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Educator of the Week: Rebecca Harp-Sligh

By KSEE News
February 6, 2012 Updated Feb 3, 2012 at 10:02 PM PDT

"As well as context and content. Who loves more C words! Okay!"

She's been called a college professor in a high school teacher's body. Rebecca Harp-Sligh is tough and has expectations of students in her English class. But she's also compassionate and a confidante. And it's that combination that brings out tremendous loyalty.

"I'll have her again next year and it's what I look forward to the most throughout my high school career. I know that whenever I graduate from Liberty, I can always come back and talk to Ms. Harp-Sligh about anything and she will really care about what I have to say."

"She doesn't just brush the surface of a topic. She likes to go in-depth when it comes down to it and it makes me feel like we're getting ready for college."

"Most of these lights here got taken down to get reset."

When Ms. Harp-Sligh got to Liberty five years ago, the drama program didn't exist. But she had one student in particular who really wanted to perform. Ms. Harp-Sligh took action.

"Approached him and said, let's do this. I'll do this if you do this. I'll do this for you. And he just beamed and was like, really, we only have 12 dollars in our account!"

Somehow, Ms. Harp-Sligh raised the fund s to put on a drama production. And there's been one at the school every year since. Six kids took part that first year, this year? 60.

"That's educator to me. You're just not there for an hour a day for that student. You're there 24 hours a day, somewhere, somehow and we all do that."

"Wooooooooooo!"

So we salute Rebecca Harp-Sligh. She doesn't take no for an answer, and she's our Educator of the Week.

Ms. Harp-Sligh has also been a basketball coach at Liberty High School. She has three kids and her husband is a coach in Lemoore.

If you'd like to nominate someone to be our Educator of the Week, it's easy! Just go to our website, KSEE24.com. Then, click on community, then submission. Tell us why your choice should be educator of the week!

Every week, the winning teacher and her classroom will receive a $124 gift certificate from GW School Supply. They'll also get their names engraved on a brick on the 'Teacher and Friends of Education Honor Wall', at Fresno State's Kremen School of Education

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