BIGFORK — This month's winner of our $500 One Class at a Time grant is Bailey Johnson who teaches third grade at Swan River School in Bigfork — in the same classroom where she once sat as a student.
"So I really try and think about myself in third grade and how I felt, and I want to create a good atmosphere for my kids and make it kind of feel like home for them,” Johnson said. “So, I try and do things that they'll remember and activities that they'll think about forever."
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Johnson says being selected as the February One Class at a Time winner came at just the right time.
"I was like, 'Wow!' And then I was like, 'Well, who nominated me?' And it was my mom, and that was super awesome of her, and I was just so happy like I kind of needed that boost of energy halfway through the year."
Johnson's mom wrote to say that her daughter "is loved by her students and fellow staff members would be a really big understatement", and her daughter "is loved so much that when students are sick they sometimes refuse to stay home."
We asked Johnson if she was feeling love like that in the classroom.
"Yeah, and that's why I love this school, too...it's just a giant family, and you really feel that every single day, and I love that."
"She's super funny, and she's really patient with us. She takes time with us and way more stuff,” said student Adeline Dembek.
One of the ways Johnson plans to use the $500 grant is to purchase new books for her students. Some of the books she's using have been around for many years — since she was a third grade student.
"So, I'd really love to get a few books for novel studies in third grade. I think that reading as a whole group is really important,” Johnson said. “We do some smaller group work, but I'd like to have a whole class set of a book and read it together."
Johnson would also like to update her classroom with new tables and workspaces for the kids. But beyond the physical aspects, Johnson wants her students to remember most about her that she was kind.
“And helped them like if they had a tough day just to remember that I was always there for them and that they could come to me with all their problems and issues, and I would help them sort it out. And just like a big family -- that's how I want my class to be,” Johnson told MTN.
