Cristina Brownfield somehow convinced her kindergarten class that its reward for counting from one to 10 was to count again from one to 10.

Cristina Brownfield helps two kindergarten students at Jamaica Elementary School, Seth Nichols, left, and Izak Mason. Brownfield received the Arizona Rural Schools Association Teacher of the Year for Mohave County. Jackie Leatherman/News-Herald Photo.

On top of that, Brownfield successfully routed playground inquiries about cinnamon rice cakes and spiders.

“She makes us do something that I like,” said 5-year-old Sklyer Harne, one of her students. “We get to eat in the cafeteria and I get to walk. And Mrs. Brownfield is so cute and that’s it. That’s all my questions.”

The Arizona Rural Schools Association may not have taken into consideration that Brownfield was “cute” when they chose her as Mohave County’s Rural Teacher of the Year.

“I think it’s fun,” Brownfield said about teaching. “It’s hard in the beginning of the year. You have to train them. After you get them where they know how to line up and sit, they learn so much. It’s so neat. … It’s the cutest face when they found out they read a sentence.”

Brownfield will attend the Association’s annual conference this month in Flagstaff to honor the person chosen as Teacher of the Year.

The association covers small and rural school districts throughout the state and helps to promote quality education.

Bill Blong, the association’s executive director, said he could not confirm how many nominations came from Mohave County.

He said 10 counties were represented and narrowed down to five finalists for the state award. He said Brownfield is not one of the five finalists for the state Rural Teacher of the Year Award.

Jamaica Principal Paula Levensailor wrote in an e-mail that she is “very impressed with how Mrs. Brownfield incorporates language amid content.”

“She builds the foundation the kindergarteners need so that they can apply their language skills to the content area she is teaching,” Levensailor stated. “Many of the students she receives are those who have language barriers or a low fund of language prior to kindergarten. She has consistently brought them to exactly where they need to be at the end of each kindergarten year since she has been here at Jamaica.”

Brownfield said it took her about a month to fill out the nomination application.

“Everyone that I see here works so hard,” she said. “I just feel like I’m one of them working so hard.”

She credited her nomination to her willingness to use the training provided by the district.

“I feel like the district trains us really well and I’m going to take it and run with it,” she said.

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com