CA Pride - Tammy Penland

Tammy Penland is absolutely as excited about learning as our students are! She is constantly looking for new ideas that will enhance the learning experience for them. Best of all she stays "tuned in" to what the kids are interested in and draws her inspiration directly from them.

Mrs. Penland has been with CA for 8 Years. I first met her when she started volunteering in her nephew's class and discussed doing observations and an internship as part of her early childhood education classes. She began working on some special projects for us and is now a full time employee..

You may know Mrs. Penland as the kindergarten teaching assistant for both the morning program and K-Cubs in the afternoon. (I will write more about her role in developing our K-Cubs program in a future blog.) She is the kindergarten art teacher as well. Or you may know her as the Adventure Kids coordinator who plans our wonderful after school program for first through fifth grade students. Some of you know her as a tutor who has helped students strengthen their skills. Regardless of how you know her, one thing is certain. Mrs. Penland approaches everything she does with enthusiasm, dedication and hard work.

Mrs. Penland is constantly looking for opportunities for professional development. For example, she attended Handwriting Without Tears training a few years ago and is able to work with Mrs. Perkins to carry out this program in kindergarten. She also has taken sign language classes and has been teaching that to our kindergarten students. She models the love of learning for our students on a regular basis by learning new skills herself and then using them to enrich their learning experiences.

If you know Mrs. Penland at all, you probably know about her love of animals. She is a regular volunteer at the Portsmouth Humane Society. She brings her passion for taking care of animals to our students. For the past few years she has helped kindergarten students sponsor a drive to collect coins, food, and bedding materials for the shelter. She turns this into a math lesson as well as having the kids tally and graph how many items they collected before gift wrapping them and taking everything to the shelter for Christmas. She also helps CARES club with its annual animal shelter project.

Mrs. Penland's commitment to community service is not limited to helping animals. She looks for other opportunities to involve our students in projects that will help others. A great example is the Stone Soup project that is now an annual tradition for both kindergarten and CARES CLUB students. Based on the classic story, our students prepare enough soup to provide a lunch to approximately 100 homeless people at OASIS in Portsmouth. This is quite a process of chopping, measuring and getting it just right to make a delicious hearty meal. Mrs. Penland along with her husband, Mark, and many adult volunteers make this happen. Our students love knowing that they are doing something to make a difference in the lives of others. Now that is what I call fostering a love of learning.