Lacey Ellis has been teaching for nearly 29 years. She teaches first grade at Mesquite Elementary. Ellis is an Arizona native. She was born and raised in the Valley and went to school in Gilbert, and so did her two kids! While Ellis says she often played school as a little kid, it was not until she went to college that she considered teaching as a career. She started her college studies with plans to become an ultrasound technician, but that soon changed.

“For one class we had to volunteer in a classroom,” Ellis recalls. Her experience at the school made her realize “that’s what I wanted to do.”

“My favorite part (of teaching) is just building a rapport with kids and getting to know them,” says Ellis. Getting to know the kids can be both rewarding and entertaining, according to Ellis. “First graders are really funny. They say some really funny things,” she says.

Ellis thinks her students are the best, and they think the same about her! Samantha nominated her teacher, and writes, “My teacher is great because she is fun!”

Ellis says she enjoys watching kids progress throughout the school year. As they become emerging readers and writers, she says she loves to “see them be proud of themselves for all the little accomplishments” and improvements they make through the school year.

Students get their chance to shine every Monday. At a microphone in front of the first-grade classroom, each student takes a turn to report what they did over the weekend. This microphone moment allows Ellis to get to know her students better, she explains, while they get a turn in the spotlight. Students also get to know one another through these reports and by playing games and learning as a group.

When she is not at school, Ellis enjoys camping, visiting the beach, paddle boarding, snowboarding, and spending time with her family. She says her students might be surprised to learn that she once wrote a book. The book, “Oh, The Places We Have Been,” is in her school’s library.

 Ellis loves teaching elementary and all its varied subjects. She says she “can’t see teaching one subject” as teachers do at middle and high school. Teaching everything energizes her, Ellis says, as different students like different subjects. Ellis wants her students to have confidence and be proud of who they are. She teaches them about perseverance. “Even though it is a big word for first graders,” she says, it is an important idea to introduce to them.