LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Irene Hairston was nominated by her colleague, Laura Bitzer.

Mrs. Hairston is the definition of a life-changing teacher. She is the kind of teacher who students think about when they are adults because she made a difference in their lives. There are so many reasons why Mrs. Hairston deserves to be recognized.

First, Mrs. Hairston is the art teacher for the middle school students at Brandywine Springs School.  She strives to develop lessons that are personally meaningful to students in order to spark an inherent interest in the world of artistic expression. She works with students on school-wide projects, and she spends time getting to know each and every individual who walks into her classroom. Mrs. Hairston is an expert at forging relationships with her students, and that has a direct impact on student engagement.

"There have been countless times at Brandywine Springs when students may be having difficulty completing assignments or engaging in their other classes," said Bitzer. "Mrs. Hairston is always the person our administration turns to in order to develop supports for those students. She always finds a way to engage them in some capacity."

When there are students with behavioral needs in her class, she provides students with a voice by having collaborative problem-solving conversations with them. She asks students to tell her exactly what they need from her should they ever feel overwhelmed or dysregulated in her classroom. Because she takes the time to give students a voice, they feel heard and respected in her classroom, and she is able to meet a variety of social-emotional needs effectively and efficiently when they arise.

Due to the excellent relationships she forges with her students, Mrs. Hairston is often called upon to provide input on students at the administrative level. She participates in a weekly student services meeting with administration, school psychologists, school counselors, and other related services staff in order to discuss students who are having difficulty, and she often leads conversations around developing supports for those students.

Mrs. Hairston is constantly striving to improve her competencies within her job. She often attends professional development sessions around engagement, culturally responsive practices, and social-emotional learning. She is also actively attending graduate school in order to earn a Master's degree in special education so that she can better meet the needs of all students.

In addition to constantly striving to improve her skills as an art teacher, Mrs. Hairston positively impacts her school community through her role as the leader of the Problem Solving Team (PST), which seeks to provide appropriate Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions to students who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioral, or academic challenges. She works tirelessly to collect and track data for students who are referred to PST, always seeking to develop appropriate interventions that match students' needs. She provides many of the Tier 2 interventions herself, and when those interventions are provided by others in the school, she is always available with ongoing guidance and support related to implementation and data collection.  Through her work as an art teacher and as the leader of PST, nearly all students at Brandywine Springs know Mrs. Hairston and feel some sort of connection with her.

In addition to the work she has done to improve the lives of students, Mrs. Hairston has also worked to improve the competencies of her fellow teachers and support staff. Over the summer, Mrs. Hairston worked with the school psychologists to develop a series of trainings around culturally responsive teaching, race, bias, equity, and diversity.  Those trainings were offered to all Brandywine Springs staff on a weekly basis from June through the beginning of August 2020. The work that Mrs. Hairston did with developing those trainings caught the attention of district leaders, and as a result, she was approached to provide an adapted version of those trainings to all 1600 educators in Red Clay Consolidated School District, which is the largest school district in the state of Delaware. Thus, Mrs. Hairston has shown leadership, not only within her school via the Problem Solving Team, but within the district via the training she provided on race and equity.

Mrs. Hairston has proven she can make a beneficial difference in the lives of students by being one of the teachers in her school who all students feel like they have a true connection with, as well as through her ongoing work with administration to develop ways to reach the students who may feel a low level of school connectedness.  She has demonstrated an ability to create a positive school atmosphere by seeking to reach the needs of the whole student, as well as through providing trainings to all staff around cultivating culturally responsive, inclusive classroom environments. She is a very well-regarded teacher at Brandywine Springs, and she is on a constant path of self-improvement, as evidenced by her decision to enroll in graduate school as a way to better meet the needs of her students with special needs.

"Mrs. Hariston is truly a keystone of the positive climate and effective interventions for students and staff at Brandywine Springs. I can say, without a doubt, that our school would be worse off without Mrs. Hairston," said Bitzer. "She is long overdue for recognition for all she does for our school and our community."