As a teacher with 22 years in the field, Alycia Allen has taught kindergarten, second, third and fourth grades and multi-age classes.
Her preference is K through 2 because they are interested in learning.
“You can actually observe them growing and learning,” she said. “They’re just excited to learn new things, so I like the younger kids.”
Allen has been teaching at O.B. Gates Elementary for 12 years. She taught kindergarten for two years and first grade for 10. However, her career could have been different.
She loved computers, so she majored in computer information systems in college, however, her mother taught for 34 years, and Allen had always wanted to be a teacher.
In her junior year, she tried to change her major to education, but her mother told her not to, so she became certified to teach when she got her masters degree.
Allen has huge expectations for her students and likes them to be focused. She described herself as being firm but also fun, and likes to keep students engaged and make sure they’re having a good time.
A good day for Allen is any day her students learn something new, no matter how big or small it is. Her favorite part of being a teacher is growing and nurturing young minds.
“The age group I have … they want to learn new things, and when they actually learn those new things, they’re excited about it [and]that makes me get excited to teach them more,” Allen said.
Her dedication to her students led to her being named her school’s “teacher of the year” last spring. This was her second time earning such an award. The first was when she taught at J.L. Francis Elementary in Richmond.
She is currently working on her doctorate in educational leadership. Allen said her focus would still be on kids, but in a leadership role. She also has a passion for student teachers and training new teachers, which she said she would like to do at the university or district level.
With her many years as a teacher, Allen still keeps in touch with some of her students on Facebook. Although she joked that seeing them in their 30s makes her feel old, she said it is good seeing them because they are doing different things.
“A lot of them, the girls especially, have gone into education, so when you think about when they were 8 years old, and they were talking about ‘I want to be a teacher,’ some of them actually are, so that’s a good thing,” Allen said.
