Mathis is Head Start Teacher of Year

By Mark Millican
Dalton Daily Citizen

December 16, 2008 09:48 pm

— For someone who says she’s not often at a loss for words, Angie Mathis of West Side Head Start was close to speechless when she received the Family Resource Agency of North Georgia’s Teacher of the Year award last week.
“I’m excited, but I don’t know what to say!” she said. “I just know I couldn’t have done it without the help of Brenda Collins in the classroom next door, who is a big help to me, and my assistant Sheila Walston.”
Family Resource, which operates in a six-county area of Northwest Georgia, works off nominations to determine the winner of approximately 100 teachers in the district. According to its Web site (www.fragahs.com), the mission of the agency is “to provide a comprehensive program which benefits children and families in the North Georgia communities served by the Head Start/Early Head Start and Pre-K programs. These services include meeting the educational, social, nutritional, health, emotional and psychological needs of the children and families served by the program.”
Mathis began as an assistant teacher at West Side Head Start in 1988, and was promoted to teacher in 1995. Earlier this year, she attained her associates degree in early childhood education from Northwestern Technical College in Rock Spring.
“She cares about everyone,” said Debbie Cobb, special projects manager for Family Resource, of Mathis. “Whether it’s physical or emotional, the child or the family, she’s like a super hero to those in need. Angie teaches our children and families to be caring and compassionate by modeling that behavior for them.”
Mathis also allows her creative side to shine through. She helped start a Crayon Pals project — a variation of pen pals that also boosts literacy skills — wherein Head Start students write to a kindergarten student and get to know them through the year before transitioning up to kindergarten. At the end of the school year, they’ll go to the kindergarten and meet their pal, who tours the campus with them and shows them one of the “big (school) buses” they’ll be riding soon. West Side’s Head Start kids partnered with Cohutta Elementary’s kindergarteners in the endeavor.
Another project Mathis started on her own and maintains is the “Pick a book, bring a book” program. Residents in the community are invited to bring a book into the Head Start program and read it to the kids, and the effort continues to have good participation, said Cobb.
“Angie is very creative and very adaptable,” said Becca Fulgham, director of Family Resource Agency of North Georgia. “She deals with whatever she’s faced with and does a great job at it. She is excellent at meeting a child’s individual needs — she meets them at their level, and that’s the main reason she was selected. Plus, she’s gotten all kinds of community people to come in and read to the children.”
Cobb said “You never know what Angie will come up with next, but you can be sure it will involve everyone and they’ll have fun doing it. One of the nominations referred to her as the ‘Teacher of a Lifetime.’ ”
Mathis has also been placed into nomination as the state Head Start Teacher of the Year. The winner will be announced during the spring conference at St. Simon’s Island.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.