2021 Extraordinary Educators: Juandalynn Jones-Hunt
Great communities have great schools. High Point Schools Partnership creates impactful connections between our schools and the wider community to ensure students and their families are supported and can reach their full potential in High Point schools.
Part of High Point Schools Partnerships’ mission is to improve the image of our schools through storytelling. Who better to tell the stories of High Point’s schools than the people experiencing it first-hand? In this series of eight articles, we will highlight our 2021 High Point Extraordinary Educators as we dive deeper into what keeps them motivated in the face of constant challenges.
Juandalynn Jones-Hunt
Juandalynn Jones-Hunt has been at Parkview Village Elementary School for about 10 years. She loves “the community, the students, the families, the community partners, the arts advocacy, and the staff with whom she has shared so much of her life.” Jones-Hunt feels like she’s as much a part of the community as it is a part of her.
Parkview Village Elementary School’s principal, Crystal Gregory, describes Mrs. Jones-Hunt as someone who is “helpful, creative, and always willing to help.” When entering Mrs. Jones-Hunt’s classroom, Gregory says she “always knows I’m going to leave knowing something new about famous artists and how they contributed to society.”
During remote learning, Mrs. Jones-Hunt was able to “provide meaningful art activities for her students that did not require materials that students did not have at home. Her lessons and activities highly resembled the unique teaching she does face to face every day.”
Q: What inspired you to become an educator?
A: My high school art teacher, Elaine Helmstetler, poured so much of herself, her love of art, her knowledge of materials and techniques, and her love for her students into us and I wanted to be that beacon of light for someone else. She gave art purpose and art gave me purpose.
Q: What’s your teaching/leadership style?
A: I am one who likes to model expected outcomes, procedures, and techniques for students before guided practice prior to encouraging independent work so that students have room to be creative after gaining confidence in creating.
Q: Do you have a classroom motto or philosophy you abide by? Why?
A: Yes. A Native American saying was taught to me when I lived among the Lumbee Indian tribe as a young adult and I try to remind myself to live by this rule of thumb as I teach it to my students. “ When you find out what is worth keeping, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” Life is too short to be measured in disappointments and regret.
Q: What’s your favorite part about every day?
A: My favorite part of the day is greeting students because all slates are cleared and a new day with new opportunities awaits us all.
Q: What’s your most memorable moment as an educator?
A: The mother of a kindergartner student told me that the family was at a weekend event and her daughter recognized the work of an artist that I had covered in class earlier that semester and her grade K student went on to tell the family details about the artist, the work and the style of the piece. I knew then, the answer to the WHY I do this.
Mrs. Jones-Hunt realizes and wishes she could tell her students that she “truly believes she wants more for my students than they may realize they want for themselves.”
Thank you so much to Juandalynn Jones-Hunt for your dedication to High Point’s students. Congratulations on being selected as your school’s 2021 Extraordinary Educator!
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Article written by High Point Schools Partnership Staff
