From popcorn to recycling, teacher creates job training program for students

Each month, the community nominates their favorite teachers and educators from the St. Louis region to be the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Teacher of the Month. March’s winner is Brenda Saye, a job training teacher at Ackerman School in the Special School District of St. Louis County. Mrs. Saye received a $250 gift card courtesy of Elco-Chevrolet Cadillac.

Describe your teaching experience.

I have been teaching since August of 1993.  My first teaching job was Evangelical Children’s Home, then six years for St. Louis Public Schools and then I came to the Special School District in August of 2000. Over the past 31 years, I have found teaching to be joyful, challenging, exciting, heartbreaking, disappointing, thrilling, ever changing and rewarding.

What is your teaching style?

My teaching style is a combination of Direct Instruction, Kinesthetic and Small Group Instruction.  I do not feel there is one way to instruct all students. My one goal for my students is that they will have success outside of the classroom and become functioning adults in our society.

Your nominator mentioned you created a new program for students focused on job training. Can you elaborate?

Over the years, I realized that not every child will go onto college. Our students were lacking the skills they needed to get a job when they were in high school or when they finished high school. I wanted a program in middle school that would help prepare them for life beyond school. Principal Lisa Leonard-Sneed and I put our heads together and produced the idea. I worked diligently over the summer to create jobs that students could complete. I created progress monitoring tools for the students to complete each day they work.

Every child has an online simulated bank account, where they can watch money being deposited or withdrawn depending on job completion. The money is then used for them to purchase items from the classroom store. Their various jobs include delivering food bags, vacuuming, recycling, disinfecting doorknobs and picking up trash.

We have a coffee cart we run every week where the students make beverages and pastries. We also collect popcorn orders and bag popcorn on Fridays. We also work on social skills and communicating with adults throughout the building. 

Do your hobbies outside of the classroom correlate to your teaching? 

For years, my husband and I coached select volleyball and we ran a program for children in the second through eighth grade in the Edwardsville area to introduce and teach volleyball skills. I feel coaching and teaching go hand in hand. In 2023, I also became an Emergency Medical Responder and volunteer for the Holiday Shores Fire Department.

To nominate a teacher for the Teacher of the Month program, visit STLtoday.com/contests.

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