From Nursing to Education: Jami Fowler-White's Journey

What happens when a nursing student discovers her true calling through an unexpected substitute teaching gig? Jami Fowler-White, Principal of Scenic Hills Elementary in Shelby County Schools, shares the fascinating detour that launched her 28-year career in education on this episode of Spotlight for Success. 

From teaching at her childhood elementary school to coaching teachers across Memphis to her current administrative role, Jami's professional evolution exemplifies dedication to student success. She candidly discusses the challenges she overcame, including taking maximum course loads after switching majors while maintaining her scholarship, and how these experiences shaped her educational philosophy.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:06

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I am Devin Pintosi, your host, and we are here at the Tennessee Council of Social Studies in wonderful Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It's been a great conference and we're here with a very special guest. This is Jamie Fowler-White. She is at Scenic Hills Elementary, she is the principal and she is here to speak with us out of Shelby County Schools. Welcome, how are you doing today, Jamie?

Speaker 2 0:35

I am doing wonderful today. How about yourself?

Jamie's TCSS Conference Experience

Speaker 1 0:37

Doing fantastic, and I'd love to know, jamie, about what brings you initially here to TCSS.

Speaker 2 0:44

Oh, this is my first year coming to TCSS. My fifth grade social studies teacher actually is one of the recipients of the Teacher of the Year Award. She has won the Elementary Social Studies Outstanding Teacher of the Year, so she'll be getting that in about an hour, which I'm so excited.

Speaker 1 1:07

Fantastic. Who is she?

Speaker 2 1:09

Her name is Trina Somerville.

Speaker 1 1:12

Wonderful Shout out to you. That is great, and so what are you hoping to get out of the conference here today?

Jamie's Educational Journey

Speaker 2 1:21

Well, truthfully, social studies in elementary school is not focused on as much as the other content areas, but it is equally important. Throughout social studies, you have maps and charts and graphs and all those different things that you have to think about, which helps you in reading, it helps you in science, and so I'm hoping to find some supplemental resources to help my students to be able to connect with the content.

Speaker 1 1:54

Wonderful. And, jamie, I understand that you have used ABC books in the past.

Speaker 2 2:00

I have. We used them as a teacher but as a principal. We've been using the ELA books, the math and the science books. I didn't know you had such stuff so I was really excited when I walked past the booth this morning. The science books especially actually helped us to double our proficiency last school year, so they're really great materials. If you're not using them at your school, I do highly recommend it.

Speaker 1 2:29

That's awesome. I'm so happy to hear that. Jamie, tell us a bit about your educational journey.

Speaker 2 2:36

Oh, I'm what you call the accidental educator. When I actually first started out going to college, my major was nursing, and when I got to my junior year I actually had figured out you didn't have to go to class every day. Those other years I was doing the 8 to 3 o'clock shift like I was still in high school, and so when I got to my junior year I had Tuesdays and Thursdays off, and my sister actually was in her first year of teaching, and so she was like what are you going to do on your days off? I told her sleep, I'm going to sleep. And she said would you consider substituting? Because they were having a hard time finding substitutes. And so I actually started it, loved it and actually changed my major during the year.

Speaker 1 3:32

Wow.

Speaker 2 3:33

I had to take like the maximum load for the next two years because I was on scholarship and I didn't know how I was going to pay for extra stuff. Sure, yeah, and so I, I did like 24 hours and went to school in the summer.

Speaker 1 3:49

Wow but.

Speaker 2 3:49

I did it though.

Speaker 1 3:51

That's great.

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Speaker 2 3:51

And I have been, and this is year 28 in education for me, wow.

Speaker 1 3:56

Yeah, and what kind of schools have you been a teacher at?

Speaker 2 4:01

Oh well, I went back to my old elementary school, which was awesome.

Speaker 1 4:05

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 4:06

What a give back. Yes, so I taught in my old elementary school and I think I taught in like every different area of Memphis over the years, because, you know, I got married so I moved to a school closer to where my husband and I were living and then I taught at the elementary school around the corner from my house Like it was, yeah, nice.

Speaker 1 4:28

Yep.

Speaker 2 4:29

And so it's awesome, I love it, and so I did teaching for 10 years.

Speaker 1 4:36

Okay.

Speaker 2 4:37

And then I moved out of the classroom and did coaching for 10 years.

Speaker 1 4:41

Okay.

Speaker 2 4:42

And so now I have been an administrator. This is year eight.

Speaker 1 4:48

Wow, that is wonderful.

Speaker 2 4:50

and what uh, what uh brought about the decision to be getting into administration um, it just kind of happened um after I had been coaching um at the schools that I coached at. They were kind of small what did you coach um?

Speaker 1 5:08

so I coached at, they were kind of small.

Speaker 2 5:09

What did you coach? So I coached at Cromwell Elementary, rainshaven Elementary and Bruce Elementary in Memphis, shelby County.

Speaker 1 5:19

What did you coach?

Speaker 2 5:20

I coached every content area for teachers. I was the only coach at the time, and so my job was to go into the classrooms to watch instruction. Then I would co-plan with teachers, go into the classroom and give them real-time feedback so that we could increase student achievement. So I did that. Now, most schools have more than one coach, but I guess at the time, like it was just starting out to have like school-based coaches and so yeah.

Speaker 3 5:55

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Jamie's Reflections on the Conference

Speaker 1 6:34

And I understand that you went on to graduate studies.

Speaker 2 6:37

I did. I got my master's and education specialist degree from Union University Okay, and leadership Added on the administration tag because I did curriculum and instruction for my master's degree and then I added on the K-12 administration Wonderful Mm-hmm yeah, so loved it. Didn't quite get my doctorate. I wrote the first couple of chapters of my dissertation Okay, but then I had to be a mother.

Speaker 1 7:16

Ah yeah, have you thought about another dissertation topic?

Speaker 2 7:23

Yeah, I think I have written or co-authored eight books. Wow, so my mother says I've written my dissertation many times over.

Speaker 3 7:34

Sounds like it.

Speaker 2 7:37

And so I'm thinking about going back to get my doctorate. I have my son. He's a junior in college now, so I might have the time.

Speaker 1 7:47

There you go. That is so awesome. Do you have anything else you'd like to share with the Tennessee CSS community?

Speaker 2 7:55

This is an amazing conference. I love that we have so many different resources available for social studies and I just I didn't know. I have never been to just a social studies conference. It's usually one that focuses on all content areas, and so I've been very impressed with the sessions and all of the different supplemental and core things that I didn't even know I could give to my children, like experiences One booth talked about like a traveling artifact case that they would mail to students so that they would be able to connect with the material that they're learning about. Like, and I would never have known about like little small things like that if I had not been here that is great, uh, wonderful.

Speaker 1 8:51

once again, thank you so much, mary fowler white uh with uh shelby Schools. Thank you so much for participating with us today.

Speaker 2 9:00

Of course, All right, have a good day you too. Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.