Calm presence is honored teacher's mark

Bryan Holley's voice never wavers as he guides his fourth-grade students through an elaborate academic routine that they navigate effortlessly.

The even tone he uses to explain each of the four activities they will perform over the next hour is the same one he employs when, later, a student talks a bit too loudly during one phase of the drill. It's the same low pitch that he uses with adults, and when he praises students, it comes out the same way: "Good job," he tells a boy who got a perfect score on a reading exercise. "Now find a harder book."

It's hard to imagine a teacher more laid-back, less ruffled by the ups and downs of the classroom day. It's even harder to imagine Holley speechless with excitement. But that's how he reacted when he heard the news, at a school assembly in October, that he had won one of the nation's most prestigious teaching awards.

Holley, in his sixth year at Corinth-Holders Elementary, is the first Johnston County teacher to win a Milken Award. Known as the "Oscars of teaching," the honors come with a $25,000 award and membership in a group of about 80 teachers nationally who have won since the awards began in 1985. Holley, 30, was the only North Carolina teacher to win this year.

Born and raised in Wilson, Holley always planned to work with kids. He decided on teaching when he was tutoring classmates in middle school. He has been at Corinth-Holders, a rural school in north Johnston, since earning his teaching degree at East Carolina University.

A steady hand

The school, which has a high percentage of poor students and students who speak little English, has been plagued by high teacher turnover and low test scores. There has been improvement on both fronts in the past two years. Holley never considered going to another school, even as fellow teachers transfer to schools with fewer challenges.

"It was really sad to see people leave the way they did," Holley said. "I felt like this school and these students needed stability."

Principal Betty Bennett has seen Holley's commitment to students firsthand. Though Holley is young, he coordinates the school's mentor program for new teachers.

"It's just his personality," Bennett said. "He's just the kind of person these new teachers feel comfortable with."

But what makes him a great teacher, she said, is his passion.

"Once you have that passion, you'll read and you'll study and you'll figure out what you need to do to reach children," she said.

Holley did his student teaching at the high school level but decided that he preferred to work with younger kids.

"With younger kids, everything is brand new," he said. "For our kids, when they see a new concept, you can see the light bulbs go off."

Like many teachers, he keeps his classroom hyper-organized. But, he says, teachers also need to be flexible. And, he adds, calm.

"I made a decision early on that I would not get upset," he said. "If you're going to be uptight about every little thing, you're never going to make it."

It's an approach his students appreciate.

"Every time he gets mad, he's still nice," said 10-year-old Bella Felix.

Challenges to his seemingly endless store of patience abound. For his birthday, some fifth-graders hid pieces of his extensive Mickey Mouse collection throughout the school. He didn't even mention it, but his students were horrified. In a move that they still recall with glee a month later, he blocked off 20 minutes of class time to search the school for the rest of his stuffed Mickeys, Mickey lunch boxes and Mickey statues.

Holley and his wife, Carrie, a teacher assistant at the same school, are expecting their first child in March. He plans to use much of his award to start the child's college fund and will give some to his church.