Teaching students with a variety of disabilities can be a daunting task requiring compassion, patience and improvisation. For Aston (Rai) Pattison, an Essential Elements educator at Kearns Junior High School, it’s her favorite thing in the world. 

Pattison was one of two teachers in the Kearns area presented with Excel Awards from the Granite Education Foundation. The recognition is given to educators who go above and beyond in the classroom, inspiring students and making a community impact. 

Pattison has taught at KJHS for the last four years, creating a curriculum, program and activities that allow her students to develop life skills through “real life” as much as possible. She was nominated by the parents of a student who appreciated Pattison’s work with their child.

“I teach a harder population of students,” she said. “A lot of my students have really significant needs and a lot of people, teachers included, don’t know how to interact with people that are that different from them. They don’t speak verbally, they use wheelchairs and some are blind.”

She loves the challenge of finding ways to engage students that teach them what it means to be part of a community. Pattison gets scholarships so her students can go on field trips and visit fun places, plus they operate a coffee cart each week.

Pattison admits teaching special needs students can be challenging, but she views it as a unique opportunity to reach these kids and show them they can do things they never thought possible. She encourages educators to work with this special population, even when it feels daunting. 

“If you’re someone who is willing to solve problems and be an advocate and defend your kids and protect them, then I think this is the job for you. I get to go home every day and feel really rewarded. I don’t think in today’s society that a lot of people can say that they feel that their work matters as much as I can,” Pattison said. “I think these kids have enough challenges in their life and they will have more challenges. They can leave my class believing in themselves and knowing they can accomplish anything.”

Teaching empathy through art

Kearns High School art educator Meghan Allen was the second recipient of the Excel Award from Kearns schools. Allen said when she steps into the classroom, she is helping shape the lives of her students by creating space for growth and discovery. Allen wants her class to be a refuge where students learn to trust themselves and their ideas.

“I’m a very empathetic teacher who is focused on how we can create change in our community within the classroom,” Allen said. “I don’t think a lot of teachers focus as much on community building and empathetic awareness as I do, and I do that both through the arts and through social-emotional learning. I think that is obvious through both the projects I do and the relationships I have with students.”

One project her students created was a collection of portraits, using the Humans of New York concept. Allen taught them how to interview a subject and how to capture a sense of community through the project. Students had to interview someone attending or working at KHS and take a series of photographs. 

“The goal of this project is both to create a community portrait of what our current school’s diversity is, but also to change the rhetoric around our community,” she said. “Where often there’s negative bias attached to Kearns High School, the goal of this project is to see it in a different lens.”

This is Allen’s third year teaching at KHS. A graduate of Cottonwood High School and the University of Utah, she said teaching has always been her passion. Her father was a professor and Allen grew up attending his college classes. She then went home to teach the lesson to her stuffed animals.

She credits John Fackrell, her art teacher at CHS, for not only sparking her love of art and expression but for literally saving her life. Allen wants people to know that art isn’t just a casual elective but something that changes lives. 

“When I was in high school, I struggled with the typical teen anxiety and depression,” she said. “John saved me in so many ways. When I was feeling down and suicidal, I would go into his room and I would cry. He’d say, ‘Well, I don’t care if you stay here, but you have to paint’…He taught me how to cope through art.”

Pattison and Allen were among nine educators and one administrator from Granite School District who received the Excel Award. They each receive $1,500 as well as additional prizes honoring the work they do. They can also apply for the Granite School District Teacher of the Year award.

“Since 1988, the Granite Education Foundation has partnered with the Granite School District to recognize 10 outstanding educators with an Excel Award,” said GEF Executive Director Jadee Talbot. “The goal of this award is to recognize outstanding educators and elevate the teaching profession. We know that when we lift up teachers, our students win.”λ