Tammy Larrick was the 2017 Elementary Teacher of the Year for Guilford County Schools. She has been an art teacher for twenty years. She was photographed yesterday, after she spoke at the initiation meeting for the local Delta Kappa Gama chapters. Ms. Larrick spoke about the importance of teachers’ building positive relationships with their students, and helping students become actively engaged civically. One example of such engagement is that her elementary students participate in a service learning project, fundraising to build wells for families in Burkina Faso.

Today is a very special day for Ms. Larrick and her students at Millis Road Elementary School. They will participate in the “One Day Without Shoes” project to help raise awareness and also supply shoes to children in need. As she left school yesterday, one of Ms. Larrick’s students proclaimed to her. “Tomorrow will be the best day.” Somehow, with this creative, committed educator, every day is probably the best day, and even better than the day before.

In the mid-1980’s North Carolina legislators enacted the Basic Education Plan. That plan was built on the conviction that the  “specials”, music, physical education, art, and a foreign language, are as basic to a child’s education as math, science, reading, and social studies. Ms. Larrick helps remind us that the art class really is a crossroads of skills and content areas and that art is not a luxury, but a necessity. Thank you Ms. Larrick for all you do for the children of Guilford County Schools- and beyond!