Every day in Kumar Rashad’s classroom is a call for urgency. “Many of my students have died or got shot and killed,” said Rashad, a mathematics teacher at Breckinridge Metropolitan High School in Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), an alternative school with students who have been in the criminal justice system.
Mandy Perez, a 6th-grade English and language arts teacher at Crittenden County Middle School, reacts in surprise as she is named the 2023 Kentucky Teacher of the Year at an in-person ceremony on Sept. 20 at the Kentucky State Capitol Rotunda. She also was named the Kentucky Middle School Teacher of the Year.Photo by Jacob Perkins, Sept. 20, 2022 [...]
Sitting in the third row of Pam Harper's 8th-grade social studies class at Pendleton County Middle School in 1991 shortly after the launch of Operation Desert Storm, Amber Sergent uncovered a desire to learn about America's past while also being mindful of the world of today. A class that had focused on U.S. history from the American colonies through the Civil War suddenly added an element of current events.
The 2014 Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year is taking on a new role as the next educator to sit on the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE). Joanna Howerton Stevens, a National Board Certified Teacher from Garrard County High School (GCHS), was appointed as a member at the board’s April 20 meeting.
Hola. Me llamo Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. y estoy humildemente orgulloso y honrado de servir como el Maestro del Año de Kentucky 2022.
Bonjour. Je m’appelle Willie Edward Taylor Carver Junior, et je suis fier, honoré, et rempli d’humilité de recevoir le titre Kentucky Teacher of the Year pour l’année 2022.
My name is Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. and I am proud, honored and humbled to be serving as the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year.
As a child growing up in Floyd County, Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. recalls having limited access to the recourses he needed for school. Whether it was paper, pencils or even a pair of shoes, he knew he could rely on his teachers to help him get by.
This has not been a typical year, and I find myself in my students shoes more frequently. Maybe because the pair we’ve been given fit all of us: a pandemic that changed the way we live and learn.
In Fayette County, Christopher McCurry, Kentucky’s 2021 High School Teacher of the Year, uses poetry to provide an outlet for students to discover their true selves. In response to the racial unrest in the country, he developed a course that focuses on the history of Black literature in America.