Hamilton County’s 2016 Elementary Teacher of the Year Diane Huseman stands in her third-grade classroom at Nolan Elementary.A few of her favorite things
Favorite grade: Fourth, because it was the year she got glasses. In previous years she had passed the vision tests administered by her teachers by memorizing the letters of the chart, but her observant fourth-grade teacher discovered the truth about her failing eyesight. “It wasn’t a positive thing back then, but it definitely opened my eyes to a whole new world,” she said.Favorite book in elementary school: “I was a huge Judy Bloom fan.”
Nolan Elementary third-grade teacher Diane Huseman is Hamilton County’s 2016 Elementary Teacher of the Year.
Hamilton County Schools made the announcement last week. Carrie Bishop from Hixson Middle and Kirsten Legac from East Hamilton School were also named Teacher of the Year for the middle and high school categories, respectively.
Huseman became interested in teaching at 16, when the pastor of her small church asked her to be in charge of vacation Bible school. She said she loved creating the curriculum, organizing activities and managing the leaders and participants.
“I always wondered if he saw something in me,” she said of her pastor’s decision to ask her to run the vacation Bible school. “Right after that, I knew I wanted to be a teacher.”