Kara Byrn Dowdy, an English teacher and department chair at Mayfield High School (Mayfield Independent) with 21 years of experience in the classroom, discovered a significant need for her district following the birth of her twins more than a decade ago: resources for students with special needs.
When Oldham County launched its district-wide effort to implement high-quality instructional resources (HQIRs) K-5 in English language arts, leaders knew that deep, curriculum-based professional learning would be essential to ensuring success. Through intentional planning, cross-role collaboration, and ongoing feedback loops, the district created a coherent system to support teachers with meaningful professional learning tied directly to their instructional resources.
Jennifer Montgomery, an English teacher at Eminence Independent Middle School, hopes to ignite a sense of passion with her students through her own love of literature.
A teacher’s role is a mighty one, says Hayley Dant, a 9th-grade English teacher at Randall K. Cooper High School (Boone County).
Sara Beth Boggs has seen and experienced much of what this world has to offer, not only as a traveler, but as a teacher as well. As a child of a U.S. Air Force family and as a U.S. Army wife, Boggs has lived in six different states and the Aviano Air Force Base in Italy. She has spent the past 22 years teaching English in classrooms across the country.
Aretha Whaley didn’t begin her professional career as an educator. When she graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a bachelor’s degree in English, she took a position as an assistant manager at a bookstore to be surrounded by her love of literature.
The statewide average composite score was 18.7, marking an improvement from 18.6 in 2022. A total of 54 Kentucky students achieved a perfect score of 36.
Murray State University is offering a professional development opportunity for English language arts teachers on Sept. 16.
I didn’t know it when I signed up for Rebecaa Potter's class, but the year I would spend learning the complexity of the English language under her guidance would be the year I found one of my biggest role models.
Olaoluwakiitan (Kiitan) Adedeji’s was honored as Lexington's first youth poet laureate during a ceremony at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in December.