Editor's note: This is the second in a five-part series on the Aiken County School District's five finalists for the District Teacher of the Year award.
The finalists for the District Teacher of the Year award - all of them highly respected in their schools - also are appreciated for being funny and wildly enthusiastic educators.
Tosha Quattlebaum, the Schofield Middle School instructional coach, surely fits that description. On the first day of school after the announcement, kids were high-fiving her, and she exchanged a fist-bump with one of her pals, English teacher Diane Burchett.
"It was a big surprise at the school level to be named the Teacher of the Year, recognized that at heart, I am a teacher," Quattlebaum said. "It's so rewarding now to be a finalist and that I will be on the (District's) Honor Court."
She grew up in Wagener, attending Busbee Elementary School, A.L. Corbett Middle School and Wagener-Salley High School. Quattlebaum regards the small-town atmosphere as invaluable. Her teachers urged her to read, to become hungry to learn.
By the time Quattlebaum arrived at the high school, she knew she would go into teaching and graduated with honors from the University of South Carolina. After years of teaching in the District, Quattlebaum joined Schofield's staff as a coach in 2012.
"It was a big transition for me," she said. "I didn't have my own students. But there are 600-plus here, and all of them are mine."
Dr. Lloydette Young, the Schofield principal, was a New Ellenton Middle School assistant principal when Quattlebaum was teaching there. At that time, Young said, Quattlebaum made literature come to life, especially for struggling readers.
At Schofield, "She is a great asset," Young said via email. "She provides instructional coaching, provides model lessons, and co-teaches."
After college, Quattlebaum was certain she would work with elementary children. When she was invited back to Corbett to teach seventh-grade at that time, she was surprised how much she enjoyed grades 6-8.
"What draws me to middle school is that the kids may need structure," she said. "There are so many transitions for them at that age."
In recent years, Quattlebaum earned a master's degree from Leslie University in the areas of curriculum and instruction - interested in moving to more of a school-wide role.
As the Schofield instructional coach, Quattlebaum also works with new teachers to refine their classroom strategies and the teaching of the curriculum, Young said. She "is an energetic motivator for our faculty and staff."
Senior writer Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard's education reporter and has been with the newspaper since September 2001. He is a native of Walterboro and majored in journalism at the University of Georgia.