News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Dibrell Elementary School Assistant Principal Haley Wood selected as part of the inaugural class for the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching Fellows Program.
More than 250 educators applied nationwide for the inaugural class. Just twelve selected.
“We had multiple rounds of interviews,” Wood said. “And so I am just honored to be selected and to be able to bring back all of this new learning to my district in Warren County. Honestly make connections with fellow educators across the country who really just want the best for kids.”
Participants in the program receive a $10,000 stipend and meet throughout the year to learn different ways to strengthen the capabilities of the individual’s school district. Wood said she wanted to be a part of the program to look at students for being more than just an end-of-the-year TCAP score.
“We wanted to get away from looking at kids just as a data score at then ed off the year like a TCAP score,” Wood said. “And really starting to look at that the work the students are presenting. Looking at their writing pieces and looking at how they really solve a math problem. Not how they got an answer right but what steps they took to get that.”
Wood said that has been a goal of the Warren County School District and a personal goal herself. Wood said participating in the program will have a trickle effect on the school system.
“I think it will make an impact for me personally,” Wood said. “Because as my role that is something I can do here at Dibrell, but I know that it is going to make a large impact on kids cause teachers will be better informed of how to deliver instruction if they know what kids already know.”
Wood said what she has learned so far can drastically change the performance of the teachers and students.
“I’ve been around hundreds of teachers at this point and there is not a teacher I know that is not giving it a hundred percent, Wood said. “But for whatever reason sometimes in Tennessee our scores are not moving the way we want them to, so the idea of working smarter and figuring out how to take that work the teachers are doing and really have it amplified and make a difference for kids. Being an educator you are obviously in it for the success of your students.”
The one-year program will wrap up in June of 2025. Wood said she has already traveled to Arizona for orientation for the program and has met wonderful people who share the same goal.
