She wouldn\u2019t spend the day anywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI find myself being a high school kid every day,\u201d she said. \u201cI love it, and I love the up-and-down drama of watching my students grow socially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n World Teachers\u2019 Day is celebrated annually Oct. 5. The 2023 theme is \u201cThe teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tamara graduated from Tarleton State in 1994 with a home economics degree. She turned her diploma into a career in education, one that has seen her earn recognition for her dedication to students. The Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers Association of Texas<\/a> recently named her Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have daily opportunities to exemplify the skills to be a positive, productive, responsible, reliable and self-sufficient individual in society,\u201d she said. \u201cI want my students to not only understand the content I happen to be teaching that day or year, but learn how to set goals, formulate plans to achieve those goals, problem solve and manage their resources to become leaders in their homes, careers and community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tamara\u2019s journey to a career in education was not the route she planned. She initially headed to college in Idaho to rodeo and study accounting. Then she realized she didn\u2019t like accounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a career explorations class she discovered she was a natural as a teacher. Maybe she was a natural for Tarleton, too, so she transfered. She had grown up in nearby Rio Vista and attended cheerleader camps in Stephenville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She admired the campus, just as she would come to admire Dr. Mary Ann Block<\/a>, a future major force in her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey should make a statue of her and put it on campus,\u201d Tamara said. \u201cShe was phenomenal<\/em>. She not only taught us how to teach, she showed us how to teach. She made us see beyond the textbook.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tamara is passionate about the courses she teaches and how they impact the lives of her students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a family and consumer science teacher, you teach life lessons,\u201d she said. \u201cWe cover child development through geriatrics. We discuss budgeting, money management, time management, goal setting, decision-making, the importance of values and morals. We cover interior design, making a home a pleasant place, relationships, how to love yourself first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe teach the basics to just be a good person and how to apply what you\u2019ve learned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s grateful for the opportunity to share her lessons with her children. Her son, Blake, is a certified diesel technician, and her daughter Tara Jo graduates from Tarleton in December with a degree in history and a plan to follow in her mother\u2019s footsteps as an educator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI may take a moment and talk about my path and how excited I am,\u201d Tamara said of her World Teachers\u2019 Day plans. \u201cMy students make my world better. Working with them is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Tamara Taylor loved high school. Perhaps it\u2019s more accurate to say, she LOVES high school. That\u2019s where the Tarleton State University alumna will celebrate World Teachers\u2019 Day today, Oct. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":49678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":363,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,423],"tags":[430,431,437],"class_list":["post-49628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-academics-research","tag-academic-affairs","tag-administration","tag-college-of-education"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"priddle","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/priddle-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2023\/10\/20230901_081555-1-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Academics & Research<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Academics & Research<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Academic Affairs<\/a>","Administration<\/a>","College of Education<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academic Affairs<\/span>","Administration<\/span>","College of Education<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on October 5, 2023","modified":"Updated on February 9, 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on October 5, 2023 8:00 am","modified":"Updated on February 9, 2024 8:52 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Woman in a Tarleton State University office with purple decor.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"20230901](\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2023\/10\/20230901_081555-996x1024.jpg\")