The Redhound Way: Creativity in Action
- Corbin Independent Schools
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
The Eggs That Chirped
Melanie Howard, a Corbin Primary School teacher and the 2026 Kentucky Elementary Teacher of the Year, shared this story at District Day as a real-life picture of what Creativity looks like at Corbin Primary School.
The eggs chirped instead of sitting still, and that was the whole point.
Melanie Howard has spent 20 years teaching Corbin's students with moderate-to-severe disabilities, most recently earning recognition as the 2026 Kentucky Elementary Teacher of the Year: the only special education teacher in that year's finalist group.
When Corbin Primary School began planning its schoolwide Easter egg hunt, Howard had one student on her mind: a five-year-old kindergartner who is completely blind.
Howard didn't want her simply standing next to her classmates while someone else found the eggs for her. She wanted her to do it herself. So she ordered ten eggs off Amazon that chirp when you get close, then hid them around the hunt area the exact same way every other egg gets hidden.
It worked. "She was finding the eggs by herself," Howard said. "She didn't need me; she didn't need anyone else. She was listening, standing. You could see her looking around. She was locating the eggs, reaching, searching, and celebrating every time she found an egg."
Howard says people standing nearby had tears in their eyes. "She was just like the rest of the kindergarten kids. She was walking around. She was finding the eggs."
This is Creativity at Corbin Primary School: not decoration, but a teacher who looked at a barrier and refused to accept it as a limitation.
As Howard put it: "It's asking, 'what if'? What if we change the activity? What if we change the materials? And what if we change the way we measure success?"
Howard shares her role this year with fellow teacher Sierra Carter, but the instinct behind the audible egg hunt is one she's carried for two decades: look at an ordinary task and find the version that includes the kid who's traditionally been left out. "Every student deserves the opportunity to say, I can do it," she said.
