Tammie Hodnett Marlow – Cleveland, MS

Each year in Mississippi, four teachers (one from each congressional district) are honored as MS Rural Teachers of the Year. PREPS, or the Program for Research and Evaluation for Public Schools housed at William Carey University, hands out the awards. William Carey University, alongside Mississippi State University, form the Mississippi Chapter of the National Rural Education Association, and are RSC’s newest state to join our Regional Hub Network. As we welcome our new Mississippi Hub to our network, we will be spotlighting these Rural Teachers of the Year as illustrations of the excellent work happening across the Magnolia State.

Tammie Hodnett Marlow is a science teacher at Cleveland Central Middle School in Cleveland, Mississippi. Centrally located in the heart of the Mississippi Delta and about 20 minutes from the Mighty Mississippi River in Bolivar County, Cleveland is known for its rich cultural heritage, musical history, and welcoming community. Tammie is an award winning science teacher who sees a lot of herself as a young student in so many of the students she serves currently. Facilitating a garden and science club at her school, Tammie is paving the way for her students to make a difference in their future.

Growing up in an old brick schoolhouse with her large extended family in Sharkey County, MS, Tammie’s diverse work experience led her to teaching. Tammie’s cousin would force her to sit on the front steps of their schoolhouse home and play “school” with her, but teaching was not a career Tammie saw herself in. Most days she would rather be hunting or fishing. “My principal, who was also the football coach and head administrator, started noticing that I was missing a lot of school and came out to the house to check in to make sure I wasn’t causing any trouble.”

Tammie admitted that if it looked like good weather to fish or hunt in the Delta National Forest on the way to school, that is what she did until lunch would be served at school. The principal made a deal with Tammie and said whatever she caught that day, she would need to bring it to him at school to prove why she was missing school. Soon the principal ran out of space in his freezer at home, and asked Tammie to help him with the football team as the manager. Tammie reflects about this situation and knows she would not have made it through school without the intentional connection to the football team.

Tammie held a variety of jobs away from the family farm that led her to engaging with people and building community. “I went back to the family catfish farm, I was the nighttime manager, it gave me some time to go back to school”. After earning a degree in business, Tammie worked for a company building large oil rigs utilizing her experience welding and started in the pipefitting department.

While working in the pipe department, welding oil rigs, Tammie worked alongside other employees who spoke little to no English. This is where Tammie started her teaching career without realizing it at the time. The pipefitter Tammie welded for saw teaching as a strong characteristic and encouraged her to look into an education program. After meeting with Mississippi Valley State University, Tammie quit her job and was in the education program two weeks later. “I feel like my whole life was building me up to be a teacher”.

The small community of Sharkey County heard Tammie went back to school for education and soon she received a phone call from the high school asking if she would teach high school history. The principal was desperate for a teacher that year and Tammie fulfilled that position with an emergency teaching license and continued her program at Valley State. A middle school science teaching job opened the following year, and Tammie hasn’t looked back since. “I feel a desire to really help the students who seem troubled and the ones who act like they don’t want to be sitting in that chair. My heart goes out to them because I still remember what it feels like sitting in a chair all day, it was not my best way to learn and still isn’t the way I learn.” Tammie wanted to provide something for students who aren’t engaged with sports after school to help bridge the gap and the Home and Garden Club was born.

Wednesdays after school, the Home, Garden and Science Club meets and students have a place they feel welcome. Snacks and cooking classes take place as a way to teach new skills. “Home, Garden and Science Club allows them to be in a safe place,” Tammie shared. “Students want to learn how to garden, sew, cook and conduct science experiments. We go outside to make garden beds, plant flowers, and even started a school orchard.” Students are excited and are more connected to learning in class. “I invite working organizations and guests that are specialists in their professions to come share their wisdom and insights with our students. Sometimes outside resources are the best teaching tools.” Students also bring their own ideas to try out during their time together and Tammie sees student engagement completely change for the better.

At first, lines of students would wait to use the garden tools, the water hose, and other tools, until the community noticed what Tammie created at the school and wanted to help. Friends of the Cleveland School District Foundation awarded Cleveland Central Middle School with a grant to sustain the Garden program and expand. “We went from a tiny little grill to cook on and a few garden pots to now a tractor with attachments, shed, tools and other pieces of equipment to complete garden projects.” Community members volunteer their time to help water the garden when students aren't meeting and also help mow the grass.

Teaching is also being able to see the need. Tammie connects the garden to her science classes by a segment teaching agricultural literacy. Crops of soybeans, rice and cotton surround Cleveland and many students have not had the opportunity to be in a field where the plants grow. The rice plant was one that students had difficulty identifying. Students engage in an activity to grind the rice out of the husk to better understand how the rice grows. This lesson has been a huge success for the value the students express in the class.

Each year Tammie encourages her students to choose a Place-Based Education project that will push them to find a solution to a problem. Food insecurity is one challenge for this region: “the community project is teaming up with the school to bring it to the community park for all community members to access food everyday. I am so proud of my students. They are helping the community and anyone can go eat whenever they need to.” All science classes are now actively involved in the garden and the students come with innovative ideas and apply what they are learning in the classroom to the garden. Being a good citizen, good steward, I just want the best for these students, they are our future.”

It’s no surprise that Tammie was emotional and felt humbled when being honored as MS Rural Teacher of the Year. “I am so appreciative of the award, it has lit a bigger fire in my heart to do more to help my students and other teachers. Everything I have done and my family has done, just helps give these kids a better life. If they have a better life, then someone else will have a better future.”

Thank you to Patti Permenter at William Carey University for connecting us with the MS Rural Teachers of the year and helping us tell their stories!