GHS teacher of the year a #039;kid at heart#039;

Published 12:00 am Monday, March 14, 2005

Georgiana's Rebecca Hartselle-Little may be a teacher and a veteran of the trade, but she is still a kid at heart. Not only that, she's also well respected by her colleagues. That helped earn her the honor of Teacher of the Year from Georgiana High School.

Little, who was originally from Greenville attended the now defunct Greenville Academy but was then transferred to public schools by her parents and graduated from Greenville High School. From there she went to Lurleen B. Wallace Junior College in Andalusia before transferring to Troy University to finish up her degree in physical education.

"I've always liked PE," said Little. "I wanted to be somewhere I could play and let kids see how much it could be and that it's not always about just exercising."

Little has been teaching for the past 10 years. Eight of those 10 have been in Georgiana.

"I enjoy teaching," said Little.

"I have really enjoyed teaching and have been doing it for 10 years. I just love the Georgiana kids. I teach Health as well."

While Little does have to spend time in the classroom two periods a day, she'd rather be outside playing something with the class.

"I like a classroom," said Little. "But I would rather be out here playing with the kids and letting them know that physical activities aren't all bad. We have to listen to the mammas and daddies talk about their kids being obese and their lazy and it's all our fault. It's not our fault. We have them five hours a week. And you can only do so much during that time."

To combat that problem, Little teaches the children in her class games and things that they can play outside of the classroom.

"We go out and we play things like football and softball," said Little. "Things that they can learn are fun to do outside of the classroom. Sometimes I have the opportunity to introduce something new to them, like badminton."

Currently, Little is also involved with the high school's baseball and softball teams as well as the Builder's Club and the Key Club.

"I just like being involved," said Little. "That's truly because I love what I do. They aren't many people that can say they love coming to work. But I can because I do love my job. The whole faculty and staff here work great together and that makes it more fun."