Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Ymbert, Harris named Regional Texas Teachers of the Year

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Friday, August 24, 2001
Ymbert, Harris named Regional Texas Teachers of the Year
Both say they answered call to guide youth, pass on a love of learning
By Jeremy Brown
Caller-Times

Photos by George Gongora/Caller-Times

Piedad Ymbert (left), a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Kostoryz Elementary, and Mary Diane Harris, an English and Latin teacher at H.M. King High School in Kingsville, were honored Thursday as Regional Texas Teachers of the Year.

   Piedad Ymbert planned on helping the world, but as a missionary. She didn't plan to be a teacher.
   Mary Diane Harris was taught the importance of service growing up. Her grandmother was a teacher in Appalachia, and her mother was active in the PTA. For Harris, teaching seemed the natural course.
   On Thursday, both women were named the Regional Texas Teachers of the Year.
   Ymbert, a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Corpus Christi's Kostoryz Elementary School, was chosen for the elementary division. Harris, an English and Latin teacher at H.M. King High School in Kingsville, won in the secondary division.
   Ymbert said that, when she was a student, teaching wasn't an appealing idea. She figured she would teach the same kids day after day, the same lessons year after year.
   After graduating from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, she intended to go abroad as a missionary, but got involved with substitute teaching.
   "That when I realized I'm not just teaching academics," she said. "That's when it hit me that I was answering my call. . . . I started seeing not just students but whole lives - their pasts and what the future would be like for them.
   "Teaching is everything I do," said Ymbert, who has taught at Kostoryz for the last 19 years. "It's a way of life. It's just in my bones."
   Outside the classroom
   Pamela Wright, assistant principal of Kostoryz, described Ymbert as creative and dedicated.
   "She spends a lot of time outside the classroom working on instruction," Wright said. "She makes home visits, which helps connect her with the home situation, which helps support the child.
   "Student learning is the most important thing to her. I don't know of a more dedicated teacher than she."
   'I try to inspire'
   Harris, too, wanted to lead students in a positive direction.
   Growing up, she said, her mother was heavily involved in her school, and her father was an electrical engineer with a brilliant ability in math. Her parents taught her to love learning, and Harris looks back fondly on the dinner conversations dominated by talk of what she and her siblings had learned that day.
   "I try to inspire (the students) in the way that my parents inspired me with a love of learning," she said.
   'Feel empowered'
   To that end, Harris said, she tries to engage her students with field trips and by connecting their homework to everyday things they can relate to.
   "I have to get them to feel empowered," said Harris, who has taught for 24 years, 11 of them at H.M. King. "The most important thing is helping them to find out what they are passionate about and then helping them channel that toward a career."
   Modern connections
   Mark Rodriguez, an H.M. King sophomore, said Harris pushes her students hard, but her class is unlike any other.
   "The good thing about her is that she doesn't always just teach Latin," Rodriguez said. "She always tries to teach us morals and she'll give us examples in Latin."
   Rodriguez said Harris makes Latin easier by telling students pithy Latin sayings, which they write down, and by giving them extra credit for finding modern connections to Latin. And, he said, she tries to pass on good study techniques to her students and convince them of the importance of a college degree.
   Ymbert and Harris were selected from nominees from throughout Region 2 of the Education Service Center, which includes 42 school districts, stretching from Three Rivers in the north to Ramirez in southern Duval County, said Barbara Purcell, Teacher of the Year coordinator.
   Harris and Ymbert advance to competition for state teachers of the year, which will be announced in late October, Purcell said.



Staff writer Mary Moreno contributed to this report. Contact Jeremy Brown at 886-3746 or brownj@caller.com

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