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As the old saying goes, “Show me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” For Franklin Forest Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year Kellie Hubbard, that saying rang true.

Through the friendships she made while working at a daycare in high school, Hubbard realized that she wanted to be a teacher. 

“I didn’t know if I wanted to do something in marketing or pharmacy,” Hubbard said. “The girls I worked with went to LaGrange College and would make their lesson plans and create things —everything they did, I just loved and I would help them with it.”

Hubbard said when those girls saw her take interest in their craft, they suggested Hubbard become a teacher.

“I thought, well, I do love these kids, and I’ve been playing teacher all my life,” Hubbard said. “They inspired me and here I am now.”

Upon winning the title, Hubbard said she was shocked and felt unworthy of the title.

“There are such hard-working, knowledgeable, awesome teachers around here, that I felt like there were so many people that deserved it more than me,” Hubbard said. “But I was honored and touched that they chose me.”

In her 25 years of teaching, Hubbard said the most fulfilling part of her job is being remembered by her students as someone who has helped them succeed as well as seeing them accomplish difficult tasks.

“I was at Berta (Berta Weathersbee Elementary School) so long, I saw kids and families go from pre-K through fifth grade. When I went to a high school basketball game, and I saw those kids, they ran up to me and told me how much I meant to them, “Hubbard said.

“Even though I wasn’t their classroom teacher, we had such great relationships. It meant so much to me that those kids can say you helped me, I remember you or I remember when I had a bad day, I could go to your office.”

Hubbard said watching her students grow from fourth grade to fifth has been rewarding.

“I had one boy last year who would not write anything,” Hubbard said. “At parent conference time, I had a complete paper to show his guardian that he had written about taking his dog to doggy daycare. It was descriptive and met all the elements. Getting to see that growth in them all has been amazing.”

When Hubbard is not in the classroom, she likes traveling with her mom or sorority, Alpha Delta Kappa, going shopping and watching the Atlanta Braves.

If Hubbard wasn’t a teacher, she said she would probably be working in finance.

“My mom wanted me to be a pharmacist, but that included science and that was a no-go,” Hubbard said.

“But I very much like spreadsheets and data, so, I would probably be working in finance somewhere.”

Hubbard said the support and teamwork she has gotten at Franklin Forest have impacted her as a teacher.

“Everybody I’ve worked with here has been supportive of one another,” Hubbard said. “I’ve worked in places before with teamwork, but I’ve never felt the level of support and teamwork that I have here — it’s amazing.”