One question mapped International Studies Elementary teacher Allison Orme’s life

ALBANY — As a young girl of 6 or 7, Allison Orme was playing school with stuffed animals on her grandmother’s back porch when a boy from her class at school walked through the back yard and asked what she was doing.

Little did she know it, but that boy’s simple question would chart the course of her life.

“Playing school was completely foreign to a boy of my age. He came inside and was my first ‘student,’” Orme, a first-grade teacher at International Studies Elementary Charter School and a finalist for Dougherty County’s teacher of the Year, said. “What an amazing thrill I had teaching a boy and not a stuffed animal.

“I have no memory of what I could have taught him at that age, but the spark of teaching ignited a flame within me to become a world-class educator.”

Orme’s mother was also a teacher and she remembers the joy her mother expressed while discussing her career as an educator. Orme’s decision to become a teacher was easy and one she has never regretted.

“As a classroom teacher, my desire to touch the lives of children and foster a love of learning have become my reality,” she said. “As a caring adult and a classroom teacher, I take my duties and responsibilities very seriously. I bring a ‘can do’ spirit and an open mind to all situations and I deliberately pass this spirit onto my children daily.

“Together we can accomplish greatness.”

As a first-grade teacher, Orme considers building a strong learning foundation as crucial to future learning and lifetime skills.

“I feel it is the role of elementary teachers to provide an educational foundation that will prepare students to use these skills and knowledge throughout the remainder of their lives,” Orme said. “All students can become lifelong learners if they are challenged to take on new tasks and attain new levels.

“I believe students that enter my classroom can succeed regardless of their previous performance. I impart knowledge to to my students by making my lessons approachable, purposeful engaging and relevant.”

Orme holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master of education from the University of Florida.

Dougherty County’s 2015-16 Teacher of the Year will be announced Thursday evening at a banquet at the Hilton Garden Inn