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\u201cI want to make sure when my kids come to school, they know first and foremost, they are loved. As long as they know they\u2019re loved, the rest will come. Academics will come. But I just want them to know they\u2019re safe and provide an environment where I try to meet all their needs. I know it\u2019s not always possible, but that\u2019s my goal. I want them to know they can talk to me and are free to express how they feel,\u201d said Vanzant (Mrs. Dee, to her students).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loving them always includes being sure they\u2019re fed. Vanzant said, \u201cWe want to make sure they come to school with their basic needs met, like food, clothing, and even shelter. We feed them breakfast and lunch and send snacks home with them. We worry about them over the weekends. We\u2019re thankful we\u2019re able to send them home with food on Fridays, from the backpack program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vanzant was a quiet child and believes the quiet ones are sometimes unnoticed. Not in her class, no ma\u2019am. \u201cI try to encourage the quiet ones to speak out, always. We have projects, and I\u2019ll have them stand up and share. They don\u2019t want to do it, but they do, and I think that\u2019s just because of the environment. They know it\u2019s okay. Nobody\u2019s going to laugh at them. I\u2019m silly, so I laugh a lot. And I tell them that Mrs. Dee makes mistakes. It\u2019s okay. We just laugh about it together and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Encouraging them and showing them a broader vision for the possibilities in their futures is a core value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI teach at a title school, which means a large percentage of students receive free and reduced lunch. As a woman of color, I want to be an example for all my students but especially my African American students. I was in middle school when I had my first African American teacher, and there weren\u2019t very many of them. When my students look at me I want them to see themselves. I want them to know they can become anything they want, with hard work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vanzant also talks about other career possibilities with her students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want all kids to know they can be anything they want to be. We talk a lot about how one day they\u2019ll be grown and taking care of their families. We start thinking now about what they want to be when they grow up. We talk about engineers, artists, and different careers. We talk about how making money is necessary but not the only important thing. We want them to grow up to be successful adults, whatever that is. We know not everybody\u2019s going to college. Some people are going to work at McDonald\u2019s, but we want them to be the best McDonald\u2019s worker they can be, or Walmart, or wherever they work. We just want them to be successful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the heart of the Clark Memorial staff and Vanzant\u2019s other third-grade teachers. Vanzant said, \u201cI work with a great team here at Clark. The third-grade teachers, we all work really well together. The other three have big hearts, just like me, so they\u2019re very concerned about our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The heart for children is a Vanzant family affair. Her husband, Eric, is the Campora Family Resource Center director and a local youth pastor. Following his father\u2019s footsteps, their son, Jadon, graduated from MTSU in May. He will begin working on his educational specialist degree (ED.S) in the fall, to become a school counselor. Like her mother, their daughter, Erica, is working on her master\u2019s in education and will do her student teaching in January. She currently assists her mother and the other Clark third-grade teachers in the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Vanzants are a family dedicated to enriching the lives of the children around them. Whether at home, church, or anywhere they find them, they have something to give them \u2013 a hug, a smile, a listening ear, something to eat \u2013 whatever they might need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mrs. Dee Vanzant may seem quiet, but her heart and smile speak louder than words. GN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ACAREER IN the classroom was not what DeEdra Vanzant first imagined. She enjoyed helping, not leading. But a word from a friend majoring in education helped refocus her future path. \u201cHe told me they were looking for more people to go into education. And I told him I couldn\u2019t do that. I\u2019m not really a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC06226-1024x683.jpg\")
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