5 May 2005

Longwood alumna receives statewide teaching award

Whiley is holding the gold-plated apple that is part of her award

Elizabeth Beckner Whiley, a 1994 Longwood Univesity graduate who teaches at New Dominion School in Buckingham County, recently received a statewide teaching award.

Whiley, who lives in Farmville, is the recipient of the 2005 Margaret Shepherd Teaching Award from the Virginia Association of Independent Specialized Independent Facilities (VAISEF). The award, which includes a cash award and a gold-plated apple, recognizes a teacher who works with special needs students at a VAISEF member school. It was presented during the organization's spring membership conference April 21 in Virginia Beach.

"Ms. Whiley is an extremely talented and creative teacher who genuinely cares about her students and takes a personal interest in each of them," said her principal, Bill Hyson. "She is also a quiet, steadfast leader who is respected by her peers... Her warm, quiet demeanor is comforting to even the most behaviorally or academically disabled student."

Whiley has taught since November 1996 at New Dominion School, which has 72 male students in grades 6-12 who are emotionally disturbed or learning disabled. She is the lead teacher and teaches several subjects, including algebra I and II, geometry, English, chemistry and biology. The boys' school, founded in 1976, is located between Dillwyn and Cumberland State Forest, and is owned by a company (Three Springs) that operates a similar girls' school a few miles away, which opened about nine years ago and has 48 students.

"It's a one-on-one tutoring situation," she said. "Typically I have six to eight students in my classroom at one time doing six to eight different subjects. A few weeks ago I finished a direct instruction reading comprehension class...I love my job. You never know what you'll be doing. Every hour is different."

"It's a wilderness therapeutic program," she added. "The students live in tents made of pine frame, covered with tarp and plastic, with gravel floors. It's like a village in which they're divided into six sections of 12 students each. They're there for 14 to 18 months. The schoolhouse staff consists of seven teachers, a principal and a librarian."

In her speech in which she accepted the award, Whiley noted that her students "have had negative experiences with schools and teachers. I get many chances every day to perpetuate or to change their ideas about school, various subjects, and teachers."

A Bedford native, she majored in math at Longwood and did her student-teaching in Honduras. Before going to New Dominion School, she taught at Charter Westbrook Hospital in Richmond for a year and briefly substitute taught back home in Bedford.

Her current principal noted that she is "adept at teaching virtually any course in mathematics, from remedial arithmetic to calculus...Ms. Whiley's students invariably make significant improvements in their math skills. After a year most increase their calculation and problem-solving skills by three or four grade levels as measured on standardized achievement tests."

Active in the Farmville community, she is member of Farmville Baptist Church, has appeared in two plays with the Waterworks Players and is a frequent blood donor. Her husband, Jordan Whiley, who formerly counseled the boys at New Dominion and later taught at the girls' school, now runs a website design business based in Farmville.