Liquita Williams loves teaching at Bankston Elementary School and works hard to find ways to do her job better.
But she says it was “a shock” when she was named the Greenwood school district’s Teacher of the Year last week.
She knew she was Teacher of the Year for Bankston but had no idea she would receive the districtwide honor. Now that she has won it, she says it means a lot.
“It just goes to show that the hard work you do doesn’t go unnoticed,” she said.
Williams, 45, an Itta Bena native, graduated from Leflore County High School in 1989. She had no interest in teaching while she was growing up; in fact, she wanted to be a social worker. She ended up working at Rocky Manufacturing for two years and then spent 10 years as a correctional officer at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.
At the urging of an aunt who was a secretary at Leflore County High, she put her name on the list to be a substitute teacher in the Leflore County School District, and that work led her to a change of direction.
“One day I was subbing a second-grade classroom, and I met a young boy who could write his name on the paper, but he couldn’t identify the letters that spelled his name,” she said. “And that was my turning point. ... That hurt me to my heart. And that’s the reason I started teaching.”
She completed a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Mississippi Valley State University in 2004 and added a master’s degree in that field at Valley in 2008.
Building her confidence in the classroom took time early on, but she grew to love the work.
“It’s my passion. I just love teaching,” she said. “And I tell them now, I think I was born to teach — even though this is not what I initially wanted to do with my life.”
She said she also benefited from some good mentors, including Donna Washington, Nancy Flanagan and Tara Harris. After she started at Bankston in 2004, Harris, a first-grade teacher, made sure that she knew what to do and how to examine and use data properly, she said.
“She was a godsend,” Williams recalled. “She’s probably the best teacher that I’ve ever encountered.”
Williams taught kindergarten in her first three years at Bankston and has taught fourth grade since. She initially taught all subjects in fourth grade but now teaches only math in accordance with Common Core.
In addition taking part in professional development activities, Williams watches online videos about teaching on YouTube and other sites. She also goes to training events in the district, at MVSU and elsewhere, and she has applied to participate in Creating High Achievement in Mathematics and Problem Solving (CHAMPS), a two-week program for math teachers, which will be held at the Mississippi University for Women in July.
“Whenever I hear of something that I know I can benefit from, I’m going to try to attend it,” she said.
Also, when school resumes in August, she will start work on earning national board certification. She has heard that it requires a lot of work, but she believes she is up to it.
“I’ve learned that when I want something bad enough, I make it happen,” she said.
Williams said she plans to continue teaching at her current grade level unless the district moves her elsewhere.
“I thought about being a principal once, but then I changed my mind. I didn’t want to have to go back to school,” she said. “But long-term, I think I may just stay in the classroom and see how many lives I can impact while I’m here.”
She is married to Willie Williams and has a daughter and two sons: Brittany Ross, who is 27 and lives in Itta Bena; Terence Ross, 26, who lives in Memphis; and Jarvis Ross, 18, who will graduate from Leflore County High School on Tuesday.
She said that when her husband asks how her day was, she says it was a good day even if it wasn’t.
“My bad days are still good days,” she said.
In fact, she said she is well known for having a smile on her face, and people often ask why she’s smiling at a given moment.
Her explanation is simple: “That’s just me.”
• Contact David Monroe at 581-7236 or dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
