Eagle's View - Team Member Spotlight

Team Member Spotlight Debbie Isbell- Middle School Teacher

Debbie Isbell is the Focus Teacher at South Middle School. She has taught 29 years and all of it working with middle school students. She has been at South Middle School for 19 years and previously worked in Kansas City, Kansas, schools for 10 years.

My job is very special in the school. I get the opportunity to partner with students, teachers, parents, and administers every single day - with no two days promising the same activities. I spend time working with kids, helping them make good choices, and developing positive habits that will follow them through life.

The thing I value most about each day is building relationships with students learning about their lives, dreams, and hopes for the future. Being trusted by the students and their families to help secure that future is a privilege. We collaborate daily to give each student the skills, foundations, and strategies to carry themselves successfully into whatever endeavors they choose. Somany of our students have such wonderful opportunities and bright futures ahead of them.

“The thing I value most about each day is building relationships with students.” - Debbie Isbell, South Middle School Teacher

I think it is vital to engage and challenge the minds of students. My core belief about education is that the heart of teaching is relationships. Getting to know your students, their interests. Share in their successes. Enjoy their celebrations. Acknowledge their fears. Support their efforts. Set them up to succeed in all endeavors. Raise the bar of academic and behavioral expectations and give our students the strategies needed to reach those goals. Those have been my foundational beliefs since I began teaching.

Grain Valley does such a great job in keeping up with the changing needs of students, matching our curriculum to their future needs. Our use of technology and the opportunity to be 1 to 1, and innovative teaching techniques, have engaged kids beyond all expectation. One challenge I feel educators are faced with today is the quickly changing curriculum and how that curriculum is formatted and presented. My teaching career began back in the day of chalkboard and chalk, so to be instructing through the use of computer programs and sites is quite exciting for me. Education today, more than at any other time, is progressive and fast-paced. It relies on technology and researchedbased information; it is exciting and engaging and requires students to use higher level thinking at all times. We teach to their future. Our students are ready to step into the world when called upon to do so.

I feel very humbled and honored to be chosen to share my thoughts. It’s very special to be recognized when you have enjoyed working with an innovative group of administrators, educators, and parents who have always given the very best they have for Grain Valley children, adolescents, and teens!

I was attracted to the “small town” feel Grain Valley offered. It was and remains a closely knit community. Ours is a district where each person can make an impact and a difference in the life of a child. This community has been a blessing for me. I have loved every year of growth and progression. Grain Valley has one of the greatest community of parents and educational supporters I have had the privilege of working for. I have seen the district grow from its small roots to what is now one of the finest, most competitive districts in the state of Missouri - in my opinion, the absolute finest! •