From the Greenville News

It's a family affair for top teacher

By Julie Howle, staff writer

EASLEY — Sheila Beasley has been a teacher at heart since the third grade.

“I taught the furniture, and then I eventually pulled in the neighborhood kids,” Beasley said with a laugh. “I've wanted to teach ever since Mrs. (Dorothy) Pittman's third-grade class … I acted just like her.”

It was that inspiration from her third-grade teacher at Hagood Elementary that helped lead Beasley down the path to educator, and Friday she was honored for her work by being named the 2010-11 School District of Pickens County Teacher of the Year.

“I never imagined this,” Beasley, a second-grade teacher at East End Elementary, said as a smile spread across her face.

She said she was honored to be named East End teacher of the year, and then to be chosen as one of four finalists for the district honor.

“Oh my goodness, this is the icing on the cake — with the candles lit,” she said.

Beasley was announced as the winner at a virtual kickoff celebration for the school year that was broadcast to schools throughout the district where employees gathered to watch together.

Sheila Hogan, who has served as media clerk at Liberty High School for 13 years, was named the 2010-11 district support employee of the year at the celebration as well.

“I'm very honored and humbled,” she said. “It means a lot to me this year, especially because it comes from faculty and staff that I worked with at Liberty.”

Hogan, who will be a kindergarten teacher assistant at Clemson Elementary this year because of reassignments in the face of budget cuts, said she loved working with Liberty High students and is now excited to work with the younger children.

“It's just another way to make a difference in the lives of children, just a different point in their life,” Hogan said.

Beasley said she is starting her seventh year as a second-grade teacher at East End. She taught first grade at the school for six years.

But the road to this moment started long before.

Beasley said she began at the district office as an administrative assistant and then moved to Easley High School, where she served as the secretary to the principal and the bookkeeper for 10 years.

Southern Wesleyan University