JACKSON — The best advice Annie Stribling Thirkell, the Aiken County School District's 2014-15 First-Year Teacher of the Year, could have received before beginning her professional career last fall: "Bee prepared."
When bees invaded her classroom at East Aiken School of the Arts and made a home in her ceiling, she just picked up her things and her students and taught in the hallway for about a week. A few bees couldn't kill her buzz and excitement about teaching.
"You learn something new every day," said Thirkell, who teaches third grade and was honored with other first-year teachers at a district banquet at Jackson Middle School on Wednesday afternoon. "Sometimes, it's good; sometimes, it's bad; but it's always something that I can grow from. There have been injuries and heartbreaking stories; but then one of my students tells me a joke, and I'm laughing for 10 minutes."
A native and still a resident of North Augusta, Thirkell grew up in a family of teachers. Her grandmother, mother, aunt and cousins all taught, and from a "very, very young age," Thirkell knew she wanted to be a teacher, too.
"I thought about other careers, but I always came back to education," she said.
Thirkell attended Belvedere Elementary, North Augusta Middle and North Augusta High, and when she got to Clemson University, she "absolutely fell in love with elementary education." She even did her student teaching at a school that, like East Aiken, integrates arts and academics.
"I feel like East Aiken is where I'm meant to be, and Aiken County has been nothing but wonderful for me," Thirkell said.
Thirkell said she is grateful for the award and honored to be recognized with first-year teachers from other district schools.
"I'm just glad to be recognized among them," she said.
East Aiken Principal Lisa Fallaw said she knew Thirkell, who danced in high school and did an internship in theater at Disney, was a perfect fit for East Aiken's arts integration program when she first walked in the door for her interview.
"She is so deserving. She is one of the best first-year teachers I've ever had the honor of hiring," Fallaw said. "Her professionalism and the positive energy that she brings to the classroom, I couldn't ask for more. She has a shine about her. She was born to do this."
A native of Aiken, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter.