Henrico's Top Teachers – Kelly Horne, Varina Elementary School, exceptional education
Table of Contents
Years ago, Kelly Horne taught a fifth-grader who still couldn’t read. Now, he is a nurse. Horne also taught a first-grader who was significantly struggling. Now, she has a guaranteed teaching position in Henrico after winning the prestigious Teacher Scholar award.
For Horne, an exceptional education teacher at Varina Elementary for the past 22 years, these success stories are testaments to her belief that every child can succeed as long as they are given the proper attention, support, and love.
After teaching her fourth-grade cohort for the past three years, Horne has seen her students go from just “little babies” to confident, self-assured rising fifth-graders almost ready for middle school.
But what it ultimately takes to get students to that high school graduation stage, especially students with disabilities or exceptional needs, is individual attention, learning accommodations and strategies to “level the playing field,” and a strong personal relationship between teacher and student.
In her collaborative classroom of 19 students, some who have learning disabilities and some who do not, Horne is able to get to know her students on a deeper level than if she were their general education teacher. She and a cohort of six students even eat breakfast and lunch together every single day.
“I’m all about relationships and safe places,” Horne said. “The nature of having six of them right here is sort of like a family dinner. I know who their brothers and sisters are, and they want to see pictures of my daughter. It just allows for a more personal relationship.”
Horne also knows all of her students’ “hidden talents” that often go unnoticed in larger classrooms. Some excel at art, some are clever with computers. Horne even helped one student create a book of his drawings, which she hopes will show everyone what he is capable of and encourage him to keep taking art class.
“They just all have talents that you might not know about if you didn’t bring them in here and talk to them,” she said. “And I want them to develop it. Like, ok, you need to take art in sixth grade. And you need to be a drummer. And you need to be an artist. They don't have a chance to do this kind of stuff in the [gen ed] classroom, so the teachers might not even know that he is that talented.”
In Horne’s classroom, students get to go “back to the basics” and learn multiple different strategies to do a math problem or read a sentence, using a multi-sensory math program and a phonics-based reading program. Then, students return to their general education classrooms with a better understanding and hopefully with more confidence.
Horne also works with her students on behaviors, which can be a challenge. She has high expectations for all of her students, even though expectations are different for each child. And she also has students with a range of behaviors – some are “refusers,” some are “runners,” while some have a major case of “the sillies.”
But throughout her long career of teaching, Horne has found a way to not let the bad behaviors get to her. After years of success stories, she feels less of a need to fix every misbehavior or outburst, and instead feels a soothing faith that things will turn out okay.
“I have a really good patience now, but I have not always had patience in this career at all. I used to just want to control it, control it, control it. But you can’t really control some behavior,” she said. “So it’s like, just fling out and do whatever you need to do for a minute, and then let’s get back to it. Very little ruffles me anymore, I’m just sort of like, ‘okay, we can get through this.’”
One Friday, a student – one of the “runners” – took it so far he ran out of the building. That next Monday, when he came back to class, Horne calmly asked him how his weekend had been (which was “not great,” as you can imagine he was grounded).
“You can stab me, you can kick me, you can put me on the ground, but the next day, you’re not going to know that I was upset with you. I’m going to just let it go and I’m going to come in fresh every single day,” Horne said. “I just adore all of my students. I’ve always loved them so much. That’s the one thing I’ve got.”
Horne also gives her students a lot of praise, even for the smallest wins. She is a big encourager and likes to “lay it on thick,” and brings treats and prizes to keep them going.
“They get incentives, and are like, ‘I want to eat lunch with you.’ And then the other ones are like, ‘I want a huge bag of Takis.’ And I say, ‘I’m not bringing you a big old bag of Takis!’” Horne said. “But I do bring them rewards, and I praise them constantly, even if it’s just, ‘you finished it!’ You have to find little victories everywhere.”
There is nothing that Horne wouldn’t do for her students, according to one of her nominators – except maybe supply them with a ginormous bag of Takis. Over her two decades of teaching, she has purchased a number of coats, shoes, and other items that they need using money from her own pocket. She has never given up on her students, even under the most difficult of circumstances.
“She prioritizes her students and their progress. She spends hours at home preparing for her students,” one nominator wrote. “She not only impacts their academics, but also supports them in their needs as they grow. She is completely devoted to her students and their progress.”
