Her Story
Debra Hurst taught kindergarten in Austin for most of her career, including at Joe Dan Mills Elementary School, and later served as a literacy coach at Uphaus Early Childhood Center. Her kindergarten was an inclusion classroom with English language learners and children with disabilities, organized around busy, small-group learning centers where “you won’t find worksheets.” Real items from the children’s cultures fill the room, from tortilla warmers and clothing from China to baby dolls in many skin tones.
Her teaching follows the children’s interests. When her class read A Tree Is Nice, they decided to study trees, so they went on a nature walk, planted seeds, made paper, built birdhouses and visited a forest. They then noticed trees being cut down in their neighborhood, counted them and wrote a petition to the builders. At the end of the project parents and the community came to their “tree museum.”
With colleagues she created the STAR program, for Students and Teachers Always Reaching, which brought children with disabilities into kindergarten classrooms with their typically developing peers. It was unique in Austin ISD, and parents asked each year for a place in one of its classes. Her principal wrote that it “would not have happened at Mills without the vision and dedication of Deb Hurst.” On statewide assessments, she says, 100 percent of her class has passed.
Beyond the Classroom
Hurst was one of the first teachers in Texas to earn National Board Certification, in 2000, and recertified in 2010. She mentors other candidates, became a National Board assessor and helped develop its new assessments. She received the Disney Teaching Award, and the Texas Promising Practice program named her classroom a model that teachers from around the state came to observe. She wrote her district’s kindergarten social studies curriculum and was contracted by Region XIII to write a statewide kindergarten curriculum that integrates all subjects.
As a literacy coach for the Texas Literacy Initiative, she coaches teachers in programs for disadvantaged students. She leads weeklong sessions for Austin ISD’s New Teacher Orientation and has presented at local, state, national and international conferences. Her students’ community projects included collecting coats, canned food and pennies for UNICEF, and caroling at nursing homes.
Philosophy Into Practice
Hurst sees the loss of play in kindergarten as a major issue in education, as worksheets and long teacher-led lessons replace the way young children learn best. She argues that “rather than focusing on whether academic content has a place in early-childhood classrooms, let’s focus on how to teach it in a way that is tailored to young learners.”
She begins each year by learning about every child through parent questionnaires, interest inventories and observation, and she sees “each student as a whole child.” She says that by teaching to the whole child, “I don’t need to ‘teach to the test.'” She says she is proud to help “restore child-initiated play and experiential learning at the heart of kindergarten education.”
“I want to see each student as a whole child.”Debra Hurst
In Her Own Words
“My classroom environment is safe, nurturing and accessible with hands-on learning to support each child’s intellectual, social, emotional and physical development.”Debra Hurst
“I am proud to help restore child-initiated play and experiential learning at the heart of kindergarten education.”Debra Hurst
“Learning is a continuum, and assessment helps me identify where each child is on the continuum.”Debra Hurst
What Others Said
“Mrs. Hurst has taught Kindergarten for 38 years with passion and enthusiasm, inspiring thousands of children and teachers.”Hector Ibarra, Ph.D., nominator, 1998 NTHF inductee
“You will find no finer representation of the profession.”Former colleague
“Ms. Hurst is a master teacher, whose passion for working with students with exceptional needs was exemplified in everything she did.”Patricia H. Butler, former principal, Joe Dan Mills Elementary
“She is a leader and a learner and someone who demonstrates best teaching practices still to this day.”Stacey Necak, National Board Certified kindergarten teacher, Mills Elementary
“Deb was a master at building community.”Leisha Johnson, parent of former students
“Deb herself is a “Student and Teacher Always Reaching.””Lisa Molina, ESL pre-kindergarten teacher, Joe Dan Mills Elementary