Teaching Roots & Student Growth

A partly cloudy day in Lexington turned bright when we met Leigh Allison from Garrison Elementary—a teacher facing her first year with an ELL student and embracing the challenge with heart and strategy. Lee opens up about the early spark that led her into teaching (yes, stuffed-animal classrooms), the power of feeling known at school, and why belonging is the foundation for any real academic climb.

Website: spotlight4success.com

Chapters

• 0:06 Welcome from Lexington Conference
• 0:36 Why Lee Came: Supporting an ELL Student
• 1:07 Lee’s Path to Teaching
• 1:52 ABC Company Overview and Guarantee
• 2:44 Classroom Use of ABC Materials
• 3:32 Final Thoughts and Conference Takeaway

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I'm Devin Pentosa, your host. We are here at the Continuous Improvement Conference in Partly Cloudy, Lexington, Kentucky. It's a beautiful day outside, and we're enjoying everything going on here at the conference. I am here with my special guest, Lee Allison. Lee Allison joins us from Garrison Elementary, and we're so happy that you can join us today here at uh at the Kentucky Conference.

SPEAKER_01: 0:33

Yes, absolutely. Me too.

SPEAKER_00: 0:35

All right. So, Lee Allison, can you tell me a bit about what brings you here to the conference?

SPEAKER_01: 0:41

My district actually um reached out to me and asked me to attend. Um this year I have an ELL student.

SPEAKER_00: 0:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 0:51

Um, and there have been a lot of different sessions to kind of give some guidance with that. This is our first time having an ELL student. Oh. So just um helping prepare me to be the best that I can be for her.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05

Oh, that's awesome. That's so good. Uh, can you tell me a bit about uh your educational journey? Um what made you uh kind of go in the direction of becoming a teacher?

SPEAKER_01: 1:16

Absolutely. So I was the kid, um, when I was little, I would come home and I would line up all of my stuffed animals and teach to them. So I was kind of a natural, natural-born teacher. Um, but other than that, just the influence teachers had on me inspired me to do the same for other um kids in my community. Show the love that they showed me. I knew that I had my family, but also having that whole school that I knew cared about me, about my education, it really um influenced me to give that to other students as well.

SPEAKER_00: 1:51

Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success. I am Devin Pentosi, the chief operating officer of American Book Company. We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, Georgia. All of our materials are printed in the USA. We have course books, ebooks and online testing in grades in mathematics, LA and social studies. These materials are all designed to help students achieve higher scores on their state specific and high status assessment. We guarantee score improvement. You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abc12.com. We look forward to hearing from you. And uh so uh so where did you go to university?

SPEAKER_01: 2:47

Um, Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky. Oh wow, so not too far from no just about 30, 40 minutes. Um, so very local. I I wanted to stay in my community throughout the whole process.

SPEAKER_00: 3:01

That is so wonderful. And uh what grades are you teaching?

SPEAKER_01: 3:04

I teach third and fourth grade reading.

SPEAKER_00: 3:06

Oh, okay, that's great. And uh I understand you've used uh American Book Company materials before ABC.

SPEAKER_01: 3:12

We started using them last year and I really enjoy them. The kids love them. Um the best thing about the books are they are rigorous and they are formatted like the KSA, so it gives them that opportunity to practice um and prepare for the big test.

SPEAKER_00: 3:30

Oh, that's wonderful. Um, and uh, do you have anything you'd like to share with the uh continuing uh continuous improvement conference attendees today?

SPEAKER_01: 3:41

Um honestly, I hope everyone's having a great time because I am. I've learned so much, and you should definitely look at ordering these resources from them because they truly are amazing and help the students grow.

SPEAKER_00: 3:55

Oh, that's awesome. Thank you once again, Lee Allison with uh Garrison Elementary. Thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01: 4:02

Thank you. Thank you for having me.