Hope Tinnin, a first-grade teacher at Daniel Boone Elementary was named as the Warren County R-III School District’s Teacher of the Year. 

Tinnin has taught for 25 years and has spent the last 13 years teaching at Daniel Boone Elementary in Warrenton. 

Her teaching career began in Peoria, Ill., at a parochial school. In 1999 her family moved to Warrenton and she began as a substitute teacher in the district, moving into a full-time role as a teacher shortly afterwards. 

She began in the district at Daniel Boone before a brief stint at Warrior Ridge Elementary. She returned to Daniel Boone in 2012.

Like many teachers, she felt from an early age the profession was a calling, and cited her experience with a teacher when she was younger, Mr. Henry, as her inspiration. 

“I’ve had a lot of great teachers over the years that were just great role models and great influences, and I think from elementary school, I wanted to do what those teachers were doing for me,” said Tinnin. 

Although she taught second grade for 24 years, as class sizes changed so did the school’s needs, and this was her first year teaching first grade. 

While she was apprehensive of the change at first, she said she found the experience very rewarding and has decided to remain with the grade moving forward. 

She said teaching at an earlier stage of development has inspired her as she has seen so much growth from her students this year. 

“Some of them have just made so much progress, so many gains here in first grade, and just being able to see them mature and just become great readers over the school year has been wonderful,” said Tinnin. 

She said there really have not been that many differences between the two grades, although she joked that she has had to tie a lot more shoes this year. 

As a first-grade teacher she is responsible for the majority of her students’ learning across all subjects, although she has a particular affinity for teaching reading. 

“They’ve got to be able to read to learn anything else,” said Tinnin. “I know other subjects are, of course important, math is incredibly important but they’ve got to be strong readers to be able to read anything in science and social studies and even to do well in math.”

She said one of her biggest focuses as a teacher is building relationships with her students so she knows what they need to learn, and how to effectively push them in the right direction. 

She also works to maintain relationships with her students even after they leave her class and has a group photo of every class she has ever taught in her room. 

Daniel Boone Principal Dr. Stacie Goldsmith was overjoyed that Tinnin had received the award and felt it was “well-deserved.”

“You can put any kid in Mrs. Tinnin’s class and they’ll become a better learner,” said Goldsmith. 

She continued to sing Mrs. Tinnin’s praises as well for her efforts outside of her classroom designing bulletin boards to beautify the school and helping other teachers with her knowledge so the school becomes better as a whole. 

For Mrs. Tinnin however, her goal remains to leave students who finish her class feeling the same way Mr. Henry made her feel so many years ago. 

“I would like them all to feel the way I did when I left second grade,” said Tinnin. “Like they are the smartest kid in here, and I hope that I’m telling them on a daily basis how proud I am of them.”