Spotlight 4 Success

Embracing Change From Travel Agent to Teacher

• American Book Company

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Discover the journey of Sandra Gay, an educator who transitioned from running a travel agency to shaping young minds in the classroom. Sandra shares her passion for teaching English Language Arts and Social Studies to seventh graders at Dodge County Middle School, where she also serves as the MTSS coach. Her unique approach, focusing on multi-tiered systems of support, has made a significant impact on her students, both academically and behaviorally. Tune in to hear Sandra's invaluable insights and discover how she’s making a difference in a rural community against all odds.

Devin Pintozzi:

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I am Devin Pintozzi, your host, and we are here at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. I'm here with Sandra Gay, nice to see you today.

Sandra Gay:

Good to see you.

Devin Pintozzi:

All right, she's with Dodge County Middle School, is that right? That's right, okay, wonderful. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Sandra Gay:

Sure, I have been teaching for about 14 years and I've been at Dodge County Middle School for about seven, so about half my career.

Devin Pintozzi:

Wow, yeah, yeah. Tell us about some of the things you do currently at Dodge County Middle School.

Sandra Gay:

Okay, well, I teach English language arts to seventh grade and I also teach social studies, and then I'm also the MTSS coach for the middle school.

Devin Pintozzi:

Wow, tell us a little bit about your work with MTSS.

Sandra Gay:

Sure, okay. So MTSS is multi-tiered systems of support, so we support students' needs based on where they are individually, and so what I do is keep up with a lot of data, a lot of information about where kids are academically as well as behaviorally.

Devin Pintozzi:

Wow, that's a really big job. Sometimes it is.

Devin Pintozzi:

Wow, a lot of hats. Tell us a little bit about. Do you have anything you'd like to share about maybe a special moments you've had with your students where you felt like there was that change or that moment that led more to success for them?

Sandra Gay:

Sure. So one of the things that just stands out to me is I had a student when I first started teaching and in the last probably three years that student contacted me on social media, found me and contacted me and has talked about how much of a difference I made because I really listened to what they needed instead of just giving them the same curriculum across the board. You know, I kind of said, hey, this kid needs something totally different from everybody else in the classroom, and so we really worked with the school system to make that happen, the school system to make that happen. And he actually moved up a grade level and is now a graduate of Georgia Tech. So that was just really special to me that he was able to make those great strides and be successful.

Devin Pintozzi:

Wow, Sandra. What a great transformational experience for that student and wonderful that you could be part of all of that experience there. Before you were at Dodge County Middle School, what kind of work were you doing?

Sandra Gay:

So before that I've done several things. I owned my own business, I owned a travel agency, I worked for a real estate agent and then decided I couldn't keep doing this for the rest of my life. I had to do something different. So I went back to school and wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, and I lived in a very rural community, very poor, and it was either work in a hospital or a school. That was pretty much it.

Devin Pintozzi:

Oh, okay.

Sandra Gay:

So you know, there's just not a lot of opportunities in that very rural community, and so I ended up teaching and I loved it.

Devin Pintozzi:

That is wonderful, and is there anything, a special takeaway you'd like to share with the Georgia educational technology community for them to know?

Sandra Gay:

Anything, I think this is a really important way to bring to light a lot of the technology that's needed in school systems. I've seen a lot of things for MTSS to use and I think this is a big bonus for people in Georgia to be able to come to this conference and have access to all the information in one place.

Devin Pintozzi:

Wonderful Well. Thank you, Sandra. We really appreciate you being part of us here at at Spotlight for Success by American Book Company and we hope that this is an incredible experience for you today and and throughout the conference.

Sandra Gay:

Thank you so much.

Devin Pintozzi:

Thank you.