Kristal Doolin Charles Schulz’s infamous Peanuts character Lucy Van Pelt once said, “Try not to have a good time…this is supposed to be educational.” Sorry, Lucy, but I was determined to make my recent opportunity to represent our state at the Chief Council of State School Officers National Teacher of the Year Conference both educational and fun for [...]
Kristal Doolin I am a great admirer of those who came before me, and I believe there is much to be said for the wisdom of intelligent people. As anyone who reads my writing or visits my classroom knows, this admiration leads me to quote others frequently. There are well-known quotes, however, that I do not appreciate. As [...]
Kristal Doolin This is a unique time of year. As I write this article, we are in the midst of Thanksgiving and heading toward the Christmas season. Traditionally, this is the time of year when people are most grateful. How ironic it is that the season was prefaced by the release of our latest and most stressful test [...]
Kentucky 2013 Teacher of the Year Kristal Doolin laughs with her 7th-grade language arts class about how misplaced punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence at Corbin Middle School (Corbin Independent).Photo by Amy Wallot, Nov. 8, 2012 “Surreal” — that is the word I found myself saying over and over last month as I stood in the [...]
Kentucky’s Teachers of the Year have diverse backgrounds and outlooks.
Kristal Doolin, a language arts teacher at Corbin Middle School in the Corbin Independent school district, is the 2013 Kentucky Teacher of the Year.
Nine outstanding teachers from around the state – three elementary school teachers, three middle school teachers and three high school teachers – are semifinalists for the Kentucky Teacher of the Year award, the Kentucky Department of Education and Ashland Inc. announced today. Winners of the Elementary, Middle and High School Teacher of the Year awards, as well as the overall [...]
Kimberly Shearer So this is it — my last column as the 2012 Kentucky Teacher of the Year. I have to admit I delayed the writing of this last column as long as I possibly could, simply because I doubted my ability to squeeze all I’m feeling into words. For starters, I’m overcome with gratitude. I’ve gotten to [...]
In August, Kentucky Teacher of the Year and Boone County High School teacher Kimberly Shearer was invited to speak to the new teachers in her district. The following is the text of her speech: So, I’ve done a lot of traveling this year. As part of my Teacher of the Year experience, I’ve visited Texas, Washington D.C., Georgia [...]
Recently I was asked to be a part of a discussion panel on teacher leadership, and in an attempt to prepare for the panel, I’ve spent this past week reflecting on the idea of leadership itself. I used to think of leadership as a solitary act – that some stand-out individual must somehow transcend the crowd in [...]