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Photos by Bryan Pope, Shelby County Schools.
Jeff Norris was named Alabama Teacher of the Year in his third year back in the classroom and his first year teaching math. Norris decided to make the change from being an administrator and headed back in the classroom to teach.
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Photos by Bryan Pope, Shelby County Schools.
Alabama Teacher of the Year Jeff Norris recording his podcast, “The Power of a Moment” in his classroom at Oak Mountain Middle School.
Since being named Alabama’s Teacher of the Year last May, Oak Mountain Middle School math teacher Jeff Norris has racked up more than 15,000 miles on the SUV he was given to drive during his tenure.
Doing the math, that’s an average of around 1,500 miles per month. “I’ve been to almost all corners of the state at this point,” Norris said.
Quite a journey
Looking back, Norris said that teaching has always been in his blood. In high school, he did a lot of tutoring and mentoring, beginning in elementary school.
“Those things converged into a career in education,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in everything. A lot of my family members were teachers, and my father-in-law was the state elementary Teacher of the Year in 1980.”
During his time in education, Norris has advanced all the way from teacher to principal, all in Shelby County Schools.
He spent his first nine years in the Chelsea schools (Chelsea Park and Chelsea Intermediate) as a third grade teacher, then moved to fifth grade, then to gifted education (second through sixth grades). He then became the administrative assistant at Montevallo Elementary School as an appointed position, with plans to go back to Chelsea schools in six months. Then, the assistant principal position opened at Inverness Elementary (where he had completed his internship), and Norris stayed for five years before becoming principal at Helena Elementary School for almost three years.
Of the seven school zones in Shelby County, Norris has a connection to almost all of them. He has lived in Calera, worked in Chelsea, Columbiana, Oak Mountain, Montevallo and Helena.
Vincent is the one place he hasn’t been.
After the pandemic, he made a family decision to move back to the classroom. His two children, now teenagers, attend Oak Mountain High School.
“That time away [during the pandemic] and both my kids becoming teenagers, spending time as a family and discussing what the future looked like came out of those conversations, and I missed being in the classroom with kids,” Norris said.
In a cool twist, Norris’s first group of kindergarten students at Inverness Elementary were becoming sixth graders at Oak Mountain Middle School when he re-entered the classroom in the fall of 2020. He taught sixth grade gifted English for two years, and then former principal Larry Haynes asked him to switch to math.
“Sixth grade is such an interesting year, with the kids transitioning from elementary to middle school,” he said. “I want to be there to support them, but not save them. I tell them once a Norris kid, always a Norris kid.”
Norris is a proponent of a growth mindset. In his classroom, students sit at different seats with a different group every day and work both independently and as a group.
To make his lessons interesting, one thing Norris is known for is his room transformations, where he changes the physical space in his classroom into a theme to match the lesson. He said he gets inspiration by asking the students what they’re interested in.
For a unit on fractions, the theme was from the show “Stranger Things.” The room was dark, minus some colored string lights, and the students worked under the tables in the “upside down.”
“Kids want to be cognitively engaged, and I like to do fun and do goofy stuff,” Norris said. “I always tell my kids that I’d love to be their favorite class and their hardest class.”
The path to toy
Being named Teacher of the Year is not an easy path. Out of the eight districts in Alabama, each school chooses an elementary and secondary teacher for their nominee. The winner at the local level moves on to the sweet 16, before it’s narrowed down to the top four, which are announced in late April.
Then it’s on to interviews with a panel of 16 to 18 people. Representatives from the Alabama Education Association, the Best Practices Center, the state Department of Education and more each ask a question during the hour-and-a-half-long interview, which is followed by an on-air interview.
A ceremony is held for the top 16, who each receive an award and plaque. The runner-up is announced first, followed by the winner. Norris was both the overall elementary winner and state Teacher of the Year.
He said once the top 16 were announced last year, things happened quickly.
“I didn’t have time to process it,” he said. “This was my third year back in the classroom when I received the award. It was a surprise and definitely an honor.”
While some may think that Teacher of the Year means Norris is the best teacher in Alabama, he said it actually means he is an ambassador for all the teachers in the state.
“I’m a representative of my school, the district and the state,” he said.
The runner-up teacher of the year just happened to be from a nearby school: Kevin Pughsley, a sixth grade teacher at Berry Middle School, in the Hoover City Schools system.
“We met that night and became fast friends,” Norris said. “We’ve done a couple things together. This whole process has given me a chance to surround myself with like-minded people and see great things happening around our state.”
Continuing momentum
With a few months left in his tenure as Teacher of the Year, Norris’s travels have taken him all over the state. He has focused on things including engagement strategies, elevating teacher leadership and empowering students and teachers to lead their own learning.
“I’ve had positions of leadership, but I think you can take whatever position you are in and lead where you are,” Norris said. “I have had just as much influence being a classroom teacher as I did being an administrator.”
He understands the effect that teachers have on a student’s life, both while they
are in school and beyond.
“I say teachers are in the life-changing business,” he said. “Ask people who were the top three influences on their life. One is a teacher.”
While each week looks different, Norris has spent time working with the state education department and regional in-services center, presenting professional development and speaking to students, teachers and administrators.
He said he has also made an effort to focus on Shelby County and has several projects, including the Teacher Leader Academy, which focuses on teachers who want to be leaders within their schools.
“In our meetings, we talk about building a voice at the local level, what good instruction looks like and how to create momentum and positivity in their building,” he said. “That’s probably been one of my favorite things this year, and we will continue growing that program in Shelby County.”
In addition to reviving a social media presence, Norris also began a podcast called “The Power of A Moment.” In each episode, he takes the word “moment” out and replaces it with other words like “community,” “words,” “growing,” or “feedback.”
While his classroom at Oak Mountain Middle School is empty this school year, it looks the same as he left it. He uses it as a working space when he’s not at his office at the Shelby County Schools Instructional Center in Alabaster. He also uses the classroom as a hosting space when he has groups come in.
One of his favorite things he has gotten to do is head back to his roots in Walker County and speak with teachers in Jasper City Schools.
“I got to go home and highlight several teachers that made an impact on my life and recognize them,” Norris said.
His position at OMMS will be waiting for him when the next school year begins in the fall. He said he loves what he is doing and is leaving the door open for any opportunity that may
arise.
“I want to continue the momentum created by being in this position,” he said. “I lead with no regrets. When I make a decision and communicate with people, I’m looking at making a life difference.”
