Her Story
Melissa Collins says teaching is woven into her DNA. Her father was a lifelong educator, and she watched him motivate his students and football players before she earned her degree in early childhood education and returned to her community to teach primary students. She is also a former collegiate athlete, and she says that background taught her the value of preparation, goals and being part of a team. She holds a doctorate, and her 2010 dissertation examined support, goals and incentives among National Board Certified Teachers.
She describes herself as the sculptor and her students as the clay, shaping them academically, emotionally, physically and socially. Her classroom is bright and colorful, with a Reading Café where students talk about books over hot chocolate and a “Be Smart and Reflect” corner with a “Problem and Solution” book. Students build vision boards, SMART goals and college plans, and they wear science lab jackets for hands-on work. She uses chants and songs to help them remember concepts, and her room is, in her words, more student-led than teacher-led.
Her second graders have hosted an African American Inventor Museum, dressed as their chosen inventors, and as chair of the Future Leaders STEM Club at John P. Freeman Optional School she started a White Coat ceremony where medical professionals pin and coat students who recite a STEM oath. The club has worked with Memphis Light, Gas and Water, St. Jude and the University of Memphis, and she and a colleague co-chaired a school-wide science expo with doctors, veterinarians and utility workers.
Beyond the Classroom
Collins has traveled to Brazil, India, Dubai and South Africa as part of global fellowships, and she brought home materials for a “Sound All Around” science unit in which students built musical instruments and then talked by video with teachers and students she had met abroad. The unit is published on the Better Lessons website. For three years she has partnered with a teacher in New Jersey through Empatico, where paired students read to each other and exchange letters and gifts. She led the Empatico Fellowship in 2017-2018, and in March 2019 two of her students traveled to New Jersey to surprise their buddies in person. She and her partner class were set to be featured on NBC Nightly News.
Her students put on Carnival Physics, where families learn physics through carnival rides, and the Busy Bee Arcade, where they make arcade games from boxes and donate the proceeds to St. Jude. They also led a children’s demonstration march at the National Civil Rights Museum on what would have been Dr. King’s 90th birthday, and joined her Global Peace Sign project, which was featured in the book Teach Boldly. Collins has served as a mentor, assessor and presenter for National Board certification, worked with eleven teacher leaders to write standards for high school students who want to become teachers, and served on two teacher advisory boards for ECET2 in Memphis and Nashville. She is an alumna of the America Achieves, Teach Plus and Tennessee Hope Street Group fellowships, and a colleague lists the Horace Mann Award, the Henry Ford Innovative Teacher Award, Tennessee State Teacher of the Year finalist and a Global Teacher Prize top 50 finalist among her honors.
Philosophy Into Practice
Collins uses observations, lab sheets, exit slips, interviews, running records and conferences as formative assessments, and chapter tests, projects and standardized results as summative ones. She meets one-on-one with each child in the fall, winter and spring to set goals and sends SMART goals home to families. For performance assessments, students become producers and create a college bookstore item, and community jurors come to score the work. A colleague notes that her students score well every year on the math section of TN Ready.
She names technology access and funding as one of the issues she sees in education, and she is one of three chairs on the EdTech Genome Steering Committee, which is working on a document of variables to help schools make better technology decisions. She also supports the work to bring more teachers of color into the profession as a member of Edloc and a founding board member of National Board Minority Educators.
“It is essential that students feel supported, valued, and appreciated.”Melissa Collins
In Her Own Words
“Teaching resides within the very heartbeat of me.”Melissa Collins
“Teaching is not a spectator sport.”Melissa Collins
“I am the sculptor and my students are the clay.”Melissa Collins
What Others Said
“Melissa embodies a true innovator for the sound pedagogy and opportunities to the classroom.”Dyane Smokorowski, nominator, colleague
“Melissa is the most honored and decorated educator I have ever known.”Michael J. Dunlea, colleague
“Dr. Collins is a catalyst for change inside and outside of the classroom.”Tasha Warren-Woodus, assistant principal, John P. Freeman Optional School
“She truly believes in inspiring others to lead and take charge with her.”Jessica Moorhead, teacher colleague
“Since being in Dr. Collins’ 2nd grade class, she has become like another mother to me.”Emma-Leigh Bufford, former student