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PrintTulsa Public School teachers Brian Grimm and Jill Davis are high achievers
Meet Tulsa Public Schools’ two state Teacher of the Year honorees.
Today’s students are not content with traditional educational approaches. Often teachers need to explore innovative methods and more personalized teaching styles.
This discovery is not lost on local teachers. In fact, two of them are setting the standard for teaching statewide.
For the first time since 1963, a Tulsa Public Schools teacher won the title of Oklahoma Teacher of the Year. Brian Grimm, Will Rogers High School English teacher and department chairperson, took that honor for 2010.
Another TPS employee, Jill Davis, a pre-kindergarten teacher at Kendall-Whittier Elementary School, was named the 2009-2010 Oklahoma Early Childhood Educator of the Year. Two teachers with very different assignments yet one common goal: making learning fun and memorable for their students.
Grimm, a Sapulpa native, started his teaching career in Texas 13 years ago. His transition from an affluent Houston school (across from NASA and a school where approximately 80 percent of students’ parents had master’s degrees) to Tulsa’s urban setting was a little like whiplash for the young educator.
When he arrived at Will Rogers six years ago, his teaching techniques weren’t working and his frustration level was off the chart.
“By March, I was done,” he says.
One day, he simply surrendered his keys and left the building.
That dramatic exit might have been the end of Grimm’s teaching career — if only he’d remembered to take his house key off the key ring he left on the desk. As he returned to the building to retrieve it, he decided to rethink everything.
“At-risk students need to move,” he explains. “Movement and memory are correlated in the world of poverty.”
Fortunately, “I work with an incredibly innovative and collaborative faculty,” he says.
Together, they jazzed up traditional lesson plans and tuned into the rhythm of the class — knowing when to calm things down and when to let loose. The students responded. Suspensions decreased 49 percent, and referrals to the principal’s office fell 33 percent. Also, English Academic Performance Index (API) scores jumped from 365 to 1069 in a single year.
Grimm says teachers are now doing less of what they were taught to do as far as teaching and, instead, taking cues from the students to find out what works best for them.
“In terms of the students doing all of the work, I think that educators get it backwards,” he says. “For years I’ve watched teachers leave at the end of the day, exhausted from giving it all they’ve got. It should be the other way around. Students should leave exhausted from their learning experience.”
Who was Grimm’s most memorable teacher? Sapulpa High School’s speech and debate teacher, Jeanne DeVilliers.
“She taught me how to organize my thoughts, support them with solid evidence and build on an idea,” he says. “She’s the standard by which I’ve always judged my performance in the classroom.”
Lyda Wilbur has worked with Grimm for four years, the last year as his principal.
“This is a great thing for Will Rogers, for TPS and for urban schools,” she says of his new title. “He’s representing us.”
But she admits to having mixed feelings when he won: “(I was) 95 percent excited and happy for him because he’s worked so hard, and 5 percent sad because we miss him. The day after he won, we had to find a sub.”
As the state Teacher of the Year, Grimm will leave the classroom for one year to serve as Oklahoma’s Ambassador of Teaching, conducting presentations to teachers and business and civic groups. In turn, the state Legislature funds a full-time, certified replacement to head Grimm’s classroom, according to the Oklahoma Department of Education.
Having already begun his travels, Grimm says he has been impressed with the progress Oklahoma is making in the education sector.
“If Oklahomans continue to support education, we will be uniquely positioned to lead the nation in producing creative, capable leaders,” he says. “I have no doubt this will not just positively impact our state’s economic situation, but I truly believe Oklahoma has the rare opportunity to become the epicenter of innovation in education.”
Kevin Burr is Grimm’s former principal at Rogers and currently an area superintendent for high schools with TPS.
“He’s the single best teacher I’ve ever seen,” Burr says. “And I thought my mom was a good teacher.”
Burr has observed more than 20,000 teachers and nominated Grimm for the award. He wasn’t a bit surprised when his candidate won. And he says he believes Grimm can win the national title, finalists for which will be announced this month. 
Jill Davis’ second-grade teacher, Mrs. Thomas, was the reason why she became a teacher.
“We didn’t sit and do worksheets; we did projects,” she says.
She still remembers writing and performing a puppet show version of “The Frog Prince.”
In her own pre-kindergarten classroom, Davis sees her job as helping her young students to love learning, and helping their families to become comfortable with school.
To involve moms, dads and siblings, Davis creates projects for everyone to do together — either at family night at school or at home as “family homework.”
She may have them read a book together or create a family tree with photographs.
“It’s important for the child to involve the family, and to make parents feel like their child’s teacher,” she says.
Davis also does home visits.
“Not to talk about grades or behavior, but to introduce myself and encourage them to call me,” she says. “They know I’m interested if I take time at 6 p.m. to visit.”
Davis also recognizes the importance of early childhood education to a person’s overall educational experience.
“All education is important, but we have research to back up the importance of early childhood,” she says. “We know it’s better for society later.”
That’s why she says she feels fortunate to be in Oklahoma.
“Our state supports (early childhood education), so I’m able to do what’s right for the kids, not focus on the checkbook and numbers,” she says.
Her principal, Judy Feary, calls Davis “a creative, vibrant classroom instructor who willingly shares her expertise with her colleagues.”
Davis opens her classroom for observations from universities, other schools and other districts. She says these visits prove that the university system is doing a good job preparing new early childhood teachers.
“These new teachers come in and know their stuff,” she says. “I’m just hoping we can keep them here (in Oklahoma).”
