Kim Yates, an English language arts teacher at Pineville Middle School (Pineville Independent), has spent her career helping students learn how English applies to their lives. Photo submitted
Pineville Middle School Teacher Kim Yates, who recently won a Kentucky Teacher Achievement Award, is dedicated to helping students learn how English language arts apply to their lives.
Yates teaches 6th- and 7th-grade English language arts (ELA) at Pineville Middle School (Pineville Independent). She has spent her entire career at Pineville Independent School District, where she also taught 11th- and 12th-grade English language arts.
She has a bachelor’s degree in English from Tusculum University and a master’s in education from Liberty University. She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in curriculum and instruction through Purdue University.
“My philosophy of education is that even though I’m an ELA teacher, I’m not just here to teach students how to read and write; I need them to see how reading and writing are applicable to their lives outside of the classroom,” Yates said. “I only get to have these kids for one or two years. Once they leave my classroom, they’re going to have to be able to use those skills in life.”
She has led multiple projects where students got to share their voices in places outside the classroom, even on a national level. The Smithsonian Museum has a project called Memories on Main Street where they allow students to share something about their hometown that’s unique or makes them stand out, and Yates helped a group of students create a documentary about their community.
Yates’ students made a video about a festival in Bell County called the Mountain Laurel Festival, which is the longest-running festival in Kentucky. Her students conducted all the interviews for the half-hour documentary, including an interview with Gov. Andy Beshear. The video was also shown during the 2024 Mountain Laurel Festival to hundreds of attendees.
“I seek out as many opportunities for my students to take the things that we’re learning in class, but then apply them in such a way that people get to hear their voice or that they have an authentic audience,” Yates said.
Yates’ classes have also worked with the 9:57 Project, which is a nonprofit organization that partners veterans who fought in wars after 9/11 with students to tell their stories. The organization’s goal is to help more young people learn about the heroes aboard Flight 93, who gave themselves to save others at 9:57 a.m. ET on 9/11. After Yates got involved in the organization, they asked her class to pilot a program where students created podcasts.
Students interviewed veterans and asked about their stories and experiences. Those podcasts are now housed in the Library of Congress.
“That’s been a really amazing project for my kids because people are not only getting to hear their voice and the things that they’re interested in, but they’ve also got to preserve the voices of these veterans who sacrificed for our country,” Yates said.
Alongside that project, Yates partnered with the Gary Sinise Foundation to take students to the Flight 93 Memorial. Students partook in a leadership training with families of people who were killed on Flight 93, first responders from New York City, and more veterans who fought in post-9/11 wars. Students created a video from their experiences and shared it with their school, their school board and their community.
Yates said students sometimes feel a disconnect between what they’re learning in class and how it’s applicable to their lives. She wants students to learn how reading and writing can help them speak effectively, express themselves and be involved in their communities.
“If students don’t see the application to the real world, they’re less likely to engage with that material,” Yates said. “Reading and writing isn’t always fun and exciting, but it’s always applicable to what they’re going to be doing outside of school, whether that is going into a career straight out of high school, going to college; we want to develop people who are civically engaged.”
Her students have also done work with Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Yates was selected to be a Ford’s Theater Fellow through its National Oratory program. Her students got to work with teaching artists from Ford’s Theater to develop speeches about things that are important to them.
In May, students will present those speeches on the stage at Ford’s Theater. Also in partnership with the theater, students are doing a wax museum project where they select a person from history and write an original monologue from that person’s perspective. At the theater, they will dress up as that person and people in the community can come to their booth to hear their speeches.
Another current project Yates is leading is helping students create podcasts about the Bill of Rights through PBS Media. She is teaching about the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Students will pick an amendment from the Bill of Rights and create a podcast where they explain how it applies to their lives. The podcasts will be on the PBS website.
“I’m really, really excited about these opportunities because I really believe that it’s so important to give our students a voice and that’s kind of my mission as a teacher,” Yates said.
Even in regular class work, Yates finds ways to bring learning to life through projects based on books they read.
In 6th grade, her class reads “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, which is a story about survival, taking advice and listening to people who know more than you. Yates teaches lessons on these topics, including survival. Students write essays where they describe the steps of building a fire where they can’t use matches.
Students break out into groups, go outside and try to build the fire the way they describe. If it doesn’t work, they talk with groups to revise their plans. Later, Yates brings in an expert to teach them how to build fires with wood. Students get to build real fires outside and even learn about science, friction and heat.
“So that’s just another way I try to help them understand the connections between things that we’re reading and how they apply to our real lives, so that we can take that information and learn how it’s actually applicable to what we’re doing outside of the classroom,” Yates said.
Yates said it was a huge honor to be recognized as a Teacher Achievement Award winner, and she encourages other teachers to continue helping students share their voices.
Leave A Comment