COLUMBUS, Ohio — It seemed almost destined that Angela Harris would become a teacher.
“Ever since she was a little girl, she would set out her little stuffed animals and line them up, and she would teach them like they were in school,” said Brenda White, the mother of Harris. “She gave them assignments and everything, and I knew at that point that she would probably be heading into education.”
Harris recalls saving her workbook sheets and storing them in one of her mother’s briefcases. She said she even made herself a routine and schedule.
“I just knew, I had the passion,” she said.
She carried that passion with her into the classroom. She’s now been a teacher for 17.5 years, 15 of them at Berne Union Elementary School.
There, she teaches 3rd-graders.
“I usually don’t refer to them as my students, they’re my children in here,” she said. “I feel like I’m not just a teacher to them, I feel like I’m a nurse, counselor, mom, just all those roles put into one.”
That caring demeanor certainly has not gone unnoticed. Her mother was just one of several people to nominate Harris as a Classroom Hero.
“I think she is a hero,” White said. “She really has taken it the extra step to make sure that her kids and the kids at school always have opportunities to do more.”
Harris hosts small dance parties for her students and engages them in cardio drumming with portions of pool noodles.
This past summer, she also sent home her own version of Flat Stanley. But, in this case, it was a cutout with her face on it. Her students could take pictures with it doing all sorts of activities, from playing games to gardening to baking.
And now, she’s proud to have helped her students through a challenging past year. Of course, it was not only rough on the students; it was rough on teachers, too.
“We definitely, what my boss always says, we got this, but we also, I think, we can also say, we did this, and I’m very proud of teachers and what they have done,” Harris said.
Click here to nominate your Classroom Hero today.