Kristin Flewelling, Castleberry High School CTE Health Science Teacher, has been named Castleberry ISD's Secondary Teacher of the Year. Flewelling is one of two teachers nominated by colleagues and awarded Teacher of the Year for Castleberry High School this year. As the Castleberry ISD Secondary Teacher of the Year, Flewelling will advance to the regional level where one secondary teacher from all the school districts in Region XI has an opportunity to be named Region XI Teacher of the Year.
A graduate of The University of Texas in Arlington, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Flewelling is a Registered Nurse with clinical experience in Pediatric Nursing. Before becoming a teacher, Flewelling was employed as a Pharmacy Technician and Nurse for a combined fifteen years. In addition to teaching high school, she continues to work as a Pediatric Nurse. “I have a passion for helping students find their way into the healthcare field by offering them educational opportunities enhanced by my real-world experience in healthcare, and it has been a dream of mine to teach Health Science for many years.”
Through the Health Science courses at Castleberry, she teaches students valuable hands-on patient care skills that will allow them the opportunity to obtain employment in the healthcare setting as they further their education. “I am thoroughly excited to watch our Health Science program expand, and I look forward to many years of teaching our Castleberry Lions and helping them grow into the healthcare heroes of tomorrow!”
Flewelling’s favorite lessons are those that teach her students how to perform hands-on patient care skills. “Students enter my classroom at the beginning of the school year with minimal knowledge, at best, of how to properly care for a patient with medical needs,” she says. “Many of them are intimidated by the magnitude of accepting responsibility for a patient.” To calm their fears and intimidation, she reminds students that they are going to take it one step at a time, that she is confident in their ability to succeed, and that making a mistake is simply proof that they are trying. Thus, she begins students’ education by laying a solid foundation.
Flewelling begins with the basics, such as how to make a bed, how to operate the controls on the bed, and how to dress a patient and assist them with eating or brushing their teeth. This fosters confidence within her students before they move on to more advanced skills such as performing EKGs and Venipunctures. Flewelling teaches a reverence towards even the “simple skills,” explaining that every aspect of patient care is meaningful and challenging in its own right. “To a patient who is sick and vulnerable, the act of simply assisting them with brushing their teeth can literally be life-changing in that moment for both the patient and the caregiver. Above all else, empathy is taught every step of the way!”
Through collaborations with organizations such as Carter Blood Care and the UTA Nursing School, Flewelling connects her students with the healthcare community to extend her lessons beyond the classroom walls and help build a foundation of leadership and success in the future. “So much of healthcare is learned through the ability to actually do the task yourself, and that is often difficult to do in a classroom setting,” she says. “Throughout all aspects of education, I think students learn best from the real-world application, and these opportunities to interact with the healthcare community have provided that for my students.”