Christie Whitehead has been teaching for the better part of 14 years, and in that time she has realized the job requires her to be far more than an educator.

“We wear many hats when we walk into our classrooms: teacher, mother, nurse, counselor, comedian, mediator, peacekeeper and housekeeper — just to mention a few,” says Whitehead, a third grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary School.

Regardless of the demands of her life’s work, Whitehead says she relishes the opportunity to shape the lives and character of her students.

“We love our jobs because ours is one of the only professions where we can make a difference in children’s lives not only in the present, but also in the future,” Whitehead says.

Whitehead says her love for teaching was something instilled in her by two family members who also dedicated their lives to teaching.

“My mother was an elementary school teacher, my aunt was a high school teacher, who later became a principal and I had other relatives that were in education,” she says. “Even as a little girl, I loved to play school with my friends. I would always volunteer to be the teacher. I always knew I would become a school teacher one day.”

Whitehead says she has fond memories of helping her mother prepare her classroom before the beginning of a new school year.

“I loved helping her get her room ready during the summer, making bulletin boards,” she says.

Whitehead says her favorite facet of being a teacher is how everyone, including herself, learns something during her lessons.

“My favorite aspect of teaching would have to be our community of learning,” she says. “It is no longer the teacher teaching children facts all day. We are an emerging society where we are all learning together. I feel like I am the leader and facilitator of our learning, but the students are also cooperatively learning from each other every day. In our non-threatening environment, we are all learning together.”

Whitehead also says she hopes her students take more from her classroom than the lessons found in a book.

“My hope and prayer is that my students will not only learn academics, but will learn positive characteristics that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives,” she says. “I want each of my students to know that they are dearly loved and that each of them are created special in their own way. I want them to have a burning desire to continue to research and be lifelong learners long after their school days are finished.”

TEACHER: Christie Whitehead

SCHOOL: Gulf Shores Elementary

SUBJECTS TAUGHT: Third grade

SOMETHING UNUSUAL ABOUT YOURSELE: I collect old antique oil lamps. I probably have 50 of them at home. I’ve been collecting them for about 25 years. My parents had an antique booth, and so they would find them all the time, and I just fell in love with them.