Shawna Bleecker | Capital Journal

PIERRE — With a soft voice and a firm resolve, Delores Doll quieted a room full of rambunctious 3 1/2- to 5-year-old children last week in her Oahe Child Development Center classroom.

The children sat in a circle and peered up at her waiting for the next activity.

Shawna Bleecker | Capital Journal Oahe Child Development Center teacher Delores Doll prepares to go over the day’s activities as Slade Kerns, 4, (from left) and Gabrielle Red Bear, 3, get comfortable, Skyler Ruth, 4, jumps up to help and Xzaylin Henderson, 4, and his peers wait for the lesson. Doll is the South Dakota Head Start Association 2009 Teacher of the Year. Advertisement

Doll, a teacher at Head Start, was recently awarded the South Dakota Head Start Teacher of the Year award for 2009.

“She is a phenomenal teacher and an awesome person,” said the development center’s human resource person Karla Baus. “She is good with children.”

Doll’s history with Head Start began in the early 1980s when Doll moved to Pierre as a single mother who was living beneath the poverty level.

“When my daughter was accepted they were looking for volunteers,” Doll said. “So I started volunteering. I became really involved in the program.”

Doll became a member of the center’s Policy Council and helped out in the classroom as much as she could. When an opening came along, Doll applied for it.

Doll started out as a teacher’s assistant in 1983. There was no way but up from there.

“I did that for nine years,” Doll said. “I got my Child Development Accreditation and when (Head Start) offered me a position, I accepted.”

Doll’s enjoyment of being in the classroom working with children is what has kept her coming back for more than 28 years.

“I was a mere 28 years old when I started,” Doll said. “I look back and think, ‘Wow that’s a lot of years.’ But it’s fun, I enjoy playing with kids. Their enthusiasm is addicting and they are so excited about everything.”

Throughout the years, Doll has taken almost 50 courses or seminars that has helped her in the classroom. But those classes can’t compare with her real-world experience.

Doll said her contribution to the Oahe Child Development Program is how she relates to the parents of the students in her classroom.

“Many parents deal with issues at home that I have experienced myself as a single parent living on a low income,” Doll wrote on her application for the teacher of the year award. “I remember how important all the programs were, and I empathize with the struggle our parents face to provide for their families, especially in today’s economy.”

Doll said another aspect that sets her apart is how she talks to and works with children.

“I just have a way with children,” she said. 

Doll cited an example of a young boy who joined her classroom in January 2009 who was being treated for attachment disorders and was on medication for  attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The boy exhibited oppositional defiant behaviors and “had difficulty tolerating excessive stimuli” and transitions.

Through Doll’s innovation in the classroom, such as introducing a behavior-defiant puppet, the school noticed the boy’s “improvement in ... ability  to transition to group time” as well as an improvement in his interactions with his peers.

“Children need to know what they are allowed to do,” Doll said. “I think sometimes just knowing what is expected of them helps a lot.”

And in Doll’s classroom, the children are expected to get them up and learn that day’s lesson by getting up and doing it.

“Children really learn by doing and that is so much my style,” Doll said. “I just love doing the basic stuff. I enjoy it and they enjoy it too.”

Doll’s application will be sent on to the Region 8 competition and if it is selected there, on to the national level.