Ashley Walker Hale was subbing as a secretary for the Selma City School System when a colleague suggested she be a teacher like her mother and older sister. After hinting at it a few times, Hale took the advice and got degrees from Concordia College Alabama and Troy University Montgomery and started working as an educator in the system.

For the past 13 years, she has taught the children of Selma, and the last eight of those years has been at Meadowview Elementary School, where she currently teaches second grade.

“I get a chance to touch the community of Selma. I’m from Dallas County, and I get a chance to make a change in my community,” Hale said of working in Selma.

“It’s a direct touch to making our city grow and our town be a better place.”

Hale said with each new group of students, she has to learn new ways to teach those children by talking with fellow educators and researching ideas to better prepare them.

“You have to reinvent yourself each year because it’s a new class, new personalities,” Hale said. “Even though you may be teaching the same standards, you have to find different ways to get the content across to those children.”

When everything comes together and a child understands a concept, that’s the best part of her job.

“It’s rewarding when you get a chance to see the light bulb go off, the aha moment in a child’s mind,” Hale said. “That is a true reward when you’re able to see a child that may have started off with a true struggle, and now at the end of the year … you finally see them start to blossom.”

As an educator, Hale knows there is more involved in teaching than standing in front of the class.

“Any teacher wears more than one hat. It’s not just the teacher. You are several different things,” Hale said.

“I might have to be the counselor for a moment, … it’s just different things that that child needs at that moment. You are doing more than just teaching every day. You’re teaching more than just standards. You’re teaching life skills.”

Hale is married to Micah and they have one daughter, Mikale.