5 words sum up teacher’s inspiration

Winning Shelby County High School Teacher of the Year was an honor for Amanda Bittinger, but the real honor came from her students’ support.

A few weeks after she was recognized, a student from one of her first classes at Oak Mountain High School came to visit. He brought her homemade fudge — as he has done since 2002 — and a few words of encouragement about the next step, Alabama Teacher of the Year.

“He looked at me and said ‘We’ve got this,’ and I thought, you know, I’m not in this by myself,” Bittinger said. “I care what adults think of me, but I care way more about what my students think of me. And I felt like, well if he thinks I can do this, maybe I can do this.”

Bittinger has taught for 19 years, with 13 years at Oak Mountain High School teaching honors pre-calculus and AP calculus. She said she credits her high school math teacher Ned Lowery with her love of math and teaching.

“Mr. Lowery, he truly cared about everybody, and he showed interest in me,” Bittinger said. “I saw that he cared about me as a student, but he also cared about me as a person.”

Lowery was a hard worker, Bittinger said, and he emphasized the importance of hard work in the classroom. But at the same time, he recognized that every student has the ability to learn even if they learn at different rates or start at different levels.

“He was nice to everybody, and he met everybody where they were,” Bittinger said. “So that’s what I try to do — I try to meet every kid where they are. I don’t try to make one kid into another kid. I try to look at that kid, who they are, and work with their skill set.”

Bittinger makes a point to learn all of her students’ names by the second day of school and lets them know she is there for them. Her door is always open to students, she said, whether they need a person to talk to or a place to study.

“They may be working on math, they may be working on chemistry, they may be working on physics,” she said. “I think when they come in here, they think this is a place to learn, and it doesn’t matter what you’re learning.” 

To inspire her students, she has five words above her whiteboard — think, learn, aspire, grow and enjoy. She said those words convey Lowery’s emphasis on hard work while motivating students to improve. “I want them to work hard, I want them to enjoy too, and I want them to know that at times enjoyment comes out from your hard work,” Bittinger said.

While things such as decreased funding and other negative aspects of teaching dominate the news, Bittinger said that is not what deserves attention. She took on an extra class in 2016, but she does not mind. Teaching is her passion, and now she will be able to see and connect with more students.

“I want people to know that the majority of people that are in education, they’re there because that is their heart,” Bittinger said. 

Being selected for Oak Mountain Teacher of the Year was a huge honor, Bittinger said, and getting Shelby County High School Teacher of the year was a sort of shock.

“I could name hundreds of other people that I would consider way more deserving of this than me, so I couldn’t believe it,” Bittinger said. “I never expected to get Shelby County High School Teacher of the Year.”

But at the end of the day, Bittinger said she is not a teacher for awards or special recognition. She is there for her students.

“The joy I get out of this job is not about me,” she said. “It’s about when I hear a kid say, ‘I got into Duke. I’m going to be a doctor. I’m going to be a lawyer. I’m going to be an engineer,’ and they come back, and I’m amazed because I know I couldn’t have been that. I see people being things I could never be.”

Other overall Teacher of the Year winners recognized by the Shelby County School District: Martha Bentley, the Gifted Education teacher for third through fifth grade at Elvin Hill Elementary; and Elizabeth Burttram, the eighth-grade science teacher at Helena Middle School.