Davis still enjoys teaching - Wayne-Wilson News Leader, Fremont, NC

4 October 2007 — As she is completing her thirtieth year as a teacher in Wayne County, Kathy Davis seems just as excited about her first-graders as the teachers fresh out of college. And that, she said, is largely due to the kids.

“They definitely keep you young,” she said.

Kathy was named Teacher of the Year at Fremont STARS for the 2007-2008 school year. This is the second time she has received the honor at Fremont, and the third time in her career.

For most of the time she’s been teaching, Kathy has worked with students in the first grade, though she has taught second grade a few times, and a second-third combination class. Though some would be intimidated working with such young children, Kathy said that working with the littlest ones comes with its own set of benefits.

At such a young age, she said, the kids are so innocent and everything is unconditional. But in some ways, it’s much easier to teach them, she said.

“At this age, you can motivate them to do what you need them to do,” Kathy said.

In addition, she said, the time frame in which you can see the results of your work is much smaller at this age. Reading, especially, is a place where Kathy says you can see progress taking effect.

“They come in here at the beginning of the year and they can’t read, but by Christmas they’re reading out loud to you,” she said. “You get back what you put in so much faster.”

Kathy has spent almost half of her career teaching at Fremont. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, she began her teaching career at Wayne Country Day, where she spent nine years before moving closer to home at Nahunta School in 1986. When Nahunta closed in 1991, she worked at Northwest for two years. But 14 years ago, she began teaching in her husband’s hometown of Fremont, where she has stayed since.

She said that, though she’s a Mount Olive girl by birth, Fremont is a kind of home for her and her family. She moved to Fremont when she got married in 1981, and she and her family now live just outside of Eureka. Her husband Gary is the former town manager in Fremont, and currently serves as the town manager in Stantonsburg. Her daughters Jordan, 23, and Sarah and Liza, 21, went through Fremont area schools and graduated from Charles B. Aycock.

Kathy said her daughter Jordan just began her first year as a teacher this year. Jordan’s desire to teach may well have begun just after she was born, as she watched her mother, who had been teaching for several years, pursing her master’s degree in education at East Carolina University. Kathy began working on her masters before she had Jordan, and had finished all but two classes finished when she was expecting the twins.

“I finished up with three small children at home,” she said. “I had two classes left when the twins were born, and I went and finished up that summer.”

Though she is passionate about her career, Kathy says she can’t really pinpoint a time that she decided to go into teaching.

“When they asked us growing up what we wanted to be, I always said I’d be a teacher,” she said. “I always just kind of knew that’s what I wanted to do, I never really had to think about it.”

During her school years, however, she said she watched her own teachers and saw things about them that she has tried to incorporate in her teaching style.

When she’s not teaching, Kathy said she spends most of her time with her family. Now that her children have moved out, she said the love of her life is her pug, with whom she spends as much time as she can.

She also travels a lot to watch her daughter Liza compete in track and cross country competitions. Liza attends Campbell University and is on the track team there.

She also remains very close to her sister, who teaches at Fremont with her, and her parents. She enjoys having outings with her family, as well as going to see her daughters whenever she gets the chance.

In the summer, she said she has time to read, and she goes to the beach and pool as much as possible, but she doesn’t have a lot of spare time once school gets started.

So as she gets started in her fourteenth year at Fremont, Kathy said she’s still excited and surprised by her students, and she looks forward to completing another year in the first grade.

“I’ve got some good ones this year,” she said.

Back to this week's News Leader