One-on-One With Kim Bearden

Kim is co-founder and middle grades language arts teacher at The Ron Clark Academy. She brings an inspiring combination of innovation, creativity, and enthusiasm to the classroom for her students and visiting teachers.

• 2000 Disney Middle School Teacher of the Year
• Winner of the Milken National Educator Award
• Leadership Atlanta Class of 2008
• Finalist for Georgia Teacher of the Year

As a middle school teacher what inspires you each day to continue teaching?

Kim: It is very important for a teacher to realize that the energy you give off is the energy you get back from your students. I am very intentional from the second that I enter my classroom of giving my students 110%. If I don’t necessarily feel like giving 110% that morning I still bring it. Maybe I’m tired or sick or having a bad day, but the second I enter the door they don’t know the difference. I bring that energy and immediately I get it back from my students. THAT’S what feeds me every day. It not only feeds the energy of the class, it feeds my soul as well.

      When you have a classroom full of students who enter giving me hugs and who can’t wait to be there, that’s what keeps me going back day after day. Some teachers have told me, “I don’t get those kinds of students. I don’t get students who are excited about learning.”

     So what I ask them is, “What are you giving the students initially? Are you waiting for them to give you that energy, excitement, and enthusiasm or are you starting with that yourself?”

     Sometimes teachers walk into to the classroom with their shoulders slumped and speaking in a monotone voice, and wonder why students look lethargic and bored. It reminds me of the scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where the teacher is at the blackboard and everyone is falling asleep. That’s what he was projecting and that’s the response he got.

     I have been fortunate enough to watch many master teachers teach. When you see enthusiastic students there is an enthusiastic teacher in the classroom first. The teacher has to be the one that brings the spirit, energy, and enthusiasm to the classroom. That’s what I love most about teaching: the energy, the joy, and that sparkle in the kids’ eyes when they are truly passionate about what’s happening. I know that some of my students are struggling with other things in their lives. To look at a child who I know is hurting on the inside for other reasons and see their eyes sparkling because of what is happening in the classroom, that’s the greatest reward in the world.