Greer Black is a teacher at Crestline Elementary School.
Q: How long have you been a teacher and what grades do you teach?
A: I taught kindergarten right out of college at Gate City Elementary School in Woodlawn.Taught kindergarten there for 10 years, and have been at Crestline the last 11 years. I taught eight years in first grade, and then the last three years at Crestline in second grade. And this will be my fourth year teaching second grade at Crestline, which will be my 22nd year of teaching that I'm about to start.
Q: What inspired you to become an educator?
A: So, what inspired me to become an educator growing up? I was a little girl who played school all the time. I used my mom's little deposit slips from her checkbook as report cards and had to fake grade books and all of that. So, I always thought I wanted to be a teacher. I had a lot of great teachers. I had one in kindergarten I remember, one in fourth grade. So, teaching was always something that I wanted to do.
Q: Tell us about your favorite teacher from when you were in school.
A: I had a lot of favorite teachers growing up. Gosh, looking back, I loved my fourth grade teacher, Miss Mitchell in Brewton. She just created a really warm, fun environment. You could tell that she really wanted to get to know us and she really enjoyed interacting with all of us little fourth graders in her room. You just fed off of her energy. But, she was probably a favorite.
Q: What is the most rewarding part of being a teacher?
A: Looking back, the most rewarding thing about teaching is definitely seeing the progress that they make; knowing that you had a hand in crafting the right day, the right lessons, the right practice activities, the right re-teaching opportunities, or intervention if needed, the right communication with parents to bring everybody on board, to make sure that they made as much progress as they could in one year with you. And, of course, seeing their face light up when they see you is fun too.
