Ka-chow! We’ve got the scoop on Hardin Valley Academy’s Allison Harris. Her yearbook course captures the culture, kids & clubs of Hawk Nation.
Where were you born?
Allison Harris:
Memphis.
Adam Wilson:
So how does one go from Memphis to Knoxville?
Allison Harris:
I was in Memphis doing my graduate work for my master’s degree when I met my future husband; he was in Nashville. When I finished graduate school, I moved to Nashville and started teaching there. Then we got married, he got a job in Knoxville, and we moved here.
What was your high school mascot?
Allison Harris:
The Bartlett Panthers.
Adam Wilson:
Now, where is Bartlett?
Allison Harris:
It’s a suburb of Memphis. It’s in Shelby County.
What college did you go to?
Allison Harris:
I got my bachelor’s degree at Harding university in Searcy, Arkansas, and my master’s degree at the University of Memphis.
What did you major in?
Allison Harris:
I majored in English and Education at Harding, and then literature at Memphis.
Adam Wilson:
Had you even started teaching yet by the time you went to get your master’s at Memphis?
Allison Harris:
No, I had finished my bachelor’s degree and submitted some applications, but I hadn’t gotten any bites so I thought, “I’m not teaching yet, I guess I’ll go back to school and move home.” So that’s what I did. I actually got my first job when I moved to Nashville. That job in Nashville came from an application I had filled out when I was at Harding. I had gone to Nashville to interview with Metro Davidson, and when I came home from that interview, Ezell-Harding called me and said, “Hey, are you still looking for a job? We need an English teacher.” And I said yes.
How many years have you taught total?
Allison Harris:
In total I think this is my 23rd year, but I had a five year break when the kids were born. I stayed home for five years and then came back. So I started teaching more than 23 years ago, but only 23 of those were actual teaching.
Adam Wilson:
Describe what that was like coming back to teach. Was that a relief or was it like a lot of parents saying, “Oh, my baby!”? And you had four babies.
Allison Harris:
It was both: I was ready and I was excited to do something new. The kids were four and a half years old when I came back and started teaching. I came in partially through the year instead of starting at the beginning. I had always thought, “I’ll go back when they go to school,” so I knew that was coming and a spot opened up here [Hardin Valley Academy]. This is where I wanted to be because of my friends. I taught at South Doyle before the kids were born, and then my South Doyle friends had all moved here to teach. It just worked out. Although it was good, it was still a rough adjustment trying to balance everything while still feeling like I’m a good mom and a good teacher. Those early years were really hard trying to find that balance.
What subjects are you teaching this semester and this year?
Allison Harris:
This year I have all journalism and it’s my third year with just journalism. I have Introduction to Journalism, Yearbook and Multimedia.
What clubs do you sponsor and what sports do you coach?
Allison Harris:
I’m not athletic. Nobody wants me to coach anything. I used to sponsor the literary magazine back when I was teaching English and Intro. When I took over the yearbook, it was very time consuming. I love it but it is very time consuming, so I just don’t have the time to give to another organization because yearbook gets so much of my time already.
Why did you get into teaching?
Allison Harris:
I actually decided when I was in kindergarten that I wanted to be a teacher. I, apparently, really loved my kindergarten teacher. My mom says that when the school year ended and I realized that I wasn’t going back the next week, I literally cried because I wanted to go back to school and see my kindergarten teacher. My mom had to take me to school on one of those last inservice days just so I could see my teacher one more time. After that, every few years when I would have a wonderful teacher, I would kind of change my mind about what I wanted to teach. I loved my 3rd grade teacher, so then I wanted to teach third grade, that kind of thing. By the time I finished high school, I had settled on high school English, and I never changed my mind.
Adam Wilson:
In a young mind, what is it about high school English that made you say, “This is for me.”?
Allison Harris:
When I was in high school, English was a lot more literature, and we read a lot of things that I enjoyed, and then talked about them, which was my favorite part. In my early years of teaching English, we did a lot of literature and I enjoyed it, but, as the years went on, we had to do more and more writing. I did not like the writing as much, so I don’t miss teaching English.
Adam Wilson:
What is it about yearbook and multimedia that now grabs you again?
Allison Harris:
Although journalism has a lot of writing too, I love it because it’s filled with student choice and creativity: you’re working with pictures and layout and color. I do really love being a part of highlighting the things that have happened in the school year and getting to know the students. I just love the creative aspect and getting to help people see what’s happening at our school.
What is your funniest teaching story?
Allison Harris:
My funniest teaching story would be when I was at South Doyle teaching sophomore English. I was at the board writing something and when I turned around to talk about it, there was a spider hanging right in front of my face. I screamed and jumped backwards. A student sitting on the front row jumped up, swatted it down and stomped it on the floor. Then he said, “You’re safe, Mrs. Harris.” I said, “Thank you, Brandon. Thank you for saving me.” <Laugh>. That was pretty funny.
Adam Wilson:
<Laugh>. And did you find the humor in that moment, or were you just shook up?
Allison Harris:
No, I did because I understood that I overreacted. It was just a spider, but it was right in front of my face
What’s your most heartwarming story?
Allison Harris:
That one is hard because I have a lot. I have received a lot of really sweet notes from former students thanking me for being a teacher that cared and for making the class fun and safe. They felt included and they felt like there was an adult in the building that really cared about them. Every so often I get another one and I think, “Ok, I’m still doing it right.” I have a student that I taught at South Doyle who is probably in her thirties now, and every year when the Facebook trend of “tag your favorite teacher” starts, she tags me every single year.
What would you do if you weren’t teaching?
Allison Harris:
I honestly have no idea. I have thought about it. There were those last few years of teaching English where I wasn’t always loving my job and I thought, “What else can I do that will not be this?” And I really couldn’t think of anything. Every time I thought, “I could do this,” I then thought “I’m missing out on this part of teaching that I love.” So I just kept doing it and finally got to the subjects I really wanted to teach.
Who was your favorite teacher when you were a student?
Allison Harris:
I would have to say Ms. Strock because she was my kindergarten teacher and she inspired me. I also really loved Ms. Gallagher, who was my third grade teacher and Ms. Halford, who was my senior English teacher. They were all just wonderful.
Which educator at HVA have you learned the most from?
Allison Harris:
She’s not here anymore. She retired, but I would probably pick Vivian West. I loved her and she was a tremendous mentor to everyone when she was here. She does substitute teaching now and continues to be a mentor I’m sure. I was actually gone several days the last two weeks of school to take my kids to college and she subbed all four of those days. It was such a relief to know that I was leaving my students with someone that I knew could still teach them because I know how important that is. She was also great at showing newer teachers how important it is to teach a subject and know that your kids need to learn, but they also need to feel loved and respected. She was good at teaching us that about our students, but also about each other and fostering that kind of family dynamic in the workroom and in the academy. I think she was one of those people that was well-respected across the school. She was just wonderful.
Have you earned any professional awards?
Allison Harris:
I can’t think of any awards that I myself have earned, but the yearbook wins awards every year. I took over the multimedia class and this is my third year with them. They had fallen out of participating in the Tennessee High School Press Association, so they weren’t going up for awards when I took over. However, I’m hoping to get them back into that this year and I’m hoping the multimedia staff will also win some awards as well.
What personal accomplishment are you most proud of?
Allison Harris:
Personally, bringing four children into the world and now sending them off to college and feeling like they’re going to be okay.
Adam Wilson:
All four at once. Somebody’s competitive.
Allison Harris:
I’m an overachiever <laugh>.
What do you wish every parent knew?
Allison Harris:
This is a minor thing, but I wish every parent knew that they could set up Aspen so that it will notify them if their child misses an assignment or gets a bad grade. It made a huge difference for me in keeping up with my own kids’ grades and assignments. Most teachers are also parents, so I wish that parents would think of teachers as partners in educating their kids and remember we have their child’s best interest at heart even when the students don’t think we do.
What do you wish every student knew?
Allison Harris:
I wish every student knew how much their teachers care about them. Not every teacher is warm and fuzzy but that doesn’t mean they don’t care. A lot of times when teachers have really high expectations and they get after kids for not turning in their assignments, the kids feel like the teacher doesn’t like them when, really, they want them to be successful. I just think a lot of times kids see teachers as an enemy when they’re not.
What’s the difference between a good and a great teacher?
Allison Harris:
I think it’s the connection that teachers have with their students. Anybody can be a good teacher, but, if you are connecting with students in a way that they come to understand that you really do care, that’s what makes you a great teacher.
What improvement would you most like to see made to public education?
Allison Harris:
As a former English teacher, I have always felt that there needed to be a return to a greater grammar emphasis in the earlier grades. They learn it but I think teachers are pushed so quickly to get students to write, and then they don’t get a chance to go back and focus on the grammar, so students spend all this time writing and losing poitns for their grammar but they don’t know what they’re doing wrong. I taught senior English here for a decade and by the time they get to me, I don’t have time to teach them grammar, but they have to know it. I see it in their ACT scores because the ACT is still expecting kids to know their grammar. A lot of kids will do great on the reading section because they can read, understand and interpret, but they can’t grammatically fix a sentence, so they’ll do great in the reading and terrible in the English because of that grammar component. Teachers need to be given time to really teach grammar.
Adam Wilson:
Is that not a tested item?
Allison Harris:
It is, but teachers are expected to teach it as part of an overall writing initiative, and they just don’t have adequate time to really focus on the grammar rules.
What’s something you could use for your classroom?
Allison Harris:
The only thing that we are working on is replacing some really old computers in the yearbook lab. We need newer computers, but that’s a pretty big favor to ask.
Adam Wilson:
How many of those do you need?
Allison Harris:
I have 13 computers: four of them are new and the others are not.
Adam Wilson:
Are you talking like original, original, Hardin Valley Academy?
Allison Harris:
They might not be quite original, but they’re pretty close <laugh>.
Adam Wilson:
Wow. They’re pretty old.
What hobbies do you have?
Allison Harris:
I make a yearbook in my spare time <laugh>. I don’t have a lot of hobbies, but I do love to read. I listen to audiobooks a lot more now than I actually read because I can do that while I’m doing something else. So I do love books and I like movies.
Adam Wilson:
What kind of books and movies are you into?
Allison Harris:
I like a lot of different things. I do still love a good classic novel: I love classic literature. Although I do like the modern stuff too. I love mysteries, thrillers and historical fiction. I love to solve the murder and that goes for books, movies and TV shows.
What’s a good way for a student or a parent to spoil you?
Allison Harris:
Honestly, because I have classes where the kids want to be there, I really feel spoiled already. I have it better than a lot of teachers. I also have it better off now than I did when I was teaching English to a classroom full of kids who hated the subject. So I don’t really feel like I need to be spoiled. There are plenty of other teachers, however, who need to be spoiled more than I do. I’m already spoiled.
Who is your star student and why do you appreciate them?
Allison Harris:
That is hard to pick. I would have to say Makayla Gardner and Ava Lorenz, who are my yearbook editors this year. They are working hard. They are at a little bit of a disadvantage in that they only have one yearbook under their belt. A lot of times my editors have made two, if not three yearbooks before. They are seniors and they’re editors. I lost the bulk of my staff last year who were seniors. So, I only have three returning staff members this year. The two senior editors that I have, however, are working really hard. It’s going to be an uphill battle for them. We have a very small staff and not much veteran knowledge for them to draw from. They also only have the one year of experience, but they are very excited. They have not let that discourage them, so I’ve been really proud of what they’ve done so far. It’s exciting.
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