Janet Evans at Ewell Elementary School on Smith Island. (Photo by Maryland Newsline’s Melissa Quijada)
Smith Island Teacher Juggles Instruction for Entire School
Maryland Newsline
Thursday, April 29, 2010
SMITH ISLAND, Md. - As the only certified teacher on Smith Island, Janet Evans bears the burden of educating all the children at Ewell Elementary School.
Right now there are 12 of them, in grades kindergarten through seven.
“I go from doing quadratic equations with the 7th graders down to doing addition with my first graders,” said Evans, 49. “You have to have your mind organized and hope that you get everything in. And usually you don’t, because there’s not enough time in the day.”
Although teaching different grades benefits the younger students by exposing them to advanced material, Evans said it takes immense mental effort on her part to juggle all the levels of instruction.
She currently teaches six grades under the watch of the Tracie Holland, Somerset County Public School’s supervisor of general education. Evans said the county office has left her much on her own to operate the school.
She carries multiple responsibilities normally relegated to many people, including principal, guidance counselor and payroll officer. She orders the textbooks and coordinates the Maryland School Assessment tests, in addition to planning field trips. This May the entire school will visit Washington, D.C.
“I’m bouncing around all the time, trying to do all these roles,” Evans said.
The school has the smallest enrollment in the state, said William Reinhard, media relations director at the Maryland State Department of Education.
There are some other teachers in other schools who teach multiple grades, he said, “but none that teach an entire school."
He added, “Her experience goes back to an earlier time, when there were more schools like that."
Michelle Bradshaw, a parent of 12-year-old student Kathleen Bradshaw, said Evans is successful with her juggling act –largely succeeding in giving children an education equal to that off the island.
Bradshaw’s eldest daughter, Sarah, ranked third in her graduating class at Crisfield High School after attending Ewell Elementary, she said. The high school is about 12 miles away, on the mainland.
The island has been Evans’ home for all but a brief stint when she left to earn her bachelor’s degree in accounting at Salisbury University. She returned to take over as the island’s sole schoolteacher.
She grew up in the town of Tylerton, about two miles from Ewell, where she now teaches and lives. Her parents and two sisters still live on the island, she said.
She has always cherished this place.
“Everyone here knows everyone. You know all their family members,” said Evans. “So, in times of trouble, you have tons of family members [who] are not blood related.”
But unfortunately, she said, many of the island children graduate from high school and go off to college, never to return.
“The culture is drifting away,” she said.