Clampitt named Teacher of the Year

Kim Clampitt has been chosen by colleagues as the Comanche Public Schools 2021 District Teacher of the Year.

Mrs. Clampitt has been married to her husband, Ronny, for 32 years. They have one son, Walker. She likes being outdoors where she enjoys fishing, riding horses, and gardening. Mrs. Clampitt graduated from Comanche High School in 1981. She attended college at Southwestern Oklahoma State University where she obtained her BS degree in Elementary Education.

This is her 36th year of teaching. She began teaching in the Fall of 1985. Previously, she taught at Grandview (1985-1988), and Walters Elementary (1988-2006). Mrs.Clampitt began teaching Kindergarten at Comanche Elementary in the Fall of 2006. This is her 15th year teaching at Comanche.

She is currently teaching Transitional-First grade (T-1st). She loves teaching this grade which she considers the opportunity and advantage class. 

In her T-1st class, she uses many hands-on activities, and technology-based activities to help her students see and understand the skills of phonics, reading, and math. Mrs. Clampitt’s goal each year is to help her students be as strong as they can be academically and be more mature in their social skills as they enter into first grade.

With all of the challenges her students have faced this year at school, at home, and in our country, a goal for this year has been to have her students know they can control how they act but that they cannot control how others act.

Mrs. Clampitt continues to learn new teaching methods each year.

“Technology has always been a challenge for me,” she stated. “Thankfully, with the help of many of my co-workers and our technology team, I have learned how to create my lessons on google drive, create assignments on google classroom, and teach virtually from home on our virtual weather days.” 

She has been able to utilize technology more as an instructional tool with her students this year. 

When she was in third and fourth-grade her teachers inspired her and she loved school. Since those early grades, she always wanted to be a teacher. Mrs. Clampitt believes God’s plan and purpose for her life is to teach. She gets excited, and her heart fills with joy when she gets to help teach someone to blend sounds together to read or build math problems out of Unifix cubes to see why two numbers added together equal a certain number. 

She looks forward to teaching students in a school setting, as well as teaching someone how to ride a horse.

“Teaching is a large part of who I am and I love to teach,” explains Mrs. Clampitt. “Even though this year has been met with challenges, uncertainty, and a great deal of stress, almost every morning on my way to school, I thank God that I am able to go to work at a job I love.”