Ann Pickens joined the teaching staff at Vestavia Hills High School’s Freshman Campus in January 2023.
It can be tough coming into a school in the middle of a school year, but Pickens hit the ground running like a rock star, her principal, Bill Mann, said.
“She made an impact in our school just as soon as she walked in the door,” Mann said.
She’s not only good at engaging with students; she has a special talent for recognizing strengths in other teachers and empowering them to have a voice, Mann said.
“She immediately became a collaborative leader,” he said. “She creates a more collaborative learning environment for teachers, which in turn provides a better learning experience for students. … That’s what makes her special. She makes everybody around her better. It’s just who she is. It’s not based on having been here a while.”
Pickens, who teaches world history, was selected as the Vestavia Hills City Schools Secondary Teacher of the Year for this year, while Haley Wright, a fifth-grade teacher at Vestavia Hills Elementary Cahaba Heights, was named the system’s Elementary Teacher of the Year.
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Photos courtesy of Ann Pickens.
Ann Pickens, a world history teacher at Vestavia Hills High School’s Freshman Campus, was recently named Vestavia’s 2024-25 Secondary Teacher of the Year.
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Photos courtesy of Ann Pickens.
Haley Wright, a fifth grade teacher at Vestavia Hills Elementary Cahaba Heights, is the district’s Elementary Teacher of the Year.
Secondary Teacher of the Year
Pickens grew up in Hoover and got a taste of teaching while working as a summer counselor at Camp Winnetaska in Pell City. She enjoyed working with teenagers and wanted a career that helps other people reach their goals, she said.
She obtained a bachelor’s degree in history from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and then a master’s degree in history from Baylor University in Texas. She moved back to Cleveland for her first teaching job and taught at Walker Valley High School for 15 years before moving back to the Birmingham area about four years ago.
She worked in the Shelby County school system for a year and a half before joining the staff at Vestavia Hills High School’s Freshman Campus.
“Teaching history is a really cool opportunity because you get to watch kids learn about the larger world and kind of engage in big questions like why our world looks like it does today,” Pickens said.
It’s more than just rote memorization of facts and dates, she said. It’s helping them understand the big picture of the way the world operates and how different parts of the world are connected.
She likes teaching freshmen because they often come into high school excited about new opportunities to challenge themselves, she said. “We get to determine the tone of their high school experience.”
She also enjoys getting to know students outside of the classroom and building relationships with them in different ways, like finding ways to serve others.
In Tennessee, she was the student government sponsor and developed a leadership class for students. At Vestavia’s Freshman Campus, she helped start a new Peer Helpers group that teaches students how to help their peers make healthy choices, solve conflicts and build better relationships.
Mann said Pickens is passionate about her content and understands how to get students engaged so they can learn.
Ben Osborne, a fellow world history teacher in his 24th year, said Pickens is one of the most competent teachers with whom he has served.
“She’s really great at working with her students. She’s great at making really solid connections,” he said. And she does that regardless of a student’s performance level, he said.
While she’s a great teacher, she’s an even better person, Mann said.
“She’s invested in her students’ lives beyond just content in the classroom, and that’s what makes her special and what makes kids gravitate to her.”
Photos courtesy of Ann Pickens.
Haley Wright, a fifth grade teacher at Vestavia Hills Elementary Cahaba Heights, is the district’s Elementary Teacher of the Year.
Elementary Teacher of the Year
Wright grew up in Moulton in north Alabama and first majored in engineering when she went to Auburn University, but “the calling for teaching was there in the beginning,” she said.
Her parents were both in education, and even as a student, she found she had a knack for helping explain things to her fellow students, she said.
She changed to elementary education and did her student teaching at Vestavia Hills Elementary Liberty Park in the fall of 2013 and, after graduating from Auburn, got a long-term substitute job at Vestavia Hills Elementary Cahaba Heights for a year.
She then taught four years at Liberty Park before moving back to Cahaba Heights, where she lives. She has taught third, fourth and fifth grades and currently teaches math, science and social studies to fifth-graders.
Her favorite subject is math. She grew up with not much confidence in her math skills, but teachers taught her that math is not so much about memorization and how fast you find answers, she said. “Problem-solving is a long process. It takes time,” she said.
Now, she hopes to give all her students the confidence that they, too, can do math.
Wright also said it’s important to her to teach the school’s core values of empathy, kindness, grit, responsibility, integrity and service.
“I want my students to leave being good people,” she said. “I care about them. They are what brings me here every day.”
Ann Marie Corgill, Wright’s teaching partner and a former Alabama Teacher of the Year, said Wright is a consummate professional. In a time when many people are focused on kids’ weaknesses, Wright has a talent for finding kids’ strengths and using those to motivate kids, Corgill said.
She is a great listener, Corgill added. “She’s one of those that listens not to respond to what you’re saying. She wants to understand with an open and empathetic heart. That’s rare in our world.”
Wright also leads professional development for teachers at the school, district, state and national levels.
“She’s not about learning for herself,” Corgill said. “She’s about spreading that knowledge and understanding so that all kids can benefit.”
Her principal, Kim Polson, said Wright has a great understanding of the best practices of teaching, but she’s never satisfied.
“She always wants to do more and learn more and then turn around and share that learning with others,” Polson said. “She just hits that out of the park.”
She’s very humble and empathetic, “and those values create a classroom experience for her students where they know that they’re safe. They know that they’re loved,” Polson said. “We’re very fortunate to have her in our building.”
