“I could work at a corporate job, but I’ll never get an e-mail that says, ‘Hey, thanks, you’ve changed my life,’” Erika Ashcraft, winner of the April IT’S, Innovative Teachers Inspiring Students award, said.
Ashcraft was awarded $500 from the Hudson Foundation for educational use in her classroom, as well as the opportunity for her class to be filmed and featured on their website.
Ashcraft, the AP Psychology teacher for Timber Creek High School, has put countless amounts of effort into educating her students. After sitting down in a one-on-one interview, her excitement was almost enigmatic.
“I like learning, and the best way to learn is to teach,” she said. She enjoys her students challenging her and the curriculum, because she gets to “nerd out completely.”
Ashcraft has also mastered the art of caring for and maintaining the responsibilities of keeping students accountable.
“There are students with sicknesses and other situations that are difficult to keep up with,” Ashcraft said, “and a lot of the things that teachers do go unnoticed. It’s a lot of paperwork, deadlines, lesson-plans, and communicating with the students.”
However, these difficulties don’t stop Ashcraft from staying innovative. As many AP psychology students may recall, Ashcraft’s favorite stress-relieving activities included making stress balls, doing yoga, drinking hot tea in class, and meditating.
“I like teaching that stress can be a good thing, because it’s a life-skill that they can walk away with, even if the vocabulary doesn’t stick with them,” she said.
Outside of the classroom, Ashcraft believes that being a teacher has shaped her into a better mother, and even a better person. After going on multiple EF Tour trips across the world with her students, she feels that she has gained valuable insight on the teenagers around her. Not only does she get to know her students, but she is also giving them an opportunity to dive into a different culture and learn, the thing she loves doing the most.
“I feel that a lot of adults see teenagers as self-centered and whatnot, but I feel the complete opposite,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed seeing how the teenagers around me are such worldly, kind, accepting students.”
In the future, she hopes to let her students experience first-hand lessons, such as the opportunity to analyze elementary school kids, dissect sheep brains, and visit the University of North Texas Psychology Department. Her sense of hope in her students continues on as she continues to teach.
Ashcraft continues to feel inspired by worldly, kind, and accepting teenagers. Ashcraft said, “To see a young person uniquely driven is a cool thing.”