Kristyn Erickson, a first grade teacher at Truman Primary, was named Norman Public Schools’ 2024 Teacher of the Year.
Erickson has taught at Norman Public Schools for 12 years, impacting students who have come through her classroom doors with her loving passion for learning and dedication to her students' success.
“I believe teacher of the year should be someone whose goal at the end of every single day, they know they made an effort to teach in a way their learners can learn,” Erickson said.
Erickson explained how her teaching style and philosophy has evolved over her years of experience. Starting out, she implemented a method called balanced literacy, which focuses on putting students in a comfortable environment and exposing them to books.
“If we provided a cozy place for children to learn to love to read, and we expose them to a lot of great children's books, they will just learn how to read and that was enough. … But that wasn't enough,” Erickson said.
Four years ago, Erickson began to shift to a new method called structured literacy. This method centers around specifically teaching children the lessons in literature, rather than simply placing the books in front of kids and hoping they enjoy it.
“It's very systematic and explicit instruction that follows a certain scope and sequence to ensure that kids are building skills every single day,” Erickson said.
Erickson said she was chosen as teacher of the year because of her passion for structural literacy and her larger passion and goal to ensure all students can read and write.
“The fact that I was teacher of the year, it makes me hopeful that other people, that there were other people in the process that heard that and feel like it's a worthwhile cause,” Erickson said.
Erickson believes structured literacy benefits her students in the classroom and beyond. She explained the importance of preparing her students with knowledge to set them up for success.
“(Teachers) are not able to do what they are supposed to do without the literacy instruction and what my platform is all about,” Erickson said. “I’m making sure I'm building background knowledge which is part of structured literacy, then down the road in high school, teachers can get their students to understand these concepts because of the background knowledge coming to these grades.”
Currently, Erickson is finishing a two-year program to become a certified academic language therapist. This program was created by Dallas Scottish Rite Children's Center for Dyslexia and teaches educators how to reach students who struggle with dyslexia. Erickson is planning to apply what she learns in the program to her classroom to help better support her students who are learning to read while also providing tools and skills to help students with dyslexia.
Erickson credited her first principal who helped push her to improve her skills and challenged her to be a better educator.
“Being named teacher of the year has everything to do with a lot of people that came before me that really helped me out,” Erickson said.
Erickson also mentioned her role model growing up, her second grade teacher, Mrs. Battle. Battle helped Erickson feel valued and seen while in school.
“She just really really made me feel like I belonged. It made me love school and love her classroom. … It felt like home after that year with her,” Erickson said.
Every day Erickson sits with her students, taking time to talk about what's going on in everyone's day and giving every student time to share something throughout the week. Everything is discussed from what they learn in class to how their family member's birthday was.
“A classroom of children become a family,” Erickson said. “It's a really sweet part of the day where you get to connect with students. … I think that's one of my favorite parts, that relationship building part of the day.”
This story was edited by Peggy Dodd, Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Natalie Armour and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
