Ashley is an outstanding teacher. Being her husband, I get to listen to her passion of teaching as she comes home each day to tell me of the day’s events. I watch her plan lessons for hours, making certain each student’s needs are met. She will make videos to teach her students about math using real world tasks. She incorporates technology to engage each child in learning and makes it so fun! She ensures that students each reach and master the curriculum and never gives up. Ashley also cares deeply about each of her students. I am amazed that she will take time out of her day to help one of her students. She has lunch at school, one on one, with a lot of her students to take about their goals and how she can help them reach their goals. For holidays, she delivers plates of cookies and notes to their houses to make sure they know she cares individually for them. She attends their recitals and cheers for them in their sports games. She has touched one boy’s life in particular this year as she has helped change his mind set into knowing that he doesn’t have a label and doesn’t need to be the “bad kid.” It has been a bumpy road with him, but she has made such a difference – a 180 turn in his life. She also helps her students realize they each can make a difference. Each month, her class nominates a “hero’ in their school, community, or state that has made the world a better place because of their actions. She then asks them to come in the class to talk about what they do, give advice, and honor them with a certificate and thank you letters from the kids as well as a hero song they wrote. They have had so many people come in to honor and thank including the mailman, the garbage men, firefighters, doctors, dentists, VETs, zookeepers, Barbara Barrington Jones, men who have served our country in the military, scientists, librarians, etc…They each know the meaning of being a daily hero to everyone they meet. Ashley inspires me to be involved, work hard, and find a joy in learning. Her students are lucky to have her as a teacher and example in their lives.
–Brett Wright