PORT ISABEL — While growing up, Tifani McIver felt inspired by her teachers to pursue a career in education.
From seeing them teach materials in creative ways to helping students master different skills, McIver said she has always admired teachers.
And through these experiences, she decided to become one and has been an educator for the past 10 years.
Tuesday, the Point Isabel School District announced that McIver and her second grade class were the recipients of the Texas Imagine Language and Literacy Teamwork Award, based on their usage of a learning program.
“I am really proud of the students,” McIver said. “It’s because of their hard work and dedication to the program that they were able to win.”
Since August, McIver’s students have been working with Imagine Language and Literacy, an adaptive learning program that accelerates reading and language proficiency for students.
“It was kind of like a drawing,” McIver said. “If your kids met the goal of 240 minutes as a whole class over the school year, there was a drawing and we were selected because they had met their goal for the year.”
The program supplements the core reading program by providing instruction and practice in all four domains of literacy — reading, writing, listening and speaking.
“I’ve seen sometimes whenever I start teaching a concept that’s a main idea or anything like that, some of the kids will raise their hand that they saw it on Imagine Language and Literacy so then I’ll let them tell me what they already know about it,” McIver said. “So that helps start the class discussion.”
McIver said the advice she would give to aspiring teachers is to treat every child as if they were their own, and to love and encourage them in all aspects of their lives.
“I really enjoy seeing the students grow, learn so much and become empowered that they can do this,” McIver said. “It’s awesome to see them learn, grow and realize that they are capable of doing anything.”
