First-grade teacher Tiffany Morris provides a solid educational foundation for her students at Daniel Young Elementary School in Blue Springs, Missouri. Through active, creative, hands-on lessons, differentiated instruction and a variety of effective instructional strategies, Morris has helped her students achieve consistent and considerable growth during the year on assessments in math and reading. Extending student learning beyond the school day, Morris voluntarily offers one-on-one tutoring in language and math skills for first-grade remedial students as well as third- and fifth-grade students—individual attention that has resulted in significant academic improvement. She also teaches a summer school for kindergarteners and pre-kindergarteners. Morris participates in the Student Assistance Program's "Buddies" initiative, meeting monthly with an assigned student "buddy" for special activities. She provides parents with strategies for helping their children develop their math and reading skills, and several parents have continued to seek her advice even after their children have left her classroom. A leader at both the school and district levels, Morris co-chairs Daniel Young Elementary's Parenting Pairs program and is a member of both the Building Literacy Leadership Team and the Communication Arts Committee. Morris also shares instructional strategies with colleagues in the Blue Springs R-IV School District Math Cadre, and has participated on district-level committees to develop common assessments in first-grade communications arts skills and revise and align the district's grade cards.
2002 Central Missouri State University, B.S.
