Meet One Teacher Poised to Build on Her Recent Accomplishments

Charles E. Hughes Elementary School is extremely proud of Ms. Shania Jones! She has recently been recognized as both a Teach Plus Change Agent and a recipient of the ChiGivesBack award. Her school’s leadership believes that her instructional practices promote equity across the entire school community. Her commitment to impactful instruction is strengthened by her focus on community service, student advocacy, and uplifting our world’s future leaders both in and out of the classroom. 

We recently caught up with Ms. Jones to learn more about her work. Get to know her more below! 

How did you decide to pursue education as a career path? 

When I first went to college, I knew I wanted to do something that served kids. I wanted to be a social worker at first, but I realized I needed something where I was more present. Being a role model as a general education teacher is very important to me, especially as someone who shows that you can still have close connections with your special education students. 

What has been your reaction to receiving this recent recognition? 

It always feels good to be recognized! Part of my philosophy as an educator is promoting equity in everything. I’m done with my master’s degree in curriculum and instruction next month, which has been an opportunity to dive into equitable learning. I eat, breathe, and sleep equity! It’s how I frame my entire classroom. 

How does your philosophy connect to your goals for this school year? 

I came to this school with a lot of visions, and one of those was to make third through fifth grade departmental, which wasn’t how things had been. I thought that students were missing out on learning how to adapt if they were sitting in the same room all day, so I knew that we needed to change that. Now that I’m seeing multiple groups as the math teacher, I’m making sure that I’m creating those real-life connections. Curriculum isn’t always built exactly for the students you have in front of you, so I’m doing a lot of backwards planning to embed real-life skills in my instruction on a daily basis. 

What is your message to your students for the rest of the school year? 

The kids here call me “Golden” because of the gold ropes I got when I graduated. I actually had a canvas made for my classroom with a message about what it means to be “gold.” I always tell them to “leave a little gold wherever you go” because that encourages them to take the positive qualities they are building in my class and spread them around to others.