Clintondale teacher named ‘Outstanding’ by MISD

CLINTON TOWNSHIP —Tiffany Saigh had many teachers throughout her childhood, but none of them stood out like her fourth grade teacher.

“She was a brand-new teacher,” Saigh said, recalling her childhood. “It was her first year, and she just made things so much fun. She came up with these fun learning games. She was amazing.”

Decades later, Saigh, now a teacher at Rainbow Elementary School, has been recognized for being just as outstanding.

Saigh is one of the Macomb Intermediate School District’s Outstanding Teachers of 2023.

“I was really shocked and speechless, and I felt very honored to receive that (honor),” Saigh said.

Crediting her fourth grade teacher as the one of the reasons she became an educator, Saigh went to Oakland University and received a master’s degree for special education. A friend from her college years told Saigh there was a special education position open in the Clintondale district in 2017.

“I grew up in this area, so Clintondale was pretty familiar to me and it was closer to my house,” Saigh said. “It just worked out really nicely.”

After a while, Saigh switched from special to general education, now teaching fifth grade.

“It’s been really great because Clintondale is such a small-knit community,” Saigh said. “Everybody knows each other, and everyone is really supportive in the elementary level and the admin level. It is just nice to know all the staff, and we can collaborate together easily just because it is a smaller district.”

As much as she’s enjoyed the environment at Clintondale, Saigh’s favorite part of teaching is getting to see students succeed.

“I’ve had a lot of my students from last year that are in the middle school come visit or send emails to let me know how they’re doing,” Saigh said. “When I started, I was in the special ed (program), and now I have some of those kids that I started with in fifth grade, and just seeing their progress has been absolutely amazing.”

This takes the form of classroom success, as well as extracurricular success through the Girls Club she helped create and runs with another teacher.

“We work with the fourth and fifth grade girls to help build self-confidence and show them how to fundraise and stuff like that,” Saigh said. “I have those girls in my class, too, so I can connect between the Girls Club and between schools, like, ‘You guys are leaders and you need to make sure that you act like leaders.’ It helps them have that self-confidence that is kind of hard to have at that age.”

Saigh has even employed some techniques from her fourth grade teacher to help her students feel special.

“She would put our names on raffle tickets, and I do that with my kids now, too,” Saigh said. “If they do something really great, I’ll put their name on a raffle ticket, and at the end of the month, I’ll pull names. I’ll pick one or two kids, and they’ll get to have a McDonald’s lunch with me. Just something simple; just something that made me feel like I had a personal connection with the teacher, and I feel like that’s really cool for the kids to have, too.”

Being named an Outstanding Teacher by the MISD comes at an outstanding time in Saigh’s life. When she was first given the news — brought to her by principal Cara Cottrell-Booms and other members of the Rainbow Elementary community — Saigh was not able to celebrate for too long.

“I started going into labor and went into work, and my principal had everybody gather in the library,” Saigh said. “She told me — very shocking to me — and then I left work and had my baby.”

Saigh was one of three Clintondale Community Schools educators to be named an Outstanding Teacher of The Year by the MISD. She was joined by Suzanne Woda from Clintondale Middle School and Yelena Yurkow from Clintondale High School. The MISD honored them and other teachers at a ceremony on April 20, and the Clintondale Board of Education will recognize them on April 24.