Mollie Bounds has been named Elementary Instruction Specialist for Innovation and Initiatives for Madison City Schools. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Mollie Bounds is leaving her work as gifted specialist at Rainbow Elementary School to accept a new position as Elementary Instruction Specialist for Innovation and Initiatives for Madison City Schools.

Previously, she taught fourth-graders and sponsored the math team at Columbia Elementary School for nine years. She also worked at Media Fusion.

The new job was appealing because she always wanted to work with a “think tank. My favorite part of teaching is coming up with ideas that provide students with opportunities to create using the knowledge and skills as resources — not endpoints.”

“I love brainstorming with other teachers and students to come up with these gems,” she said. “It lights me up.”

Bounds will collaborate with other instructional specialists to adapt current norms with creative scheduling, curriculum changes and teaching strategies. What worked for adults isn’t working for today’s youth, and education needs “a paradigm shift,” she said.

For Bounds, the major challenge is time. “Just having time to dig into topics and not worry about timeframes. I’ve had to learn to sift through a lot of junk to get to the heart of what needs to be taught.”

She most enjoys “the creative process — whether it’s creating lessons, student bonds or artwork.”

Bounds earned bachelor’s degrees at the University of South Alabama in creative writing and University of Alabama in Huntsville in both graphic design and elementary education. In December, she will complete a master’s degree in gifted education at Samford University.

Her husband Kevin Bounds works as a cyber-security analyst at Colsa Corporation and an adjunct music professor at UAH. Their children are Maggie, 16, a sophomore at Bob Jones High School; Paige, 15, Bob Jones sophomore; and Alex, 11, Rainbow sixth-grader.

Mollie’s pastimes include any art form — painting, drawing, digital — and building things, from tree houses to LEGO designs. She is an avid reader, poet and fiction author, music lover and fan of puzzles and crosswords.