West Feliciana welcomes new teacher Willita Butler!
Willita Butler will be teaching special education in 8th grade at West Feliciana Middle School. She will be a special education inclusion teacher, which means she will go into the content classrooms with the students that are on her roll to assist both teachers and students.
Butler received her undergrad degree from Grambling University in December of 1995, and went on to earn her masters degree from Grand Canyon University in October of 2007.
Butler was born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA.
After researching West Feliciana Parish and seeing the overall success of the students from K-12, Butler knew she wanted to teach here. That along with the atmosphere of the town and the people she has met made her want to be a part of this district. “I have just heard many wonderful things about this school district. My former principal works here so he encouraged me to apply,” said Butler.
Butler also said she is blown away by all the middle school has to offer. It was also a huge bonus that her own middle school son would be able to go to school with her.
Butler has taught mainly middle school for the last six years in East Baton Rouge Parish, Ascension Parish, and West Baton Rouge Parish. Butler also teaches special education courses to grad and undergrad students online at Grand Canyon University.
Butler feels she can bring awareness to the coworkers and teachers she will be in the classrooms with as far as different ways to assist students that are learning disabled. Her job will be to make sure their accommodations are being met and that these students are getting things they need. “I am very patient and knowledgeable. I can pull out the best in the students,” said Butler. “I will find something good in them and hone in on it to make them feel more confident.”
In her free time, Butler likes to travel, but says she has never gone outside the U.S.A.. She also enjoys reading and, of course, shopping.
Butler plans to make her office a comfortable, warm, and inviting place for students to come in when they need to work on things.
“It is important to teach students, especially special needs students, how to be self advocates. It’s ok to speak up for yourself. I don’t want them to be rude, but they need to know to speak up for the things they need. As they leave middle school and go to high school and college, parents won’t be around to do things for them. So they need to learn to advocate for themselves. Some of these students have health issues, so they need to be confident enough to say something and let teachers know when they have a need. A child has to have an identifiable strength too, so they need to know what they are good at,” said Butler.
