How Jennifer McCormick Found Her Calling

What happens when teaching finds you, rather than the other way around? Jennifer McCormick from Spring Hill Middle School in Scotland County shares her refreshing perspective on falling into education through tutoring, and how that unexpected path led to a fulfilling career spanning both middle and high school classrooms.

Spotlight 4 Success Website: Spotlight 4 Success

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I'm Devin Pintosi, your host.
We are here at the NCMLE, thatis, the North Carolina Mid-Level
Educators Conference inCharlotte, north Carolina.
We are here with our specialguest, jennifer McCormick.
With our special guest,jennifer McCormick.
Jennifer McCormick comes to usfrom Spring Hill Middle School

(00:30):
in wonderful Scotland CountyDepartment of Education.
We are so happy to have youhere, jennifer, and so nice to
speak with you today.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you and good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yes, Jennifer, so tell us a bit about what brings
you to the conference today.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, I'm here.
I haven't been in a while, so Iwas a bit about what brings you
to the conference today.
Well, I'm here, I haven't beenin a while, so I was like I
wanted to come and check outsome information and to learn
some new things.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Oh, that's wonderful, and so tell us a bit about your
journey.
I understand what brought youinto teaching in the first place
.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
For me.
It kind of found me.
I was in school and thetutoring coordinators.
They approached me and asked ifI would start helping out
treating some classes in math,and that's pretty much how it
started.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Wonderful, and I understand you taught in both
middle school and high school.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yes, middle school and high school Is that right?
Yes, middle school and highschool.
My experience with high school,starting out with the credit
recovery department in Algebra Iso both, I love both.
But there's differences.
With my middle school kids, youhave them all year long and
with high school you have themevery other year.
Each semester is like a newyear.

(01:44):
So I would say there's pros andcons with both, but they're,
I'll say, the kids.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
I love them that's wonderful at american book
company in woodstock, georgia,we are committed to your
students success.
As you can see behind me, wehave our workbooks and we have
online testing and ebooks thatgo on fancy ipads over here, for
instance.
They're all designed to helpyour students succeed and have
higher test scores on theirhigh-stakes assessments.

(02:09):
Give us a call 888-264-5877, orfind us on the web, abck12.com,
and you can receive a freetrial or a free preview book of
your choice.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Bye-bye.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Have you used American Book Company books in
the past?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I have.
It looks different but I haverecognized the symbol on the
book.
At one of my schools we had aclass set so I do remember how
it was broken down and lookingthrough that when I was like
this is the book, I really.
I like how it's set up andespecially with some of the
concepts.
Everything has broken down insteps and gives examples for the
kids to practice and then goahead and do the problems in the

(02:50):
book.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
So I really enjoy that.
That is wonderful and did yourschool, your classroom, see
score improvement using thematerials.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
I saw improvement with how it's broken down.
With some kids who struggle orsay I don't understand it, they
have a visual to actually lookat it and practice those
problems in the book broken downwith some kids who struggle or
say I don't understand it.
They have something, a visual,to actually look at it and
practice those problems in thebook.
And so for those that did help,I learned some different things
.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
That is fantastic.
Great to hear, Jennifer.
Is there any takeaways from theconference you've experienced
so far or anything you'relooking to see from the
conference while you're here?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, I haven't gotten my first class yet.
I'm getting a little going tothe table seeing some of the
resources.
I haven't seen them around, butI think it's pretty neat to try
to definitely see if I can usethem or take them back to school
.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Okay, yeah, that's a big part of a conference seeing
what's available for theteachers, all those teacher
tools that are here, right, yes,that's the fun part, it's an
exciting part too.
That's wonderful, jennifer, andis there anything else you'd
like to share with the NCMLEcommunity?

Speaker 2 (03:53):
I think it's really neat to see everybody get
together from different areas.
I think that's also exciting.
We've got some people fromdifferent areas to come together
to learn new tools, and it'sall about the kids.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yes, all about the kids.
That's a great takeaway fromthis.
Always is that's wonderful.
Again, this is JenniferMcCormick with Spring Hill
Middle School.
Thank you so much forparticipating with us today.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Thank you.