MANSFIELD — Teresa McDowell has dedicated her career to helping struggling students learn to read.
But when she found out she’d been selected for a teaching award, words escaped her.
“I was very humbled, highly honored,” McDowell said, after a moment of reflection. “I felt appreciated.
“I tell my students here, ‘If you work hard and your heart is in the right place, don’t give up because someone will see you.’ “
McDowell was one of two educators to earn this year’s Ohio Civil Rights Commission’s Excellence in Teaching Diversity Award.
A student support specialist at Malabar, McDowell’s primary role is to provide extra reading instruction to students who need a little extra help.
In her small reading groups, she works with students using a carefully-curated reading list. Her bookshelf features characters of various races, ethnicities, abilities, identities and backgrounds.
McDowell said her goal is that when students read about people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Amelia Earhart, they’ll see themselves reflected in the pages.
McDowell also has students read about Ben Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
When Carson was in elementary school, he struggled with reading. He got into fights. His mom was a single parent.
“A lot of our students come from that background. I try to show them that with hard work and dedication, you can make a difference,” she said. “You can make you and everyone in your family proud of you — but mostly yourself.”
McDowell celebrates the uniqueness of every student
McDowell has a bachelor’s degree in education from The Ohio State University at Mansfield and a master’s in reading recovery from Ashland University.
She began her career with Mansfield City Schools as an adult education instructor, but has spent the last 29 years working with young readers.
“I stayed with it because I really fell in love with it. To teach students to learn how to read, that was my calling,” she said.
“To see the light come on, when you’re reading with a child and they’re struggling and over time they just start navigating through that story — that’s pretty cool.”
Malabar Principal Tom Hager described McDowell as someone who celebrates the uniqueness of every student.
McDowell was the visionary and founder behind the school’s MVP Breakfast, which recognizes students who have improved their grades and behavior over the course of the school year.
Once or twice a year, every teacher is asked to nominate a student who has shown growth worth celebrating. Each student gets a trophy and a plaque during the breakfast. Families are invited to attend.
“That’s a powerful thing that Mrs. McDowell has done,” Hager said. “She’s a wonderful lady, a wonderful educator, a beautiful person.
“She cares about kids and changing the lives of students.”
McDowell is also helping spearhead the school’s implementation of Just Words, a new reading curriculum focused on phonics.
The program is aligned with the science of reading and designed specifically for students who didn’t master reading basics in grades K-3.
McDowell nominated by former classmate, fellow educator
Helen Bond, a professor at the Howard University School of Education, nominated McDowell for the award. The two women have been friends since they attended Crestview High School together.
Bond said she’s proud to see her friend get the kudos she deserves. She said it’s common for McDowell to share books with the children in her neighborhood and work late nights making sure everything is in place for her students.
“Books are really treasures in many ways,” Bond said. “People may not be able to travel and meet different people or see different places, but they can do all those things with the magic of books. Books open doors, they create opportunities, they open minds. They enable students to ask questions.
“The kinds of books and opportunities (McDowell) selects not only help students become more literate, but she also uses the tool of literacy to open students’ minds to other people, other places, other ideas, other ways of living — in other worlds, cultural diversity.”