Email
PrintMy habitat: Stefani Bartholomew
Third-grade math and language arts teacher at Eliot Elementary School and 2011 Tulsa Public Schools Teacher of the Year.
Stefani Bartholomew in her third-grade classroom at Eliot Elementary.
Stefani Bartholomew:
My classroom is part of a school that is approaching 100 years old. It was built at a great time in Tulsa, when we were building our reputation as the ‘Oil Capital of the World.’ Eliot is a great community school with a proud history and tradition. Many former students return to the area to raise children and send them to Eliot.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a teacher. When we were little, my sister and I got a ‘playhouse’ for our back yard. It quickly became my schoolhouse, and I’m afraid I always insisted on being the teacher.
Having my own classroom filled with precious and influential students each day is an awesome and exciting responsibility. I get a special feeling being in my classroom with a group of students while reading a book they love, teaching and playing a new math game, or helping a student try one more time.
My classroom is filled with learning tools, computers and many teacher resources that I have collected over my 13 years of teaching and prior years in college. While planning lessons, I look back to professional development opportunities that really inspired me and connect them to what my students would enjoy most.
There is never a boring minute with 73 8- and 9-year-olds coming in and out (of the classroom). When I leave each day, it is a time of reflection upon what I can do differently the next time to make the learning experience even better.
