February 28, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
Fourth in series of five stories. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Cheryl Vandagriff has found her niche in life as a classroom teacher and the journey she took to get there has brought her full circle to where her career began at Northside Elementary School.
For the last four years Vandagriff has been at Northside where she teaches fifth grade English, Language Arts, and Social Studies and its for her outstanding performance in the classroom that she has earned this year’s Teacher of the Year honor at the school.
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Northside is a special place for Vandagriff because its where she first started teaching fifth grade fifteen years ago fresh out of college. But after two years, Vandagriff left to join the staff at Dibrell Elementary School where she spent the next ten years of her life teaching third grade, before returning to Northside.
Although Vandagriff loves her job today, there was a time earlier in life when Vandagriff wasn’t so sure of her career path until she experienced a spiritual awakening.
“I had been working as a teacher assistant at Dibrell where my son attended school. After my first year of doing that I tried working in insurance and a couple of other things and never felt like I had found my niche in life. Then one morning I just woke up and it was like God speaking to me saying go back and get your degree. That very next day I went and signed up for my classes and never looked back. I graduated in 2004 with a Bachelors Degree in Education and I have a Masters Degree in Education from Tennessee Tech. I feel like it’s a true calling and what I need to be doing,” she said.
Vandagriff is happy to be back at Northside Elementary and enjoys working with the students and her fellow teachers.
“I love it here. I work with some exceptional teachers and they make me the teacher that I am. Without them I don’t think I could do what I do every day as well as I am able to do it so the team we have here at Northside is why I drive thirty minutes each day to come and teach these children. It makes me a better teacher,” she said.
When asked about being named Teacher of the Year at Northside Elementary, Vandagriff said “I am honored but also humbled. Of course I never feel like I am doing enough as a teacher and I always want to do a better job but it is an honor”.
How would she feel if named DeKalb County Teacher of the Year? “ That would be a great honor too. The other teachers (nominees) are so exceptional I don’t feel like that would happen but it would be a great honor,” she said.
In addition to Vandagriff, this year’s honorees are Justin Nokes, seventh grade World History teacher at DeKalb Middle School; first grade teacher Vicky Hawker at Smithville Elementary School; Linda Parris, a family and consumer sciences/culinary arts teacher at DeKalb County High School; and Jessica Antoniak, a sixth grade math and science teacher at DeKalb West School.
The overall DeKalb County Teacher of the Year winner will be announced during the twelfth annual Teacher of the Year banquet next Tuesday, March 5 at the Smithville First Baptist Church Life Enrichment Center.
WJLE will be featuring each of the five Teachers of the Year at the school level through next Tuesday. Features on Justin Nokes, Vicky Hawker, and Linda Parris already appear further down this page under local news.