Everyone can remember the good and the bad teachers they had while in school. A bad teacher can ruin a subject or a class for a student, but a good teacher can change their life.
That sort of life-changing teacher is what Carrie Bishop from Hixson Middle School aspires to be.
Hamilton County recently recognized her aspirations – and the results they’ve had in her classroom – by presenting her the Middle School Teacher of the Year Award. As one would expect from a Teacher of the Year, Bishop’s response to the award was decidedly humble.
“It’s certainly nice to have teaching celebrated, but I honestly believe that I work with numerous other teachers at Hixson [Middle] who work toward the betterment of students just like I do,” she said. “We all work hard day in and day out to keep giving.”
Among Bishop’s other accomplishments as a language arts teacher at the school are writing a grant to get Chromebooks available in her classroom to give students who lack Internet access at home the opportunities to do what they need while in class.
She personally purchases books for children who lack the funds or the time to go to the library to make reading more accessible to them. This commitment to the importance of reading is just par for the course for her.
“An expectation of my class is we’re always reading, and it can be apparent who doesn’t have a strong reading life,” said Bishop. “Sometimes, kids want to read but they can’t get their hands on the books they want.”
Bishop said taking the time to figure out what each individual student needs is just another part of her job. Although it can be difficult to identify the different needs of every child, being observant enough to find the hindrances in their learning is paramount for her.
“The impact that an effective teacher has on a student is huge,” Bishop said. “They can certainly change a child’s self-efficacy and what they believe about their potential. We have so much influence and power on what students think of themselves. We have to pay attention and use that influence well.”
Among Bishop’s prized possessions are the pile of letters she keeps in her desk which students have written to her over the course of her teaching career. In those letters, she said, students have told her she was a teacher they could count on to handle a situation how it needed to be handled, and that they appreciated that she talked to and treated them with respect. The letters act as a reminder that what she does is working and having a positive effect on people’s lives.
“The kids respond well to being treated like regular people,” said Bishop. “It’s easy to bark orders, but I don’t try to be the boss. I just run my classroom with respect and try to make learning fun and inviting for everyone, including myself.”
Bishop said she’s looking forward to getting many more letters from HMS students.
“I love Hixson. It’s a great school and a great place to teach,” she said. “I’ll continue to make myself available to my students and their parents to work to provide them with the resources to help them succeed.”