York teacher of year starts students on the right path

Disney World might bill itself as the most magical place on earth, but Jennifer Capps doesn’t buy it. For her, magic happens every day in her classroom of 4-year-olds.

“You sing, you play and you have so much fun,” said Capps, 38, who teaches prekindergarten at Harold C. Johnson Elementary School in York.

“They are starting out with you, and they are like a blank slate,” Capps said about her students. “You teach them manners, and you teach them academics. It’s starting them out with this really positive start.”

Capps was recently named the York school district’s 2015 Teacher of the Year. She was chosen for the honor from among 10 school-level teachers of the year in York, who were named last spring.

Capps, who is beginning her 14th year in York schools, teaches in an all-day, need-based prekindergarten program that was funded by the state for the first year last fall. Before that, the program was a half-day program.

She said the all-day program enables teachers to prepare children socially, emotionally and academically to begin kindergarten. “You get to look at the whole child,” she said.

Last year, she said, her class studied the life cycle of frogs, and she used a sensory table to help them understand. Every day, she added different parts of the frog life cycle to the table, from frog eggs to tadpoles and finally fully developed frogs.

“Every day, it was so exciting to watch them come in and say, ‘What are our frogs going to be like today?’” she said. “That was really fun. They are so inquisitive, and they enjoy school so much at that age.”

A couple years ago, Capps attended a York Comprehensive High School graduation, where she saw her first group of students get their diplomas. She was worried that she would not recognized her former students.

But she did.

“Most of them, before they came across the stage I knew who they were,” she said. “I was proud of myself, because I had started them out and now they were graduating.”

Capps said she never would have expected to become a teacher 20 years ago, in 1995, when she graduated from Clover High School. She went to York Technical College and earned a diploma in teleproduction technology.

She worked for a while as a local television station camera person in the field and in the studio, shooting news stories and editing the video. But she quickly learned that it wasn’t for her.

“It was too hustle-bustle,” said Capps, who said she had previously worked at day care centers while taking classes at York Tech. “And I missed the kids.”

She returned to school at Winthrop University and earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education.

“If I had it to do again, I would have gone straight into teaching,” she said.

Capps said young children can be challenging, but she sees their potential. “I see the only place we have to go from here is up,” she said.

She also said working with young children has changed her personality. She is calmer and has greater patience because she is modeling good behavior for her students.

And she knows that they are watching.

“Even the most challenging student, by the end of the year, you wouldn’t be able to tell them from any other student,” she said. “And you kind of take that journey with them. It’s the most amazing thing in the world, just to see the progress they make in one year.”

Capps said she often whispers in the ears of her students to remind them what they need to do. One colleague told her he wondered what she was whispering.

“I’ll just remind them of our rules,” she said. “We have to be nice to our friends, or we’re going to walk in the hallway. Sometimes that calmness, it reminds them of what they need to do. With little ones, they really want to please you, so I use that to my advantage.”

Capps said she believes every student is capable of learning. “And they deserve the best education that they can receive. And that’s my job, to make sure that I’m at the top of my field.”

But teaching is more than reading and math. Citizenship and life skills are part of the package now. “I want to challenge them to do the best they can,” she said.

The other York school-level teachers of the year are:

▪  Kimberly Alexander, third grade, Cotton Belt Elementary

▪  Martha Dial, gifted and talented, Hickory Grove-Sharon Elementary

▪  Terry Roddey, second grade, Hunter Street Elementary

▪  Jessica Elliott, kindergarten, Jefferson Elementary

▪  Frankie Guempel, social studies, York Intermediate

▪  Kaye Hughes, special ed resource, York One Academy

▪  Patricia Green, social studies, York Middle

▪  Freda Linen, guidance, York Comprehensive High

▪  Rhonda Yommer, family/consumer science, Floyd D. Johnson Technology Center

This story was originally published September 4, 2015 at 3:13 PM with the headline "York teacher of year starts students on the right path."