SPOTLIGHT ON A MCCS STAR

Kerri Gibson has been nominated by her co-workers as the April, 2008 Star of the Month. Kerri has been a kindergarten classroom teacher in the District since July 12, 2000.

Sharon Gryzenia, the Building Principal says that "Kerri Gipson, one of our wonderful kindergarten teachers, is a well-respected member of our teaching staff. Her patience and genuine compassion for students are only some of her wonderful qualities. She is always positive with students and teaches her students to respect each other and others' opinions. She shows her students that there is always more than one way to complete a task." Mrs. Gryzenia says that Kerri is always looking for new opportunities and ways to interest her students in the learning process. She is a frequently requested teacher, in fact, her class is often filled with students whose parents have requested her. Mrs. Gryzenia says that "in addition to her duties as an exemplary kindergarten teacher, she shares Student Council and Bus Duty positions with Linda Knopp. She is always at the Roller Skating Parties, Halloween Fun Night and PTC meetings. Kerri is an active member of the MIBLSI team and the Michigan Champions of Technology team. Now -- most of those activities would wear us out -- but not Kerri! She also is an instructor at Saginaw Valley State University, teaching one to two graduate level classes each semester. As reported in the March HR Forum, Kerri was selected as a recipient of the "Make a Difference Award" from the MISD in February 2008. She was also selected to be showered with classroom supplies from OfficeMax in October 2007. Mrs. Gryzenia says that the students, and the educational community at King Academy are very fortunate to have Kerri Gipson as a member of our instructional team.

Kerri says that she has been very blessed to have been raised by two loving, caring and hard working parents. They raised Kerri by showing her that it takes hard work, prayer, support and family to be successful. Kerri says that she is the only child that God put in the perfect hands of a couple who desired a child. She was adopted by her parents as an infant. Kerri's father was born in Alabama and picked cotton until his family moved here to work in the automobile industry. Kerri's mother also began working at a very young age, taking care of her brothers.

Kerri says that the ethics of hard work and taking care of your family was instilled in her at a very young age. She is a member at Faith Missionary Baptist Church where her grandparents were founding members.

She lived in the south side of Warren and attended Van Dyke Public Schools until fifth grade. She finished Kindergarten and decided she wanted to become a Teacher. Her first and second grade teacher, Mrs. Marilyn Aldridge became a major influence on Kerri, her family and later her career. Mrs. Aldridge wanted her students to "make it" in life. She was a part of her students' communities and their lives. Kerri's mom kept a school journal for Kerri, the type that you put the student's picture in and asked who your teacher, friends, interests were, and what your career choice was. Every year Kerri wanted to be a teacher except first grade. Kerri says that she asked her mom what happened that year. Kerri's mother told Kerri that they had went to the bank and Kerri saw her mother deposit a check, and Kerri thought that the bank teller was able to keep all the money. So, in first grade, Kerri wanted to become a banker. Kerri's mom told her that the tellers do not get to keep that money and so she went back to wanting to be a teacher.

At ten, Kerri moved to Fraser, Michigan, where she attended and graduated from Fraser Public Schools. She continued to go back and help Mrs. Aldridge in her classroom on half days or days off. Kerri played basketball and the saxophone through junior high and freshman year. Kerri had been involved in dance since she was five years old and continued dancing in a studio and on the high school dance team. In high school she began to really enjoy the love for writing and an interest in the Spanish language.

After graduation, she attended Macomb Community College for three years. There she took three more years of Spanish, coached, danced and was a Writing and Spanish tutor for college students. She transferred to Eastern Michigan University. Kerri enjoyed playing intramural football, basketball and floor hockey. She started to see that she loved working with younger children and took an interest in Early Childhood Education. She says that when she was in college she had a difficult time being away from her close knit family. She has 18 first cousins and they are all very close. On Eastern's campus, she was also twenty one in a world of eighteen year olds. Her goal became to just finish school and get a teaching job. She joined Sigma, Sigma, Sigma sorority to become more involved on campus. She says that her parents thought that she was crazy "because she was always more of a tom boy then a girly girl." However her sorority experience showed her that she had leadership skills that she never knew were there. She did public relations, fundraising and became the vice president of the national sorority. She helped all new members and incoming freshman with their academics and promoted events to raise money for Children's Hospitals. She worked at the University Child Care center, tutored, and was also a nanny. She earned her Bachelors of Arts in Education and was endorsed in Early Childhood. After graduation, my parents moved to Kentucky and she began working in Mount Clemens.

Mount Clemens Schools is one of the first districts that she applied to teach in. She had worked for Clinton Township Parks and Recreation from high school through her first three years of college. This experience was excellent. She had attended a Parks and Recreation summer program when she was younger. She also worked for two years at the Steiner Building on Joy Boulvard. Kerri says that she loved working there and helped to build their Playgroup for Preschoolers at the Steiner Building during the school year. She says that she wanted to work in Mount Clemens again and was excited to teach here. She was hired in 2000 and began at Alexander Macomb. Kerri says that Mrs. Aldridge, her first and second grade teacher helped her set up her first classroom and continues to guide her and be her friend." (Isn't that an incredible relationship). This is her eighth year teaching kindergarten. She wants children to learn in a developmentally appropriate environment. She wants her students to love school, love learning and meet expectations set for them.

As mentioned earlier, Kerri's parents taught her that it takes hard work and had excellent work ethics in order to be successful. She says that she first started working when she was eight years old, when she took on her first babysitting job. Kerri watched, occasionally, a five month old baby and a Great Dane. The baby's parents were next door, but Kerri says that "sadly I was probably their best option for a babysitter in the neighborhood." Kerri says that she babysat through junior high and high school for many families. At age fifteen, she had her first job at a sport shoe store at Macomb Mall. She worked there for seven years. She also worked for Clinton Township Parks and Recreation, and she also had numerous jobs during college. She also worked for a professional hockey team with promotions, appearances and entertainment. Kerri says that job was a lot of fun too. She has just one job and that seems to continue. She likes to be involved. She has shared the job of bus coordinator and student council with Linda Knopp who is such an inspiration to work with. She has learned to garden but she is not sure if it is really one of her interests or not, but she thinks that her efforts help to make the school look pretty. She also loved teaching dance to fourth and fifth grade girls after school last year. She says that she has learned so much with working with the administrators, teachers, professors, social worker and psychologist in the past eight years.

For the last two years she has also been working as an adjunct professor at Saginaw Valley State University. She teaches Early Childhood courses for Graduate students at the Macomb Regional Center. She says that she loves working with other teachers, sharing ideas and getting back into child care centers during the summer.

I hope that you will all join me in congratulating Ms. Gibson for her recognition as Mount Clemens Community School District "Star of the Month".