BVU Grad Earns Top Council Bluffs Teaching Award
Britney (Hansen) Beatty, a fifth-grade teacher at Carter Lake Elementary School, has been honored by the Council Bluffs School District as the 2020 Certified Staff Member of the Year.
Buena Vista University graduate Britney (Hansen) Beatty was a bit shocked when Council Bluffs Community School District Superintendent of Schools Dr. Vickie Murillo joined Carter Lake Elementary School Principal Doreen Knuth and a pair of other school leaders in showing up at Beatty’s home in Gretna, Neb., recently.
“I was supposed to be on a Zoom call with my principal,” Beatty says. “They surprised me.”
They did in presenting Beatty with the 2020 Council Bluffs School District Certified Staff Member of the Year award. For Beatty, it tops off a year like no other.
“Usually, they show up in a teacher’s classroom to present the award,” says Beatty, a 2015 BVU graduate. “We were involved in distance learning this spring because of COVID-19, so my principal set up a Zoom call. It ended up being a pretend call because they showed up at my house at that time.”
“If you connect with a student on a personal level, they’re more inclined to listen to you and be actively engaged in the classroom.”
Britney Beatty
Beatty, a fifth-grade teacher at Carter Lake Elementary School, sees the award as something to be shared.
“This isn’t an individual award,” Beatty says. “The award represents the teamwork we have at Carter Lake Elementary School. All of the accomplishments at Carter Lake come about because our teachers and staff are so passionate about putting students first.”
Beatty, a native of Griswold, says she learned about having students top-of-mind early in her BVU career, as it’s a concept stressed by faculty in the School of Education.
“My professors talked a lot about establishing relationships first with students,” Beatty says. “If you connect with a student on a personal level, they’re more inclined to listen to you and be actively engaged in the classroom.”
Beatty’s ability to engage students outside the classroom may have played a role in her earning the achievement. The former BVU softball catcher and student-assistant coach worked this spring to establish virtual one-on-one sessions twice per week with most of her 23 students. Devoting time and energy to those sessions paid off as students were more willing to share facts about their progress and ask questions of the teaching during one-on-one time.
“Many felt more comfortable opening up as they knew they had my attention,” Beatty says.
Before the school year dismissed in March because of the pandemic, Beatty had hosted several students in her room during lunch time twice per week. Students were often encouraged to bring a friend to those informal lunch gatherings in the classroom.
“Times like that give me more insight to my students as people,” she says.
In addition to fellow faculty members, administrator, and staffers at Carter Lake Elementary School, Beatty says she’ll share in the honor of this award with her students and her biggest cheerleader at home, her husband, fellow BVU Class of 2015 member Cameron Beatty.