SOE senior Haley Cheatham (left) with UM School of Education Dean David Rock at MDE.

SOE senior Hayley Cheatham was named UM’s Outstanding Student Teacher by the Mississippi Department of Education during this year’s Mississippi Teacher of the Year and Administrator of the Year ceremony held in Jackson on April 14. The elementary education major was honored for her outstanding service in a sixth-grade classroom at Pontotoc Middle School. Cheatham is a Madison, Mississippi, native and an avid Ole Miss Baseball fan. While preparing for her college graduation in May, she is also preparing to embark on a new chapter in her life as an Ole Miss graduate student and graduate assistant at the Willie Price Lab School.

This semester, while Cheatham’s friends were in class, she was going to work every day at Pontotoc Middle School. She described student teaching as a unique opportunity to gain experience. “You’re not yet a certified teacher, but you certainly aren’t a student,” Cheatham said.

As a student teacher, Cheatham had the opportunity to incorporate some of the real world into her favorite classroom lesson. While teaching her sixth-grade English students about ‘point of view,’ she drew inspiration from her love of baseball; creating a fun, meaningful example for her students and sharing a little bit about herself at the same time.

Reflecting fondly on her time at Ole Miss, Cheatham attributes her success as an educator to the mentors she gained while working as a student teacher. “I’ve learned so much from the clinical instructor I am under,” she explained. “I feel confident in my ability to continue growing as an educator with the tools and skills she has equipped me with.”

Story by E. McCormick