From beauty queen to teacher of the year

The commonalities between participating in a beauty pageant and teaching grade-schoolers may not be obvious, but they do exist. In both instances, you must be adaptable.

“When I was Miss Georgia,” said Amanda Miliner, an elementary school teacher in Georgia, “I had to be ready to speak to all genres of life – peers, children, media. It would be impromptu. That’s what a classroom is like. You have to be able to work with all kinds of children and colleagues.” You also need to be kind.

Miliner is a fourth grade teacher in Middle Georgia, about an hour and a half south of Atlanta. In 2015, she was named Georgia’s Teacher of the Year in just her seventh year teaching in the classroom.

“She has already changed lives in her classroom, and through this platform she will change the lives of many more children in Georgia as she acts as an advocate and a voice for educators and students,” said state school superintendent Dr. John Barge.

It’s been an improbable journey.

“I’m a first-generation college graduate,” she said. Both her parents are retired from the military. “They’re highly intelligent; they just didn’t get their formal education,” she said. As a child, Miliner had no desire to be a teacher. She wanted to be an astronaut.

Miliner started out as a psychology major at Valdosta State University, but her focus changed when she became a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, one of the oldest youth mentoring programs in the country. It was there she met a teacher that would change her life.

“The teacher made learning so much fun, and engaged all of her learners,” Miliner recalled. “She made it an extension of home. The kids were comfortable taking risks and making mistakes. As a military child, I never had that sense of home in a classroom.”

Watching her, Miliner thought, “Is this what I’m supposed to be doing?” She changed course and pursued a degree in education.

It was around that time, in 2006, that she entered the Miss Georgia contest. “My motivation wasn’t to go and change the world,” she said. “It was to go and change my world.”

She won.

And during the next year, as she performed Miss Georgia-related duties, she decided that “teacher” would be her chosen profession.

“The element of helping others or helping the community was probably embedded in me from my mother,” whom Miliner described as “your 21st century Mother Teresa.”

For the first eight years of Miliner’s life, her mother was a single parent working multiple jobs. Money was scarce. But she was always willing and able to help people. This instilled a core value into Miliner: kindness.

“Other children lived with us if they were in trouble. My mom provided that environment for me,” she said. For Miliner, the desire to help her community is innate: “It’s always been in me.”

Teaching children has presented a challenge for her. “It’s extremely exhausting–mentally, emotionally and physically. You’re trying to meet the demands of your students [all] while maintaining your [own] sanity. When you go home, you don’t stop thinking about those children.”

One student who is still on her mind is a girl from her first year. She was an angry child – a bully – who often got into trouble. One more write-up and she’d be sent to an “alternative school.” Miliner felt that the best way to reach the girl was to get her to write.

Miliner thought the student would put in minimal amount of effort. But when the girl turned in her assignment, “I stopped dead in my tracks.” The girl had written a 10-page narrative book on the Hopi. The fourth-grader had included spiritual and biographical aspects of the tribe. “Honey,” she told her, “you are a writer.”

The child, whose mother was addicted to drugs and alcohol, showed an immediate change in demeanor. She was “transformed,” marveled Miliner.

This year Miliner will teach third grade instead of fourth grade. She has no illusions about her job.

“You can’t just show up to work and think you’re going to have a great day,” she said. But she takes the long view. “I know that I’m making a difference.”

Jessica Augsburger, a colleague for nearly six years, said that Miliner is particularly adept at reaching children who are troubled.

“She creates an environment that feels like a home. These are kids that may not have a stable home life, but she makes her classroom that way,” she said. “They keep on schedule. She’s always available to help them. The kids feel welcome. They feel good about themselves in her classroom.”

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