Karen Spooner is an English as a Second Language teacher at Pearland Junior High West and has recently been named the 2023 Secondary ESL Teacher of the Year by the Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE). This recognition is given annually to one exceptional ESL teacher who is dedicated to meeting the needs of emergent bilingual students while showing outstanding leadership attributes necessary to represent all ESL teachers in Texas proudly.
Becoming the ESL Secondary Teacher of the Year was a long process with several steps for Spooner. It included applying and being selected as the ESL Secondary Teacher for Pearland ISD and then for the Houston Area Association of Bilingual Education (HAABE), an involved writing application, community service hours, an in-person interview, and letters of recommendation from colleagues, parents, and PJH West’s principal, Dr. Dana Miles.
“It is a great honor to represent Pearland ISD as the TABE 2023 ESL Secondary Education Teacher of the Year, not only as a product of the district, but also as a former student who benefited greatly from the world-class teachers here in Pearland,” Spooner said.
Spooner, originally from Korea, is a Pearland ISD graduate who once was an ESL student. Before becoming an elementary student in the district as a young child, she experienced challenges in the classroom, not understanding English and struggling to succeed academically.
“I am grateful that my teachers were able to see my potential and helped to build me up not only academically, but culturally and socially as well, to succeed from a struggling student who hated anything to do with school into a young woman with many options for her future. So, in many ways, I have been paying back the excellence that crafted me into the human being, the teacher that I am today, continuing to hopefully add on to the foundation that my Pearland teachers built in me, within my students,” she said.
The positive and lasting impact of Spooner’s participation in Pearland ISD’s ESL program ultimately motivated her to return and serve in a classroom in Pearland.
“It was as though I had returned home to where I needed to be. All the negative and positive experiences of being an Emergent Bilingual student helped me with my students; the lessons of what worked well and what did not work guided me to be the teacher that the younger me needed for my current students,” Spooner said. “As my wanderings slowed down, my road has made a complete circle to return me to the spot that made such an impact in my journey, straightening out so that I could fly towards my goal and my future.”
Spooner has nearly 20 years of experience as a teacher in several countries, including the U.S., Morocco, Slovakia, and Korea. In her 12th year as a teacher in Pearland ISD, she is passionate about teaching ESL students, bridging cultural differences, and celebrating diversity in her classroom.
“In class, I enjoy showing students how life in other countries differ from their own, whether it be with pictures and stories from my travels, showing how a single poem changed the course of history, or how a single person’s determination gave hope to a nation,” she said. “These connections are made beyond a textbook and lessons and will be carried on beyond their years in school.”
Spooner will represent Pearland ISD at the national level of the competition in the National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE) 2024 Bilingual Teacher of the Year Award in March 2024.
