Albert Davis’ favorite thing about being a teacher is when the light bulb comes on for his students.
Davis is a collaborative special education math teacher at Matoaca Middle School.
“When you see the kids learn, and they make that connection – and especially kids [who]
Originally from Marbury, Md., Davis said a football scholarship brought him to the University of Richmond.
He majored in speech communication and theater because he had an interest in building sets (his father was a carpenter), but after working in New York during one summer, he realized he did not like being there and ended up not doing anything in theater at all.
After college, he was an assistant store manager and front end manager at Ukrop’s for 15 years.
Working with teachers through a program called Junior Achievement led to him getting his master’s degree in special education from Virginia State University and his career as a teacher.
He taught for a year in Charles City and then came to Matoaca, where he has been for 24 years.
His teaching style is orthodox, and he prefers to have his students show their work on the blackboard. He said technology helps the students learn faster but is not as good at dissecting and putting things back together.
“I’m still old school. I wanna see them at the blackboard,” Davis said. “You’re gonna show me what you know and if you don’t know it, then I’m gonna show you how to do it.”
Davis said he has always worked with special needs kids and has been a special education teacher his entire career.
Davis was Matoaca Middle’s Teacher of the Year last year and he said it was a shock because of the health struggles he’s had (he is an amputee and has severe arthritis in both knees).
“I’m not as mobile as I once was … but I try to keep a positive attitude,” he said.
The biggest challenge in his classes is behavior, but other than that, he said a good day for him is getting through the material. He does a lot of remediation and tutoring.
“It’s just working hard and trying to be a good example for the kids,” Davis said. “Ninety-five percent of them are respectful, they’re positive [and]they work hard. But it’s just like anything else, you always have that few.”
