Teacher of the Year finalist Ashley Powell began teaching seven years ago, fulfilling a dream she had since she was a kid in Tulsa Public Schools.

“I had really great teachers when I was growing up, and they just made me love the idea of getting to impart knowledge to kids. They just made it look like so much fun, and I always enjoyed school and wanted to continue being in school,” she said.

After graduating from Edison, Ashley went to college at ORU where she received her degree in elementary and early childhood education and found her path.

“My junior year of college I almost dropped out. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to afford working and student teaching at the same time. I was having kind of a panic attack about it,” said Ashley. “I met with my advisor and she suggested that since I was working in a childcare center that she would start me out in pre-K because it wouldn’t be that much of a difference between the work that I was doing and the grade level I would be teaching with. I fell in love with it.”

Ashley has been teaching pre-K at Owen Elementary for six years.

“[Pre-K students] are so much fun. They have such an excitement about coming to school. Everything they do, they are doing it a lot of times for the very first time so that shine in their eyes when they see something set up in the room for the first time. It amazes me how observant they are,” she said.

She said the focus in pre-k is cultivating a love of learning and working on social emotional regulation.

“If they get to the older grades and academically they are doing fine but they don’t know how to interact with their peers then they are going to have a lot of struggles. So, getting my kids to use their words, to express their wants and needs without offending anyone else,” she explained.

Ashley said that pre-k students learn though play. Before Spring Break, her class completed a unit on camping. In the corner of her classroom, she set up a mini campsite for students to pretend to camp and fish. They would go to the library and read about different camping experiences, and they practiced the alphabet with camp-themed materials.

“My job is to facilitate that play. So, giving them opportunities to just work through their emotions, work through different scenarios where I will monitor and I will go and interact with them, but I really want my kids to just be themselves. If I spend too much time talking at them, they’re not getting the chance to put into action what they are learning,” she said.

Ashley’s positive influence extends far beyond her classroom. After school, she runs a club called Crazy 8s, where kindergarten through second grade students can learn math concepts through fun activities. She is also an Empower team leader for pre-K and kindergarten and the site tech for Owen, helping teachers and students when they run into technology issues.

“I appreciate the roles like that that allow me to work with everybody in the building,” she said.

Outside of Owen, she is a TCTA representative and strong advocate for public education who campaigns for pro-public education legislators and helps keep her colleagues informed.

Inside the classroom or out, nothing can stop Ashley from going above and beyond for her students. While everyone was still on Spring Break, knowing that extended closures were likely, she already had a plan in motion.  With the help of her teaching assistant Jane Barron, she delivered backpacks full of schoolwork and snacks to all her students’ houses.

“We miss you, we hear you, and we’re doing everything we can to support you,” Ashley told her students and their families in the News on 6 story.

Ashley is one of five finalists for Tulsa Public Schools Teacher of the Year. The winner will be announced later this year.