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For many, teaching is just a job and students are just students. But Carita Glaze, a ninth to twelfth-grade physical science teacher at Valley High School, sees her students as family. For this reason, she aims to give her students the types of learning experiences she’d want to give her own kids. This also means she misses them dearly when they move on to the next grade. Fortunately, she said many students come back to visit her sometimes.

“They always come back just to talk [and chat], let me know what’s going on with them,” she said. “Students I had in the past, they come back just to engage me.”

Glaze found out she was chosen as her school’s teacher of the year when it was announced over the school intercom. She said it caught her off guard.

“I was shocked and excited,” she said.

Glaze doesn’t know why she was chosen. But if Glaze’s students know her for anything, she guessed that it’s probably for being compassionate.

Her favorite things about her job are interacting with her students and learning about them.

“I am the type of person that engages with my students as far as what they do outside of school and just use whatever is going on in the world to help them understand some concepts that we teach in the classroom, as well,” she said. “Basically, real-life models.”

Two hands-on activities Glaze’s students have engaged in are building models of molecules and making storyboards.

“I take into consideration that I have different types of learners, so I try to provide flexible learning styles such as flexible seating, hands-on activities,” she said. “I try different methods that I research on my own to keep all different types of learners engaged.”

Glaze’s subject, physical science, covers introductions to chemistry and physics.

“I enjoy teaching topics such as motion, and I also enjoy helping the kids learn how the periodic table is organized,” she said.

This is Glaze’s fourth year teaching in Chambers County. She previously taught in Georgia for three years. Throughout her teaching career, she has been a high school science teacher. Before she was a teacher, she worked in a call center.

Glaze has a bachelor of science in biology degree from Fort Valley State University.