Molly Seifert, an English teacher at Beechwood High School (Beechwood Independent) and winner of the 2027 Kentucky Teacher of the Year award, helps a student in one of her English classes. Photo provided by Molly Seifert
(FRANKFORT, KY) – Molly Seifert, the 2027 Kentucky Teacher of the Year and an English teacher at Beechwood High School (Beechwood Independent), says she focuses on the whole child in her classroom and seeks well-rounded growth with her students.
“I always tell the kids on the first day, I care more about you as a human being than I care about your reading and writing skills,” Seifert said. “I said, ‘Obviously, I’m paid to care about your reading and writing skills and we’ll grow those, but more importantly to me is how are you as a human, feeling and doing and thriving in all aspects.’”
Seifert is in her 21st year as an educator at Beechwood High School, spending time as a high school English teacher in Owen and Campbell counties prior to her employment in Beechwood Independent, one of her hometown districts. She said she always wanted to be a teacher.
“I’m one of those who taught my stuffed animals when I was a little girl, taught them spelling lessons,” she said. “The giraffe was not very good at spelling. The stuffed monkey was excellent; always got an A-plus.”
Seifert’s role at the school goes far beyond her English classrooms, too. She has coached the school’s speech and debate team since she started teaching with the district in 2006, earning several state and national honors along the way and earning an induction into the Kentucky High School Speech League Hall of Fame in 2019. Her students have gone on to win dozens of regional, state and national titles.
“There’s really no other extracurricular opportunity where kids truly get to speak their truth, and I try to do that in my classroom as well as in competitive speech and debate,” Seifert said. “So that, to me, is really important.”
Seifert also serves as the theater director at Beechwood High School. She said with her interest in theater at an early age, helping kids learn how to perform has brought her great joy.
“So, I wanted to continue doing it and bring that great joy to other people,” Seifert said.
Seifert said she seeks vibrant learning experiences, whether it’s through theater, speech or with the literature she teaches in the classroom.
“Vibrancy in that regard is, you know, acting out Macbeth instead of silently reading Macbeth, like giving the children a horse on a stick to hop across the room when it’s time for Macbeth to ride in on his horse; you know, giving another student an opportunity to be the so-called light board operator when there’s a storm in Macbeth and somebody’s over there flicking the light switch,” she said. “So just … physically getting them up and doing things when we’re doing literature to make that engaging, because that’s part of my curriculum and I have to teach it.”
And with her senior-level English classes, she tailors the nonfiction parts to what students are planning to do once they graduate, having students do a career-based research paper and giving them the time to investigate their interests.
“They really buy into it because they feel that this is valuable,” Seifert said.
Seifert said she was inspired by the drama teacher she had as a student at Boone County High School, Ginny Kohl, and her personality of being a welcoming figure in the school.
“She was a phenomenal human being in addition to an excellent teacher; So fair, so kind, so open-minded, so competent, so classy. Everybody wanted to be Ginny Kohl and I quite literally got to be her,” Seifert said. “… I got to be an English teacher just like her. I got to be a drama teacher just like her. I got to direct the school musicals just like Ginny did, and I got to coach the speech and debate team. I am quite literally living my high school dream.”
Those who wrote recommendations for Seifert to be the 2027 Kentucky Teacher of the Year praised her ability to help students find their own voice, either through her English classes, the speech and debate team or theater.
“Voice increases engagement. Belonging increases achievement. Recognition increases persistence. Molly builds those conditions daily,” one nominator wrote. “In a world where students can easily disappear into the margins, she refuses to let that happen. Every child is seen. Every child is heard. Every child is known.”
The parent of multiple children who went to Beechwood High School said Seifert has gone above and beyond for her children, even helping one of them win a statewide poetry contest, and one of her former students wrote, “… she could have taught a class on just about anything and I would have been the first to register.”
Seifert, in an interview before being named the 2027 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, said it was surprising to see the message she received about being named a 2027 Kentucky Teacher Achievement Award winner, which is effectively being named a finalist for the Kentucky Teacher of the Year award. She said she even had to take the email to her friends to confirm it was real.
“I say all the time, I’m not even the best teacher in this building,” Seifert said. “I am so blessed to work with some of the most phenomenal educators. I just stand in the hallway between classes and bounce ideas off my peers and they will give me a new teaching idea right there on the spot.
“I am in awe of these amazing people that I work with and the fact that I was chosen for this is mind-blowing. … I felt humbled and surprised. That’s how I felt.”
And she said she can’t see herself in any other career.
“I thoroughly enjoy being with the kids all day. They bring me not only great joy, but also great energy,” Seifert said. “I’m so blessed to work in a building where these kids are so kind and they’re so good.”
Leave A Comment