Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
Everybody has a favorite teacher, one who sticks in the fissures of the brain as somebody who made a difference, who carried their passion as a finely tailored jacket and kept you on the right path.
Gulf County is brimming with such teachers and, sure, there are school grades to prove it, but there is also the story that follows.
Much of the following words did not flow from my brain because the message and what it says about this community's fabric was beyond my thesaurus.
The story is about Ricky Lamberson, a Port St. Joe native, a product of the public schools and now an award-winning teacher of the sort that many predicted while he was still in high school.
Ricky was born and raised here, his parents Rick and Connie Lamberson and the late Vickie Lamberson, his grandparents Dick and Jean Lamberson and Nan and Ted Turza, all of Port St. Joe.
Early on, Ricky, a popular student by all accounts, knew he was on a path from the classroom to the classroom.
After the first day of his junior year in high school, Ricky announced to his dad that he wanted to be an elementary school teacher and move to the east coast of Florida where he could impact students and indulge his second passion, surfing.
The bug bit him in Mrs. Parrish's first grade class at Port St. Joe Elementary, where helped with math skills in his first time as an executive intern.
"If a student was having a good day, I would let them wear my watch or necklace", Ricky chuckled to his father.
He continued to intern during his junior and senior years of high school, helping teachers and students, always open, always eager.
They say tragedy stamps courage and Ricky, again by all accounts, displayed buckets full his senior year after the loss of his mother to a long illness. He graduated in 2000 with a 3.49 GPA, just short of being a high-honor graduate.
In his honor and to recognize his success in the face of deep adversity, the scholarship committee at the high school gave him the "349" award and a $349 scholarship.
Ricky went on to Tallahassee, receiving a Bachelor's in Education degree with an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) endorsement at Flagler College, graduating cum laude.
Ricky was among eight students selected to participate in a pilot program, taking some of his classes at Fort Braden Elementary School just south of Tallahassee. He learned new teaching strategies, the aim to make practical use of them in the classroom when he got back there.
Ricky graduated from Flagler in 2005 and it was on to Jacksonville and a post teaching fifth graders at Kernan Trail Elementary School. Within two years he was the grade level chairman and remains so during the current school year.
And last month, a teacher of only four years, Ricky was named Teacher of the Year at Kernan Trail Elementary School. An award determined by a vote of the 60 teachers in Ricky's school, who clearly recognized the passion, the common touch and the link to his students that Ricky had enjoyed with his teachers.
To borrow a cliché, they call it paying it forward.
Ricky said essentially the same with the following statement regarding the award:
"I would like to thank each and every teacher that gave me their time, patience, and last nerves to see that I made it through my years of school successfully. There are so many incredible teachers in the Port St. Joe community that I had the privilege of learning from.
"Two of those teachers stood out as extraordinary people that played a large part in where I am today. A special thank you goes out to Mrs. Cathy Colbert and Mrs. Ann Comforter for showing me that teaching is not always about long division or learning songs for a musical performance. They were a large influence in giving me a passion for not only teaching students but also loving children.
"I would like to encourage anyone reading this to take the time to thank a teacher in your community for the selfless work they do that often goes unnoticed."
Have you done so today?
