Maples: Keys to teaching are flexibility, connections
Lake Park Teacher has been instructing for 34 years
By Terry Lewis
EDITOR’S NOTE: Third of eight profiles of the Dougherty County School System’s 2018 Teacher of the Year finalists.
ALBANY — Since beginning her teaching career in 1983 at Riverview Academy, Jane Maples says one of the most valuable lessons she has learned along the way is that a teacher must be flexible.
“Looking back on my early education, there were teachers who had a tremendous influence on my life and opened the door of learning to me, and that eventually led me to the classroom,” Maples, a third-grade teacher at Lake Park Elementary, said. “Since beginning my teaching career, I have had diverse experiences. I taught both third and fourth grades at Riverview, and for a number of years taught kindergarten at First United Methodist Church, helping to develop the curriculum to include state standards as well as religious experiences.”
Maples first came to the Dougherty County School System in 1985, left for FUMC for six years before settling in at Lake Park in 2002.
“These diverse experiences over my career have given me the the ability to understand the physical, emotional and educational needs of children of different ages. It has enabled me to be flexible with my teaching strategies and methods to reach all children,” Maples said. “As a teacher, you have to look at the classroom from a different perspective in order to be successful.”
Maples added that as a mother, she also sees the classroom through the eyes of a parent.
“This has enabled me to create an open line of communication that is imperative in having a successful classroom,” she said. “Some of my proudest moments have been when a a connection between home and my classroom has produced positive results in the education of a child.”
The other DCSS TOY finalists are William Wright III, Albany Middle; Sequaous Walker, Robert Cross Middle; Carol Boges, West Town Elementary; Kanese Rachel, Lincoln Elementary; Timothy Hardwick, Radium Springs Elementary; Docoras Robinson, Turner Elementary, and Jillian Lockette, Alice Coachman Elementary
Dougherty County’s 2018 Teacher of the Year will be announced at a banquet at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Merry Acres Events Center.
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