For Mrs. Callie Lowery, teaching is a heartfelt commitment to compassion, connection, and a lifelong love of literature. Now in her 14th year of teaching and her fourth year with Odyssey Online Learning, Mrs. Lowery continues to create a learning environment where students feel supported and valued for who they are.
Her path to education began at home. With a mother who is now in her 34th year of teaching, Mrs. Lowery grew up witnessing firsthand what it means to care deeply for students. “I had a wonderful example of teaching being driven by care and concern for students,” she says. That early influence, combined with the impact of her 10th grade English teacher, Mr. Wade Cooper, helped her discover both her passion for literature and her purpose in the classroom. “Mr. Cooper taught me to love literature,” she recalls. “During his class, I discovered the content I wanted to teach.”
Over the course of her career, Mrs. Lowery has taught nearly every English course across middle and high school. While she enjoys all areas of English, she has a special fondness for Southern Literature and African American Literature. Regardless of which course she is teaching, her focus is to create lessons that challenge students to think critically and engage deeply with the material.
One of her most memorable moments as a teacher came during a Holocaust unit focused on empathy. She led her students through an activity where they stepped forward or backward in response to a series of statements about life experiences and challenges. “When we finished, the students had a greater appreciation for the things that both they and their classmates have overcome,” she explains. The experience brought the class closer together, fostering a sense of unity and mutual understanding that extended beyond the day’s lesson.
At the heart of Mrs. Lowery’s teaching philosophy is grace. “In my classroom, education is rooted in grace by having compassion for each student’s unique journey,” she says. Her goal is to meet each student “where they are, not where I expect them to be.” By cultivating a safe and supportive environment, she helps students grow in confidence as both people and scholars. Discussion, collaboration, and creativity are cornerstones of her classroom, where students are encouraged to think beyond the surface and the meaning of each text they read in new ways.
Teaching at a charter school has provided Mrs. Lowery with the flexibility to design a curriculum that reflects her students’ interests and experiences. “I appreciate the flexibility to build my own curriculum so that I can include culturally relevant and interesting texts,” she says. The close-knit community at Odyssey Online Learning also allows her to collaborate with other teachers who share her dedication to student success.
For Mrs. Lowery, the true reward of teaching comes each June, when she watches her students cross the graduation stage. “Seeing the students that I have worked so diligently with over the school year cross the graduation stage each June is the highlight of my year and truly is my reason WHY,” she says proudly. Mrs. Lowery’s impact reaches far beyond her lessons on literature. Through grace, compassion, and connection, she helps students find confidence, resilience, and a love of learning that will stay with them long after they leave her classroom.
Thank you, Mrs. Lowery, for all of the work you have done and continue to do in educating the children of South Carolina!
