By Nikki Dabney

Staff Writer

Every month a CHS teacher is nominated by his or her co-workers and selected as Teacher of the Month. February’s Teacher of the Month is special education teacher Arresha Robinson.

Robinson was nominated by her teammate Andrew Patterson for the changes and improvements she has recently made to the special education program.

In the past few weeks, Robinson created an individualized learning plan for each student in her P.E. Peer Tutor program that documents the specific growth of skills for every student. Robinson took this program to the next level the past month with accountability and continuous assessment that allow the teachers and students to know their progress.

Robinson also created an organizational system using Google Docs that completely re-organized official ARD documents for the entire special education
department.

“Many may know that paperwork is a big part of special education,” Patterson said. “This has and will continue to make our job easier and more efficient so we can spend less time on paperwork and more time in the classroom with kids.”

Robinson also streamlined the structure of a course known as Content Mastery by organizing areas where individuals can be separated for focused work while small groups can still work quietly.

“This separation has been needed and Ms. Robinson made it happen,” Patterson said.

While teachers notice the hard work that fellow teachers put into their work, from a student’s perspective, the best teacher is one who cares about his or her students and impacts their lives.

“Robinson’s positive and helpful attitude is infectious,” Patterson said. “I’ve seen frustrated teachers come away from meeting with her leaving happy because of her help. I know that sounds like a simple observation, yet it goes a very long way.”

Check out the CHS Teacher of the Month Facebook page to keep up with who wins the award each month.