by Moriah Schranz

In October, Maury High School selected Ebonie Campbell for the 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year Award.

Raised in Hampton Roads and a graduate of Bayside High School and Norfolk State University, Campbell Campbell expressed gratitude for the honor.

She also reminisced on the first time she realized her love for computer science. 

“When I was 10 years old, my mom and dad bought me a computer,” said Campbell. “And ever since then I have loved computers. I’m really passionate about computer science. I think it should be a graduation requirement. In the future, something about computer science is going to be incorporated into all careers. You should know the basics.”

At Norfolk State, Campbell majored in Computer Science and got her masters in education in 2003. She spent many years working as a career counselor for Averett College and for Job Corps. She started teaching at Tidewater Community College and Tidewater Tech as an adjunct faculty before teaching in Norfolk Public Schools.

At Maury, Campbell considers her position especially unique.

“I still consider myself the only computer science teacher [at MHS],” Campbell said.

Campbell sat down for a conversation about her day-to-day life and career. The following has been edited for clarity:

MS:  How did you end up teaching? 

EC: Well, I started to do programming, and I just could not be by myself programming and sometimes it got frustrating when you didn’t have a semicolon or period, or something in the right place. It was so hard and the program wouldn’t work. 
So, I started looking at other avenues where I could incorporate computer science. I was coming home from a vacation on a cruise one time and I was talking to my mom’s friend and she was like, “Have you considered teaching?” And I was like, “Wow, somebody else said that to me before.” I kind of just considered that like a confirmation and that’s when I decided to go to teaching. I went back to school and got my masters and education.

MS: What was that transition like? 

EC: Hard because when I got my masters in education, it involved a lot of writing essays, which I had not done being a computer science major [since it] was just basically programming. So it was very difficult for me to transition into writing essays, doing evaluations, running reports and things like that. But, you know, it’s good to learn new things. 

MS: Was Maury your first Norfolk Public School? 

EC: I started off at Norfolk Tech Center first. I did a year there, and then the second year, I was between the Tech Center and Maury. The tech center was the only school that had computer science at one point, and then they knew it was needed so they started putting it in all of the home schools.  When I came to help Maury, I decided I’ll just stay, and then my third year teaching I was at Maury. 

MS: So, when you started teaching at Maury, what classes were you teaching? 

EC: I was teaching computer information systems and advanced computer information systems when I was going between here and the Tech Center. My first full year at Maury I taught TI, computer information system, advanced computer information system, and then the dual enrollment class from TCC (Tidewater Community College -Ed.) here. It was the first year they brought that so I had three preps my first year here. 

MS: What’s your favorite class to teach?

EC: My favorite class to teach would be IT fundamentals and AP computer science principles. Those are my favorite classes because they have programming in them.

MS: Is there a big  difference between the classes, or is it kind of just like computer science is computer science? 

EC: I now don’t really consider computer information systems and design computer sciences, only because there’s not that much programming in it. When I taught advanced CIS, I taught HTML in that class, but it wasn’t something that had to be done. The two classes that I teach now, IT fundamentals and  AP computer science principles, when I first started here, those two classes weren’t even here yet. 

MS: So I heard that you’re part of the Computer Science Teachers Association. Can you tell me a bit about that? 

EC: It is an organization that helps computer science teachers because for the most part there’s only one computer science teacher. They  founded the organization to help computer science teachers from being alienated. So you get together and talk to other computer science teachers that may not be in your district. I’m a part of the CSTA Virginia, which is all of the different districts of Virginia from here or Northern Virginia, Fairfax County, different counties in Virginia. And it just allows you to talk to different computer science teachers all over the place to get ideas, talk about lessons and different things like that.  

MS: Have you found the association useful? 

EC: Yes, very, very, very useful because it allows you to talk to like-minded teachers that are able to relate to what you’re going through and like I said, it allows you to get ideas for different lessons. I’ve talked to a lot of teachers that teach AP computer science principles, and we get to go over different lessons that we taught. It’s good because I am the only one that teaches what I teach. I’m basically on the island by myself. So, there could be pros to cons to that, but still, it’s a lot better when you have people that you can collaborate with and get feedback from.

MS: Are there any hobbies you’re interested in?

EC: Right now, I do work with CSTA and I work on a grant with Code VA where we recruit teachers to become computer science teachers. In my downtime,  I’m watching christmas movies on Hallmark. I love to do that. I like to shop, but that’s the only thing I’m really doing downtown right now. 

MS: How do you recruit the teachers?

EC: We get a list of districts where we have business teachers that may be interested in computer science. One of our teachers here, she’s in a program. We recruit out of CTE because the business teachers that teach design and econ, personal finance will be more willing to switch to computer science. Being a computer science teacher, we are under the CTE umbrella  so we get a list and then we send out an email, asking [the teachers] if they are interested in joining the program. We do workshops and trainings with them, and then they take the computer science practice test to be endorsed in computer science. 

MS: How long does that [initiation] process take?

EC: It’s about five months. They start in July and end in December. Once they pass, they’re still in the program and we’re still helping them try to see the things they’ve learned and how they can incorporate those into lessons. It’s actually like almost a year-long program, [with] two parts. The first five months they are trying to get endorsed and then the other five months they’re trying to use what they learn to go and incorporate it into their teaching.

MS: Have you been successful in recruiting teachers? 

EC: [I have]. I really don’t think it should be one computer science teacher in school. Computer science is huge. I mean, look at technology now. You guys grew up with technology. My daughters always laugh at me when  I tell them how old I was when I first got my cell phone. I was in my twenties. We didn’t have phones when I was in high school, but with the world we live in now, why is there only one computer science teacher? Why don’t all students learn computer science? If you don’t take my classes, IT fundamentals or AP computer science principles, [how are students] exposed to computer science? [It] is crazy to me. Computers [are] everywhere.