Educator of the Week – Hailee Cecil
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Bells Elementary School 1st grade teacher Hailee Cecil loves to watch her students understand new material. “I love to see the light bulb go off,” said Cecil. “I’ll tell them, we ‘kiss our brains’ a lot whenever we feel like our brains are going or we feel like we learned something new.” Learning something new in Cecil’s class can be hard work, but this educator says she tries her best to keep it fun. “I will change my voice, of course, if we’re doing funny characters or I have glasses, I’ll wear if I’m trying to change it up,” said Cecil. “If you don’t make it fun, of course, they don’t tend to want to pay attention as much, so I try to make it as fun as I can for them.” And like her students, Cecil, a former kindergarten teacher, is also making the transition to 1st grade. “The standards are harder, so I had to adjust myself as well as get the kids ready,” said Cecil. One of those higher standards includes filling several different roles. “A teacher is many, many things wrapped into one,” said Cecil. “We’re definitely parents to some of the children while they’re here because they’re here for so long. And we can be nurses, and we’re friends and mentors – we’re just everything wrapped into one big package!”
