LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Courtney Taylor was nominated anonymously.

Ms. Taylor has been the Kindergarten Team Leader for the last five years as a Kindergarten teacher. As someone who has overcome hearing loss and struggled in school growing up, Ms. Taylor strives to make sure that each student can be successful and know they are in a safe environment to learn.

Each morning, she holds meetings where students are celebrated for their successes, such as ST Math percentages, High Frequency Word Stars, and Grizzly of the Week, using their photos. In her classroom, she has an ST Math Wall featuring students’ penguins and ice cubes to track progress from 10% to 100%. This allows students to see one another reaching monthly goals. The High Frequency (HF) Word Wall also includes students’ photos when they become HF Word Stars after completing each list. At the end of morning meetings, they dance to a song from the Sanford Harmony SEL program, complete with movements Ms. Taylor created herself.

Her Griffith Way pillars include: Honest, Engaged, Respectful, and Safe. Students earn Griffith Way Tickets for owning their learning and making positive choices. Ms. Taylor keeps a ticket jar and draws names, allowing winners to choose songs for Go Noodles or participate in whiteboard activities. Each week, she places tickets in a special Kindergarten bucket for the administration to choose a daily winner for each grade. Winners get to pick a prize from the office. She also incorporates Relaxing Go Noodles to help students re-center and regulate their emotions, often allowing celebrated students from morning meetings to pick the song.

Students earn stickers for taking ownership of their learning and choices at home by watching Ms. Taylor’s recorded lessons or working on Exact Path, an app they also use in school. At the end of each day, they sing a goodbye song and earn more stickers.

Ms. Taylor’s school is a Title I school, with many families from low-income backgrounds. Families are often in need of basic school supplies such as pencils, crayons, erasers, and headphones for school computers, along with sensory tools like poppers to help students stay focused and calm their anxiety. With the school implementing small groups, teachers also need puzzles, sensory materials, whiteboard markers, and laminating sheets to create lasting learning tools. Ms. Taylor provides durable plastic folders for her students to keep organized in their buckets, and she emphasizes the importance of pencil grips so students can learn proper finger placement as they begin writing.

Recently, the entire school district received a grant to provide library materials for each Kindergarten classroom. Now, Ms. Taylor is working to ensure students have individual bins to store their books.