Barbara Davis, an educator for twenty-five years and a fifth grade teacher at Columbia Elementary School in Columbia, attributes her decision to become an educator to her love of children and specifically to her desire to help children overcome learning problems, especially in the area of reading. Strategies of cooperative learning have been a staple of Ms. Davis' classroom. "I have used this method of teaching for years," she says, "even before it had a name." A supporter of hands-on learning, Ms. Davis also employs strategies that highlight individual attention. One-on-one teaching and small group interaction with the help of a teaching assistant or a student peer are at the heart of her teaching method. Ms. Davis has formed an in-class tutoring group to promote the students' support for each other. "I am here to form my students into caring, sharing, respectable and productive citizens," she says.
