Teacher's passion really pays off

SUMMERVILLE — While Jennifer Wilde was teaching summer camp as a teenager, she learned something surprising about herself. She discovered a passion for teaching she hadn't realized before.

Wilde invested herself in her newfound love, and it has paid dividends beyond expectation. On Thursday night, the Beech Hill Elementary School fourth-grade teacher was named Dorchester District 2's Teacher of the Year at the district's annual banquet held in the Summerville High School cafeteria.

The 30-year-old said teaching wasn't on her radar until her third summer as a camp counselor just before she was to start college. She was all set to become a physician's assistant until she re-examined what it was she enjoyed about her summers.

"I realized it wasn't the dodgeball and kickball that was the things I loved. It was the realization that I was teaching the kids through those activities," she said. "I was addicted, and from there on, I declared my major."

Wilde taught for three years in North Carolina and a year in Virginia before she and her two sisters moved to the Lowcountry to be near her mother, Nancy Wilde.

It was a good year of teaching by the family, as her older sister, Keirstan Harris, was honored as Fort Dorchester High School's Teacher of the Year.

Wilde, who is in her third year of teaching at Beech Hill, said it didn't take her long to get used to a formal classroom.

"Teaching really is the most natural thing for me," she said. "I don't even act like I'm in a classroom. I probably run my classroom more like a summer camp. If they'd let me go outside more, I'd probably do it."

Beech Hill Principal Rene Harris said Wilde is one of her most popular members of the faculty.

"Before she took over her current position, she worked with critical thinking with the first and second grade. So our second- and third-graders this year think she walks on water," Harris said. "I think her strongest asset is she views every child individually and evaluates them. She builds on their strengths and talents and every child leaves her classroom feeling confident."

Wilde said she's blessed to work with a supportive administration that gives her the freedom to try different things.

"They always say, 'How can we help?' I can't think of one thing they've ever turned down," she said.

Along with the honor, Wilde will be the district's nominee for state Teacher of the Year. She also was awarded the use of a 2010 Ford Fusion from Summerville Ford Mercury for the next year, a laptop computer from HP Computers, food coupons from local restaurants and a six-month membership to the Summerville YMCA.

Reach Bill Henley at 937-5433 or bhenley@postandcourier.com.