Jamie Andrews, a kindergarten teacher at Madison County Central School, works to incorporate the arts into her teaching methods.
Andrews, a Madison local, didn’t originally plan on teaching kindergarten; in fact, she wanted to be an art teacher. She was very much into art, but after a word of advice from one of her own high school teachers, Andrews changed he course. Instead of teaching art, she chose to go into general education and allow her love of the arts to guide her teaching methods.
“I’ve taught everything up to 5th grade,” said Andrews.
While this year marks her first year at MCCS, Andrews has been teaching for 16 years.
Before teaching in any Florida school, Andrews taught in Georgia and then she was a teacher at Madison Academy for 10 years before coming to MCCS.
Even though she has not been at MCCS for long, she already has wishes for her students, young as they are. “I would like [the students] to discover that learning is fun,” Andrews said. “To not back away from the challenge but to find a way to approach it [in a way] that will make it fun.”
Without a doubt, Andrews says that her favorite part of being a teacher is interacting with her students.
Andrews says that there have been things that she has personally taken away from spending time as a teacher. “A lot of children go into things wide-eyed, and sometimes you need that,” said Andrews during the interview, while she sat amongst a classroom filled with arts and crafts supplies and drawings from her students. “Sometimes you have to remember how it was to be like them. It gives a whole new aspect to what you are doing,” said Andrews “Sometimes I might come in and think, ‘oh my goodness, I can’t believe this is what I have to do,’ and then I look at them, and they are going, ‘you mean this is what we get to do.’ It’s more of a ‘get to do’ than ‘have to do.’ Sometimes you have to take a step back and remember how it was to be a child so you can approach things a little bit differently.”
Andrews has been married to her husband for 16 years and has a daughter who attends Madison County High School.
When she isn’t pouring herself into her teaching, Andrews may be either working with the Junior Auxiliary or going to concerts with her daughter. “It’s actually [something] my daughter and I [enjoy doing],” said Andrews.
Andrews is a lover of literature, especially children’s literature. Andrews mentained that she would much rather read a child’s book than an adult’s. “[Children’s books] even choke me up a bit,” Andrews laughs.
