Two BCSC educators receive Hanley teaching awards

Two local teachers are being honored for their work with elementary students.

Amy Elsbury, a fifth grade teacher at Rockcreek Elementary School , and Jill Garris, a physical education teacher at CSA Lincoln and Fodrea, are the 2022 winners of the William and Sally Hanley Excellence in Teaching Award, which is administered through the Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.

The award was established in 2000 and recognizes “outstanding elementary teachers” in the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. The honor comes with a stipend.

“Recipients are nominated by their principals and must demonstrate dedication to their job, exemplary initiative and contributions to improve the school and its environment,” said BCSC officials. “Nominations are accompanied by letters of recommendation from the principal, fellow teachers, parents and students.”

Garris has been teaching for about 15 years and has been with BCSC that entire time. She’s been at CSA Fodrea from the start. During her first two years, she was also did P.E. at Schmitt and Parkside elementary schools. She is currently split between CSA Lincoln and Fodrea — it has been 12 years since she started at Lincoln.

The best part of her job, said Garris, is the kids and their “excitement for whatever silly thing I want them to do.”

“We play a lot while we learn,” she said.

Garris found ways to incorporate the winter Olympics into her curriculum — creating “bobsleds” by putting gymnastic mats on two gym scooters so that students could push their teams around and race each other. The scooters also came in handy for makeshift curling, and students “skated” by racing around on felt strips and dryer sheets.

The most challenging part of Garris’ job?

“The kids,” she said with a laugh. “… You always have someone that’s not going to to get excited about everything. And finding ways to reach those that may not want to exercise as much or the ones that, outside of school, they’re not as active, and this may be their only exercise time of the entire week. So trying to find what they like and what is going to get them involved and get them excited about what we are doing. And so far, we have.”

Garris said her job is made easier by teachers, who support “all of my silly ideas.” She’s also grateful to CSA Lincoln Principal Brett Findley for nominating her for the Hanley award.

The announcement, made at CSA Lincoln shortly before field day, had come as a surprise.

“Usually, specials teachers are not thought of for teaching awards and things, because we have all of the students and not just a small group, so a lot of times we’re not as recognized as classroom teachers,” said Garris. “So very surprised, thankful that someone did recognize that we do serve a big purpose in the students’ everyday life.”

As with Garris, receiving the Hanley award came as a surprise to Elsbury. She was in class when one of the school’s counselors came into her room. The counselor was holding her phone out, which seemed strange to Elsbury. Then, her family and coworkers came streaming into the classroom, which only added to her confusion until the announcement was made.

“It’s a huge honor,” she said. “It feels — I don’t know. I don’t do the things I do to get an award, obviously, but it’s humbling to be recognized for it. … When you find out that your principal had to nominate you and other people had to write letters of recommendation, I’m just kind of in awe that people would do that for me.”

Elsbury has been in education for more than 30 years and has been with Rockcreek for 28 years. She started out teaching kindergarten at St. Peter’s Lutheran School and later moved to Illinois for a few years, where she didn’t teach. Upon returning to Columbus, she initially worked in special education at Schmitt.

“Back then, you had to work your way back into the classroom,” she said. “It was hard to get a teaching job back then — opposite of what it is today. So I spent a year as a special education teacher’s assistant to get back into the school corporation.”

Elsbury then joined Rockcreek. She taught first grade for her first 10 years and third grade for another 10. With her last third grade class, she moved forward with them through fourth and fifth grade and has stayed in fifth grade since.

As with Garris, students are a major part of why Elsbury loves teaching.

“I think it’s just making those connections with the kids, seeing a kid, seeing a student who reaches their potential or reaches a goal that they have been trying to get to,” she said. “But the kids are definitely the best part of the job.”

The most challenging part of her job, said Elsbury, is finding the time to get everything done.

Despite the difficulties that come with the profession, she hopes that people “continue to see the value in being a teacher.”

“My daughter-in-law and then one of my other sons’ fiancée is also a teacher, and I’m really excited for their future,” she said. “… They’ll keep doing this after I don’t do it anymore. When my son gets married this fall, there’ll be old Mrs. Elsbury in fifth grade and young Mrs. Elsbury in kindergarten. So the Mrs. Elsbury tradition will continue out here.”