Golden Apple: Ashlie Fortson

MARTINEZ, Ga. (WJBF)

In a world where written word may seem like a lost art, we found a teacher who helps her students learn to love writing and makes middle school memorable.

Ashlie Fortson teaches 8th grade Language Arts at Stallings Island Middle School. She says just a few short decades ago, she didn’t see herself pursuing a career in the classroom.

“I was an English major and a History minor,” Fortson says. “And then the calling just kept knocking on the door and so here I am. 27-years later.”

And Fortson will tell you, kids have changed over the years. Cell phones and social media weren’t all the rage when she started out.

“We’ve had to quote, ‘get with the times.’ As long as I can teach them that social media is not the be all end all to everything, then we’re good.”

That means getting students to buy into actual sentences.

“They know that if they write like they text, that I’m going to put a big fat black Sharpie line on it and give it back to them. We are consciously working on not writing the way we speak.”

Mrs. Fortson’s approach to teaching includes looking at the whole child.

“That means you can’t just judge one little action or one little activity. You have to look at the whole picture. They’re walking in with all kinds of things. You can’t just isolate one comment or one event or one bad grade.”

When Mrs. Fortson leaves her current kids, she sees so many of her former kids all grown up in this community.

“It’s great,” Fortson says. “And I love hearing from them and talking to them. I’ll even know their kids by the time they finish. It’s fabulous.”

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