Byrnes works to reach students
Deborah Byrnes, an elementary education professor at Utah State University, used to be a shy child, but her students would not know that.
“I was very insecure and quiet,” she said of how she felt when growing up in Arizona.
But now Byrnes uses her childhood experiences in her own teaching philosophy to reach out to children who are like her and make their educational experiences as full as possible.
“I’ve always been really concerned with the shy, quiet children and the social worlds of children,” she said.
As she trains the future teachers at USU, Byrnes focuses on issues such as prejudice, diversity and the social skills of teachers to better help them reach out to all students in their classrooms. She feels education should be engaging and enjoys getting her students involved in learning.
“I know how deadly a passive group of students is,” she said.
Although Byrnes may have been shy in school, she said she always loved school and was “an excited learner,” which is why she decided to go into the education profession. Now Byrnes is anything but shy. Of all her duties as a university professor, Byrnes enjoys interacting with students most.
“Now I get paid for doing all the things students do,” she said. “Maybe I can help make sure there is a better teaching force.”
In her 18 years of teaching elementary education at USU she said it is most fulfilling to see her students do well in their own classrooms and do things even she cannot do herself.
Now that many of her former students have their own classrooms, she sends her current elementary education students to student teach for them.
“Now I have students who are teaching some of my students,” she said.
Byrnes’ specialty in teaching is social studies, and she has a great deal of experience to bring to her classroom. Because she feels global education is very important, Byrnes has literally traveled around the world with her husband Gary Kiger and 11-year-old daughter Elizabeth, she said.
She loves hiking and being outdoors and aims to visit every major mountain range. So far, she has visited Nepal, Vietnam, China, Japan, India, Croatia, Morocco, Egypt, Italy, Peru, Ecuador and all across Europe. Byrnes also participated in a semester at sea program through the University of Pittsburgh that began in Vancouver and sailed around the world to Miami in four months. She said that although it was a valuable experience, the students were often getting seasick, the classroom was constantly rocking back and forth and all her audio/visual equipment would sway with it.
“It really made me appreciate teaching at this school; it seems really easy now,” Byrnes said.
Before coming to USU, Byrnes received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education, her master’s degree in counselor education and her doctorate degree in child development at Arizona State University.
She taught public school for five years, taught university courses at New Mexico State University and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. She also taught kindergarten at the Edith Bowen Laboratory School on campus in 1992.
She has published two books on diversity and prejudice and written several published articles. Byrnes has also given presentations across the country from San Antonio, Texas, to New Orleans, La., on teaching methods and multicultural education.