certification with the Academy. Mrs. Davis will by my mentor throughout this process.

 I am thrilled to be able to offer this very excellent reading program to our students who need a different approach. Orton/Gillingham is a multi-sensory approach that enables students to make the critical "connection" between the alphabet, its sounds and its spellings.

With God's help and the support of a visionary adminstration, we will begin a reading program at M.C.S. that we feel will be unique to our area.  We are committed to giving all our students the reading skills they need in order to have successful academic careers.

 " A teacher effects eternity.  He can never tell where his influence stops." H.B. Adams

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