Amber Smith

Amber Smith was nominated by Parent Coordinator of Eighty-First Street School, Ms. Bama Grice. Amber Smith is described as being a “pleasure to work with”. Amber has served as a classroom assistant for a first-grade class at Eighty-First Street School for the past three years. Amber started volunteering starting her first year at Mount Mary College through the Caroline Scholars Program and is now a senior. Her help over these years has been invaluable. Her dedication and sense of responsibility towards the first grade students was highlighted last year when we were virtual most of the year. Despite this, Amber still found a way to connect with the class by posting YouTube videos. Her videos were used to teach art. Amber took the initiative to both create the videos and also to post them. Amber is very well liked and respected by everyone at Eight-First Street School. She helps everyone out when needed. She is respectful towards the faculty, parents and students. The children constantly want to know “if Amber is coming."

Throughout the last four years, Amber has been a positive presence. Amber is able to use her skills as an artist to create wonderful lessons. This past year, she created a whole unit on the book The Dot. She designed the lesson and created the assessment and helped to display the students' work on the bulletin board outside of my classroom. This was outstanding. Amber is able to connect with all students, but makes it a priority to form a relationship with the most challenging students. She uses her art skills as a tool to further strengthen her connection. She is able to break down barriers by drawing and talking one-on-one often times. She uses art to help students refocus. Thank you, Amber Smith, for your patience, flexibility and creativeness for the students and staff here at Eighty-First Street School.