Julie D. Ramsay
When Julie Ramsay was in fifth grade, she was a struggling
reader who did not receive the help she needed in the classroom. One day she
thought to herself, "I could do a better job teaching than this teacher.” Following that year—with the help of
outstanding reading and language arts teachers—Julie gained a deep love for
literature and found out that learning could be fun. "I wanted to pass that
along to future generations,” Julie says. "I knew I wanted to become strong in
teaching reading and writing because I didn’t want another child to have to sit
through the frustration that I had felt on that day in fifth grade.”
Julie received her bachelor’s degree in elementary and early childhood education from the University of Montevallo and became a National Board Certified teacher in 2007. Since 2004 she’s been teaching fifth- and sixth-grade language arts, reading, social studies, science, math, and reading intervention in Fultondale Elementary School near Birmingham, Alabama. "Since we are a K 6 school, many of my previous students return to work with my current students as tutors, leaders, and teachers in their writing and technology projects,” says Julie.
"I love that each day in the classroom is different from all of the rest of the days,” Julie says of her love of teaching. "Because each child comes with different perspectives, challenges, and life experiences, one cannot predict what will come out of a lesson or an activity. Students always surprise with their connections, conclusions, and questions, which usually sparks something in someone else in class.”
One of Julie’s areas of specialty is technology. "By providing students with the opportunity to collaborate and create with peers in class and online through open source technology tools, my students gain the opportunity to write and create real projects for a real audience while gaining an understanding of the relevance of what we do in the classroom and how it applies outside of the classroom walls.”
Julie enjoys traveling to places off the beaten path and sharing those experiences with her students upon her return. She enjoys visiting schools and churches as well as small art galleries and music venues. She also likes exploring great architecture and spending the day at a museum.
