From the time he was in the second grade, Ronald Wooden wanted to be a teacher.
While his friends were out playing football or jumping rope, Wooden recruited children to attend his pretend school.
For teaching materials, he dug worksheets, easels and broken pieces of chalk out of the trash bins behind the school he attended, he said.
"When I couldn't get students to attend my school, I would use my stuffed animals," he said. "I carried that passion for teaching with me, and over the years it grew."
Wooden realized his dreams in 1999, when he became a fifth-grade teacher at George D. Lisby Elementary School at Hillsdale in Aberdeen. Last week, he was named the 2008 Harford County Teacher of the Year.
"Teaching is what Ron was born to do," said Patricia Skebeck, executive director for elementary education for Harford County Public Schools for the past 12 years. "From the beginning, you could see that teaching came very natural for him. He knows how to pick that teachable moment."
Born in Philadelphia, he was raised by his maternal grandparents. His mother was on drugs, and his father lived with his family across town, he said.
"My grandparents expected the best of me," he said. "They didn't allow misbehavior, and they wanted me to succeed."
Wooden's passion for teaching was sparked by Joan Godwin, his second grade teacher at Add B Anderson Elementary School.
"She always made time to teach every student collectively and independently," Wooden said. "She inspired me every day. She taught me my three favorite words - inspire, motivate and cultivate."
They continued their relationship after he was promoted to third grade. He helped her after school and when they finished, she drove him home, though he lived directly across the street, he said.
During the next few years, school became more difficult for him, he said. He failed the fourth grade.
"I struggled with math, and I was a terror that year," he said. But he passed summer school and moved on to fifth grade. In middle school, he struggled with history, and once again he turned to Godwin for help.
"She taught me study habits," he said. "She helped me, and I did better in school after that."
In high school, he studied opera and music, he said.
"High school allowed me to shine," he said. "I got to find out who I was during high school."
