Vickiela Wright leads with heart, and Texas is listening
When Vickiela Wright learned she had been named Texas Teacher of the Year, she responded with gratitude and a renewed sense of purpose.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Wright said. “But you get this award, and you continue to work. It hasn’t changed who I am as an individual.”
Wright teaches fifth grade English language arts and social studies at McWhirter Elementary School in Clear Creek ISD. Now in her 16th year as an educator, she also serves as a grade-level instructional coach and team lead, as well as a mentor to fellow teachers. The Teacher of the Year honor brings a statewide, and now national, platform, but the work behind it has been building for years.
“You can’t teach a student until you have met them here,” Wright said, pointing to the heart. “Once you meet them there, everything else follows.”
That belief was shaped long before Wright ever stepped into a classroom as a teacher.
Finding her voice
Wright was raised in Chicago by her great-grandmother, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico and pulled out of school at 13. Despite never completing her own education, Wright’s great-grandmother held an unwavering belief in its power.
“She had this deep belief that if you had an education, you could do anything in the world,” Wright said. “She’s my biggest inspiration.”
By third grade, Wright already knew she needed more from school than she was receiving. “I didn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold,” she said. She remembers struggling to read and stealing a basal reader because she wanted access to the stories inside. Growing up in low-income housing, she could feel assumptions being made about what students like her could become.
“From that point, I started to realize that I need more; I want more,” she said.
That relationship with school did not fully change until high school, when Wright joined JROTC and met First Sgt. Harper. “He told me, ‘I see something in you, and you can do anything you put your mind to,’” Wright said. “He invested in me in ways that I never thought anyone would.”
The structure and belief Harper provided reshaped her view of education and clarified her path forward. “Because of these two people who had poured so much into me, I needed to go and pay it forward,” Wright said.
Leading by listening
Today, Wright’s classroom philosophy centers on listening before leading.
“If we slow down and we listen to our students—not what we want them to say, but what they actually have to say—you gain this whole different experience,” she said. “You gain this whole different view of what that student needs.”
That approach guides how she teaches literacy. Wright is quick to acknowledge that today’s students engage with the world differently than those she taught even a decade ago.
“These students aren’t the students that we were teaching 10 years ago,” she said. “My students are in love with social media, songs, and TikTok.”
Rather than resist that reality, Wright builds instruction around it. “Students love to write,” she said. “I let them write the things that they want to write about, and then I work to restructure it to fit within the curriculum. It’s all about choice.”
In practice, that might mean connecting a favorite song to a reading assignment or allowing students to start with personal interests before guiding them toward academic goals. The engagement comes first, Wright said, and everything else builds from there.
A classroom built on trust
Choice extends beyond writing assignments and into the physical space of Wright’s classroom.
“This year I made huge changes,” Wright said. “One of the biggest changes that I knew that my students needed was flexible seating.”
After asking students what helped them learn best, Wright worked with them to test seating options and ultimately replaced every seat in the room with support from the campus PTA. Students can now choose where they sit and transition between standard and more comfortable seating. Wright also created a cozy reading corner and adjusted lighting to create a calmer environment.
“When they come to my classroom, I want them to feel like it’s their second home,” she said.
That comfort is paired with responsibility. Students help manage classroom systems and learn how to advocate for themselves. “They know they’re allowed to get up and relocate to get their best learning,” Wright said. “We all learn differently, and I want them to know that I see them.”
Wright said this sense of ownership builds leadership early and prepares students to make thoughtful decisions about their learning.
Growth through reflection
Wright credits National Board Certification with deepening her practice and sharpening her focus on the whole child.
“National Board has changed my life,” she said. After more than a decade in the profession, the process pushed her out of her comfort zone and forced her to reflect more intentionally. “You take a really deep look into the student as a whole so that you are able to push the student to grow. No two students are alike.”
That lens shapes her leadership beyond the classroom. As a team lead and instructional coach, Wright said discussions always start with the student. “Before student data, how’s the student feeling? What’s going on with the student?” she said. “It’s all interconnected.”
Even challenges like shifting expectations and increased technology use are framed as opportunities. “Our pendulum is always swinging,” Wright said. Rather than viewing that as a setback, she sees it as a reminder that teaching requires constant growth. “It’s really a time for me to grow and learn how to use technology more to my advantage,” she said.
Don’t stop believin’
The culture Wright has built with her students is grounded in optimism and shared belief. Asked what her students have taught her this year, she smiled. “Don’t stop believin’,” she said.
Students write affirmations to themselves during exams and fill their folders and notes with encouragement. Wright keeps a folder her students customized for her filled with messages reminding her to speak confidently and keep going.
“There are hard days for me too,” Wright said. “But when you walk into that classroom and you’re hit with some hugs and some ‘You got this,’ that completely changes the trajectory of the day.”
Outside the school day, Wright sponsors Student Council and leads extracurricular initiatives, such as Chill and Chat and Spirit Squad, often giving up her lunch period to build relationships with students. “Chill and Chat gives them that time to connect,” she said, particularly for students who may feel isolated or new to campus. The space has also sparked student-led clubs and leadership opportunities.
“We don’t set limits,” Wright said. “Anything that you put out there for a student to do, they can reach it.”
As Texas Teacher of the Year, Wright is using her platform to advocate for what teachers need beyond supplies. “I’m talking about the trainings,” she said. “What we were doing five years ago, it’s not going to work for these new students.”
She also wants decision-makers to hear teachers’ full stories. “The most beautiful part about this is being able to share my journey,” Wright said. “My journey is the journey of a lot of other teachers out there, too.”
Back in her classroom, the recognition has made Wright something of a celebrity. Students Google her and jokingly offer pens for autographs when visitors arrive. Wright laughs and gently redirects the attention.
“I tell them this isn’t just my work,” she said. “This is all of us.”
For Wright, the honor does not signal a finish line. It signals a wider reach, rooted in the same belief that has guided her from the beginning: Meet students where they are, listen first, and don’t stop believing in what they can become.
David George
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