Education Archive

This is year No. 25 for Holley and it’s been a special one so far as she was recently named the school’s teacher of the year.

“My mom has stories of me pretending to (be a) teacher with my little sister like sitting her down with stuffed animals and pretending to read a book,” Fender said. “Its just kind of what I always wanted to do. There was never a lightbulb moment.”

It’s worked out so far; earlier this year, her peers chose her as Chumuckla Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year. The first-grade teacher blames her sister, Ashley Drinkard, a third-grade teacher at S.S. Dixon Intermediate School.

“I can’t imagine having another career,” she told the Press Gazette last week. “I live for the moments when a student has struggled with a concept for days or weeks, then it clicks, and it makes sense to them. It is so empowering knowing that you helped them learn a new concept or skill, and I get to see their self-confidence blossom.”

Teaching Algebra and geometry honors courses to eighth graders as well as advanced math to seventh graders, Swartz has become a teacher loved by students and faculty alike. So much so, she was named Hobbs Middle’s choice for teacher of the year, the first time she has received the honor.

The theme of this year’s STEAM night was “The Mystery of the Missing Picture,” in which students had to solve the fictional crime of who ‘stole’ principal Kimberly Crate’s picture. The goal of a STEAM night is to create a hands-on event to get students excited about learning science and math.