A Gift for teaching
Beach resident named PATS teacher of the year
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Submitted Photo Rita McGartland, center, was recently selected as PATS teacher of the year.

Whether it's building robots made of Legos or using philosophic quotes from jedi master Yoda, teacher and Pensacola Beach resident Rita McGartland has always had a way with gifted students. McGartland, a six-year veteran of the Program for Academically Talented Students (PATS), was recently selected as teacher of the year for PATS.

"I think PATS is a really special place," McGartland said. "It's about academics, but it's about the students and the faculty as well. We all look out for each other."

During her 29-year career, the Pittsburgh native taught at a variety of local institutions including Escambia High School and Brown Barge Middle School before finally settling down at the PATS Center.

"It all started at Escambia High," she said, reminiscing about her diverse career in education. "They gave me my first gifted ninth grade English class. When Brown Barge opened, I wanted to apply there. PATS just seemed like a natural move. It was that first gifted class that started me teaching gifted."

McGartland said one of the most difficult things she's had to learn as a teacher is how to be a lifelong learner.

"Even as an adult, you have to keep on learning," McGartland said. "You have to keep up with the news and current events."

That skill is critical with the everevolving PATS curriculum. Once Escambia County students are deemed gifted by teachers and guidance counselors and score high enough on intelligence quotient tests, they become eligible for PATS, a weekly gifted program that focuses on creativity and enrichment.

"At PATS it's all about learning by doing, not with lectures," McGartland said. "It's about being creative. It's about the students explaining and creating things on their own. We're teaching them how to find information and how to use it."

McGartland said she is free to develop her own curriculum and says working at PATS is the best job she's ever had.

"I'm not held to the same standards the other teachers are," she said.

The University of West Florida graduate resides on Pensacola Beach, her island of choice for the past 23 years.

"I think I appreciate it more because I've lived in other places," she said. "I feel lucky to have lived here - despite the Hurricanes. The island is made up of all different people from all different walks of life. It's an odd mixture of different types of people. It's not your typical cul-de-sac neighborhood."

McGartland was elected teacher of the year at the school level by her coworkers. From there, the winning teachers from each school in Escambia County will be narrowed down to one finalist for the entire school district.

That worthy instructor will be among 177,000 teachers throughout Florida vying for the statewide title of teacher of the year.

For more information about PATS, now located on the Brentwood Middle School campus in Pensacola, visit them online at www.escambia.k12.fl.us/schscnts/patc/ home.html.