Steakley rises to challenges of kindergarten
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“It’s so important. It’s as important as the freshman year in college,” Steakley said. “Kindergarten is when children learn so many skills, both academic and social. It’s a lot of the reason I teach and why I teach this age group.”
As she has always loved children, Steakley said she cannot remember a time she didn’t want to teach. To enter the profession, the Ohio native first earned her elementary education degree at David Lipscomb University, an institution her church youth minister encouraged her to attend. In addition to earning her degree there, she also found her husband, Mike, the current youth minister at Westwood Church of Christ.
Upon moving to McMinnville, she found work teaching at Westwood’s pre-school. Not long afterward, she was approached by Boyd president C.N. Womack to teach the school’s kindergarten class. She accepted and has now been at Boyd for eight years, all of which she has spent teaching kindergarten.
Though she loves instructing the young students, she said the grade is not without its challenges.
“Teaching this age is hard. The children are all on different levels. When they come to me, some of them are reading at a second-grade level and some are working to learn their letters, but they can all be successful. Hopefully I help each of them develop and become prepared for the first grade,” she said.
In addition to teaching Boyd’s youngest students, Steakley also spends part of each day teaching the school’s oldest students in her position as the senior high girls Bible teacher.
“It’s quite a difference from kindergarten, but it’s a class I love. It’s a mission field and I enjoy it,” she said.
When not at school, Steakley enjoys spending time with her family, including her husband and two children, Leah and Lance.
She also likes to run and work with her husband’s church youth group.