Part of an ongoing series featuring the teachers nominated for Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce’s Teacher of the Year honors.

This school year was uncharted territory for Dee McCain. After spending her entire career to this point teaching first grade she had a new challenge awaiting her — third grade.

McCain teaches third grade at Bovina Elementary and is her school’s nominee for the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce Elementary Teacher of the Year.

After initially being against the move to a new grade, McCain said she now loves third grade.

“I went kicking and screaming, ‘please, don’t send me to third grade. I know my first grade,’” McCain said. “It has been a true blessing in disguise. I’ve loved every minute of it I wouldn’t go back to first grade now.”

This year, she has the added benefit of teaching some of her former first graders and she said she has enjoyed seeing them grow and mature from where they were two years ago.

“They are a lot more independent,” she said. “You get so much more done with them, plus I have had some these kids when they were in first grade so I already know some of them. It is just getting to form that bond with them and watch them grow.”

Moving to a new grade was not without its challenges though. She had to learn an all new curriculum after spending 15 years teaching first grade. As the year progresses, she has had to continue to study the third grade material as they enter new areas in math and other subjects.

“It is like playing a video game,” McCain said. “You want to reach the next level so I will take my stuff home and be like ‘oh my goodness, I’ve got to teach fractions. I don’t even remember how to do fractions.’ I will study it that night before and then I will go in the classroom and I am a lot of confident. It was a little difficult at first, but now it is the excitement of what is the next thing we’re going to teach.”

She said her favorite part has been watching the third graders grow-up and learn as she learns right along with them.

“It is exciting to me to see how much the kids have grown up,” McCain said. “I did the little ones for so long, now to see them where they are at has been a fun year for me. When I first found out I was going to do this I thought I was going to have to stay up every night studying this. It comes so easy now. I don’t even know how to explain it.”

McCain graduated from Delta State with her Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education in 2001 and she finished her Masters in Education from Alcorn State in 2005.

“It has been amazing,” McCain said of being named Bovina’s teacher of the year. “We are all amazing teachers and I don’t know how I got picked. I truly appreciate it. It is that huge pat on the back.”

The Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce will choose one elementary and one secondary teacher of the year at the chamber luncheon Feb. 21. The winner of each award will receive $1,000 from Ameristar Casino and the runner-up for each award will receive $500 from Mutual Credit Union.

“It would be like winning a trip to Disney,” McCain said of her reaction if she won the award. “That would be amazing because that means I really stood out in somebody else’s eyes and they are getting that what I’m doing is really beneficial to the kids.”