Teri Turner knew little of charter schools as a teacher in training but now is an award-winning mainstay at Keystone Academy.
Her first impression of Keystone came through her aunt, who was a registrar when the school opened in 2003. When her aunt found out that Turner was going to college to become a teacher, she encouraged her to become a substitute teacher and join her at Keystone. Soon after she became a long-term sub and quickly realized that helping students grow in empathy, self-awareness, and kindness through Moral Focus virtues was what she sought in support of realizing her dream of teaching.
“I just always felt very welcomed. Everything was very structured,” Turner said. “It was just a much different experience than subbing at public schools. I noticed wow, they have everything really put together. There are different procedures for everything, they have all these systems in place and the kids seemed very happy here.
“That’s one of my favorite things to teach; I make jokes that I could just teach Moral Focus all day, but you kind of do because you intertwine it in everything.”
Turner now is in her eighth year as a fourth grade teacher and was honored as an Excellence in Teaching winner as part of the NHA Excellence Awards for the 2022-23 school year. She attributed her success that year to a well-rounded class of students and being comfortable with the curriculum after several years at Keystone, which has outperformed the district for 15 years.
“I felt like I put my all into it that year. It’s not that I don’t every year, but I just felt like last year was probably my best,” she said. “I felt really good about it inside even before getting an award.”
Being a teacher has always been the goal for Turner. She remembers coming home from her first week of school as a student and telling her mom about how much enjoyed the environment. Even in elementary school she would make up homework assignments for others.
Now that she has her own classroom, she hopes students will remember her because of her compassion – not necessarily the work – by being a positive role model in their life as they go on to high school, college, and beyond.
“That’s all you could hope for, that you impact students in a positive way and set them up for success with their future,” she said. “I really do feel like school is the place where you set a foundation for your life, so I feel really grateful and happy to be a part of that even though it was just for a small time with those certain kids.”
Keep up the excellent work, Mrs. Turner!
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About Keystone Academy
Keystone Academy is a tuition-free, public charter school in Belleville, Michigan, serving students in Young 5s through eighth grade. It is part of the National Heritage Academies network, which includes more than 100 tuition-free, public charter schools serving more than 65,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade across nine states. For more information, visit nhaschools.com.
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