Making the grade

Ashley Noustens (left) and Karen Tweedy, principal at New Sarpy Elementary, look at a globe in Noustens' new classroom. Noustens is the newest 3rd grade teacher at New Sarpy and she is a former kindergarten student of Tweedy's.

Principal hires former kindergarten student for dream job

As a kindergarten teacher at New Sarpy Elementary School, Karen Tweedy never thought she would be working with her students again as adults.

As a kindergarten student in Tweedy’s class, Ashley Noustens had a dream of becoming a teacher “just like Mrs. Tweedy.”

Now Tweedy and Noustens will be working together at New Sarpy Elementary.

Tweedy, now the principal at New Sarpy, hired Noustens as the newest 3rd grade teacher at the school.

“As a kindergarten teacher, I never thought I would be hiring one of my students back as a teacher,” Tweedy said.

Ashley, 22, decided she wanted to be a teacher when she was a student in Tweedy’s kindergarten class at New Sarpy 16 years ago, but her family never thought she would go through with a dream that started at such a young age.

Ashley’s mother, Myra, said that it was Tweedy’s support that led Ashley to this career.

“Karen really took Ashley under her wing,” Myra said. Myra said that although Ashley would often talk about being a teacher, the family didn’t push Ashley into that job.

Myra said that Ashley’s story is one of making goals and “being what you want to be” no matter what anyone else tells you.

Ashley attended Destrehan High School and the Satellite Center before moving on to Southeastern Louisiana University, where she majored in education and graduated in May of this year.

Ashley said that Tweedy’s example stuck with her throughout the years and that she often sought advice from her former teacher.

“It was her passion for teaching that made me want to be a teacher,” Ashley said. “I would e-mail her throughout high school and college for advice and she really helped me.”

Ashley was a student teacher at New Sarpy under Jan Theriot during spring 2010 through a program at SLU. Her new position is the first teaching job that Ashley has had outside of college, but Tweedy is certain she will do well.

“Even though she’s a young and a new teacher, I watched her as she taught as a student teacher…and she’s just a natural,” Tweedy said. “I was amazed at how confident she was…I’m very pleased to have her on board as a member of the faculty…Everything just fell into place.”

Myra and Tweedy joked about how Ashley was always social in school and looked over Ashley’s report cards from kindergarten. Tweedy’s comments on the reports were mostly positive, but did mention a need for more rest and less socializing.

“Ashley’s always been very friendly,” Myra said. “I even had one teacher tell me that they tried moving Ashley to different parts of the classroom to make her stop talking to her friends, but everywhere they moved her she would just make new friends.”

Ashley will be the newest 3rd grade teacher at New Sarpy and has already started setting up her classroom for the coming year with books, educational toys and even post-its for the kids.

“She just loves her parish and wants to do something wonderful,” Myra said about Ashley.

 

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