Mrs. Pitt
When Naples mom and author Glennon Melton walked into Kathrene Pitt’s classroom for a little “tutoring” so she could help her son with his math homework, each woman left with a gift that would change both of their worlds.
As the conversation shifted from math to the world of fifth graders, the Sea Gate Elementary School teacher described her strategy for recognizing the isolated children in her classroom. Every month she distributes a team card to students where they can list the names of students they would like to sit with or to know better. They also can take the opportunity to send a compliment to another student or nominate a classmate as citizen of the week.
While the kids did not always know why they were filling out these cards, Pitt was observing patterns and changes in the class relationships and discovering who consistently or suddenly was not being mentioned. Pitt began this technique right after the shootings at Columbine 15 years ago, in order to build a sense of community among all of her students and to learn which pupils may feel a lack of connection with the others.
In her 30 years of teaching elementary education Pitt, who retires this year, has received awards before as both a Teacher of Excellence and a Teacher of Distinction through the Education Foundation-Champions for Learning Golden Apple program; yet it was not until her final year of teaching that her community-building practice was recognized.
Melton took Pitt’s gift of a story to her laptop and wove it into a beautiful message of hope and caring that had her blog followers clicking “share” several million times over. The viral post caught the attention of local and national media such as the Today Show, which aired a segment on the teacher and her wing girl.
Due to all of the attention Pitt’s classroom has received, the students are more aware of her motives but she hopes that they continue to respect the process. “This isn’t about ‘certain’ children,” Pitt explains. “It is about making all our connections work until we are happy to be with each other.”
To read the original blog post by Glennon Doyle Melton, go to http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/. Her book, Carry On Warrior: The Power of Embracing your Messy Beautiful Life is a New York Times Bestseller and is available in paperback.
Stacy Nicolau is the Assistant Publisher of Neapolitan Family Magazine and proud mom of a student in Kathrene Pitt’s final math and science class.