Debbie Hammond Lancaster knew she wanted to teach and coach when she was in high school. She was in the first wave of women who received college athletic scholarships after Title IX legislation. Graduating cum laude with a BA in Secondary Education from Clemson University, she earned letters in both basketball and volleyball, and went on to receive her MED in Administration with Phi Kappa Phi honors from Winthrop University while coaching women’s volleyball and basketball there. She is twice National Board certified in Early Adolescence/English Language Arts, teaches sixth grade reading and writing, and chairs the language arts department. She has taught and/or coached nearly 2500 students over her 32-year career and is currently her school district’s Teacher of the Year. Debbie enjoys practicing and teaching mindfulness and competing in sprint triathlons. She and her husband David, a Special Education assistant after a career in mica mining, have four children, three children-in-law, and one handsome, smart, daredevil grandson.
Leading Next to Students
March 6, 2018
Teachers want to lead. We want to influence students and the education profession in positive ways while remaining in the classroom. The dilemma is that on this leadership pursuit, many teachers aren’t able to find ways to stay in the classroom. Early in my career, I had the false notion that leading in education meant aspiring to be a school or district-level administrator, so I embarked on the journey and spent ten successful but somewhat unsatisfying years outside the classroom preparing for and working in administration until I finally said to myself, “Wait, this is not what I meant.” What…
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