She was ten when she first visited Ocracoke, and by the time she was bringing her own young children, she knew she wanted to teach here someday.
“I’m absolutely thrilled about the job,” she said in a recent phone interview. “For years, I would check the job openings at Ocracoke School, and I could’ve up and moved to Ocracoke anytime, but my kids were involved with activities they couldn’t do on the island.”
Her kids did ballet and baseball (this was before the Field of Dreams was a reality). Daughter Annelise is 20 and was a serious ballerina (Jeanie homeschooled her all through high school due to her rigorous dance schedule) until she decided to go to culinary school. Annelise just graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, and, after a vacation to Ocracoke, will take a position as pastry chef at Blue Hill Farm in Tarrytown, NY. (“It’s a farm-to-table restaurant where I can’t afford to eat,” said her mom.) Son Eli will be a freshman this year at Emory and Henry College, where he will play on the baseball team. (“We’ll go back for baseball games,” said his mom.)
.jpg "Tales of a 4th Grade Teacher")
Now that her chicks are flying the nest, Jeanie can make Ocracoke her home and return to teaching elementary school.
“My classroom is so sweet, I cannot wait to get my hands on it,” she said. Jeanie and her family were on Ocracoke over the 4th of July, but she could only look and not touch her soon-to-be classroom – the floors were being waxed.
“I got a beautiful letter from [former 4th grade teacher] Trisha [Caviness], and I’m going to do the trip for 4th and 5th grade,” she said. Two years ago, Trisha took her students on a trip from the sea to the mountains of NC and back, and promised to take the 4th and 5th graders every other year. The kids have already been fundraising in anticipation for the trip in the spring of ’16. Jeanie wants to continue that tradition.
“I love building a classroom community,” said Jeanie. “I like fun, creative activities for students like plays, newsletters, blogs. And I always have an open-door policy for parents.”
After graduating from Radford University with a degree in history and German, Jeanie taught high school German for two years. After her daughter was born in 1994, she started an afterschool language program for kids that taught them German, Spanish, French, and Italian. Meanwhile, she earned a Masters from Virginia Tech in curriculum and instruction, and then spent 12 years teaching elementary school and/or 8th grade language arts.
In 2010, she left teaching to open a restaurant with her husband, which they owned and operated for two years. “They were difficult years for us, but they were pretty important, too,” she said.
After their restaurant closed, she took a job in the administration of her alma mater, Radford U. She also taught University 100, a class for freshmen. But she missed working with younger children, and combined with her love for Ocracoke, the opening for a 4th grade teacher came at the perfect time.
Jeanie’s husband, Jeramy Guillory, will also make the move to Ocracoke.
“He’ll find something,” she said about his future employment. Jeramy owns rental property in southwest VA, and before becoming a business owner, he was a special education teacher and before that he was an actor in L.A. Jeanie said he might want to substitute teach at Ocracoke School, and villagers will also see him walking their chocolate lab/weimaraner mix named Scout.
They’ll be staying at the Willis Garden cottage (It’s really cute; I’m jealous) through the school year. Jeanie is already excited to have Christmas with her kids at the cozy, little house. Actually, she’s excited about everything Ocracoke.
“I like positive energy and I want my classroom to be happy and positive,” she said. “I’m used to teaching small classes, and giving kids lots of choices or menu items of projects or stories they can do. I like to let them choose how to tell me what they’ve learned."
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll divulge that my young’un, Mariah Daisy, will be a 4th grader this year and we are both looking forward to meeting Miss Jeanie!