Ouida Newton started college when she was 16, graduated when she was 18 and started teaching right away — 37 years ago.
On Nov. 21, the Poyen High School math teacher was surprised at a school assembly, where she learned she had been named the 2015 Arkansas Teacher of the Year by the Arkansas Department of Education.
“I knew something was up,” Newton, 56, said recently as she sat with visitors in her classroom at Poyen High School. “I had several suspicions. Everyone was being very secretive.
“Everyone on the East Coast and in Arkansas knew except me and Carter, my grandson,” Newton said with a laugh. “They knew he couldn’t keep a secret.
“My sister was here from the East Coast under the supposition of coming for Thanksgiving. She knew, and she had told all of her friends and everybody she went to church with.”
Newton’s sister is Clara Thore, who is 10 years older than Newton and a retired medical researcher living in North Carolina.
Newton already had become one of 15 regional finalists for the state’s Teacher of the Year award, receiving $1,000 from the Walton Family Foundation of Bentonville. She was then named one of the four finalists for the award in September. The Walton Family Foundation awarded Newton $14,000 as the state winner during the Nov. 21 assembly.
“I’m so very, very grateful to the Walton Family Foundation for doing this for the state of Arkansas, for K-12 education,” she said. “They have been tremendous supporters. I am very, very appreciative of this $15,000 [total] award.
“It is absolutely an honor,” Newton said of the award. “It absolutely took me by surprise.
“They brought me the paperwork to fill out [for the Teacher of the Year award]. I filled it out, turned it back in and never thought another thing about it. I never expected to win. There are teachers doing awesome things in classrooms all over the state.”
Arkansas Department of Education Commissioner Tony Wood said in a prepared statement, “Arkansas has some of the best teachers in the country, so it is extremely difficult to select just one teacher to receive this honor. Ms. Newton has a strong teaching history and outstanding accomplishments, making her a deserving teacher for this recognition.”
Poyen High School Principal Dennis Emerson said, “You won’t find a better teacher. I have had the pleasure of knowing her for 25 years here at Poyen. Twenty-two of those years were in class, as fellow teachers. I’ve now been her principal for three years.
“Day in and day out, she cares for the total well-being of her students, both in and out of the classroom. She puts everything into preparing her classes for her students. She sends them handwritten notes congratulating them on their test scores. When students that have graduated need help, they come back to her, and she helps them. Her teaching never ends.
“She is a tremendous asset to our school district and to the state. She never stops planning. Whatever it is, she jumps right in and figures out how to help her students be successful.”
In addition to winning the state award, Newton was given the 2015 Teaching Excellence Award, which includes technology products for the classroom and training, provided by SMART Technologies of Canada.
Newton is now eligible for the National Teacher of the Year award because the Arkansas Teacher of the Year program is part of the National Teacher of the Year program, which began in 1952 and honors teachers for excellence in their profession.
Newton was born in Quitman, Mississippi, the daughter of J.T. and Doris Reavis. Newton’s mother was a schoolteacher.
“She was my first-grade teacher,” Newton said, adding that she has no memory of that year. “She was a great teacher. I’ve had students come back and tell me. I do have memory of that.”
Newton said she and her family moved to Leola, a town of less than 1,000 southwest of Sheridan in Grant County, when she was 12.
“I’ve been here ever since,” she said.
When asked where she graduated from high school, Newton answered, matter-of-factly, “I did not graduate from high school.”
She went on to explain: “When I was in the 11th grade, Henderson State University had a program that year where they invited juniors who met certain requirements to come and take summer classes.
“I took 12 hours of summer classes [between] my junior and senior year,” she said. “I went back to high school that fall, and after the first day, I came home bawling and squalling and told my mother, ‘I can’t go back to high school.’
“I loved college so much. So my mother went to the administrators, and they worked it out for me to start college without graduating from high school.
“Never for one moment have I regretted that decision,” she said.
She double-majored in math and science at Henderson and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree. She would go on to earn a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, graduating with a 4.0 grade-point average.
Newton started her career as an educator with the Pulaski County Special School District, where she taught math. She then taught science at Searcy Junior High School. She began teaching at Poyen during the 1979-80 school year.
“When I came here, I was the math department,” she said, lauging at the memory. “I was the only math teacher. We’ve grown quite a bit since then. I guess our school has tripled in size.”
Newton now teaches seventh- through 12th-grade math at Poyen High School.
During her 37-year teaching career, she has taught math, Algebra 1 and 2, sixth-grade science, pre-algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, calculus, trigonometry, transition to college math, physics and Algebra A and B.
She has served as a library media specialist, math coach, curriculum supervisor, class sponsor, senior Beta Club sponsor and Teachers of Tomorrow supervisor. She currently teaches algebra, trigonometry and introduction to computers at the College of the Ouachitas in Malvern.
“I love my job,” Newton said.
She said, like Poyen schools, the field of teaching has changed a lot since she first move to the front of the classroom.
“In math and science, you still teach a lot of the same material,” she said, “but the style of teaching has changed. Kids are not the same as they were when I started teaching. I’ve had to adapt my teaching style to meet their needs.
“I now incorporate a lot of technology in my teaching style.”
Newton said in order to be a good teacher, “You must be willing to adapt and change. You must be willing to listen. You must never quit learning.”
Newton was also named the 2014 Rural Educator of the Year and the 2014 Middle Level Math Teacher of the Year.
“I’ve had a lot of honors,” she said. “It’s been pretty exciting.”
Arkansas law provides for the Arkansas Teacher of the Year to take a year of paid administrative leave for professional-development purposes and to serve as a nonvoting member of the Arkansas State Board of Education, starting July 1.
“It’s going to be a job, a different kind of job than what I have now,” Newton said. “I’ll be traveling to conferences, participating in professional-development sessions, giving motivational talks, urging others to become teachers and a lot of other things.
“It’s going to be a new job for me. I will be representing the state, trying to promote education. I’m excited about it.”
Newton added that she will go to Washington, D.C., in April.
“I will get to meet the president and the other Teachers of the Year from across the United States.”
Newton and her husband, Jerry, who is from Leola, were high school sweethearts. Jerry Newton is superintendent of the Poyen School District.
The Newtons, who now live between Leola and Poyen, have two adult children.
Their daughter, Mandy Ketchersid, 35, and her husband, Thomas, live in Leola with their children, Emilee, 12, and Carter, 10.
The Newtons’ son, Brad, 33, and his wife, Jamie, live in Magnet Cove with their children, Natalie, 9, and Rachel Kate, 7.
Newton and her husband attend Poyen Assembly of God, where she teaches Sunday School and helps with other church activities.
For more information on the Arkansas Teacher of the Year program, visit www.arkansased.org.