Meridian Family of Stations -
Meridian Star Article
By Terri Ferguson Smith
Picking the Golden Apple Teacher of the Month from numerous nominations is never easy, but the task in November was made a little easier when 20 students nominated the same teacher.
As Michael Reed, owner of the Meridian Family of TV Stations, addressed an assembly of seventh and eighth grade students at Northeast Lauderdale County Middle School recently, he told them to guess who was being honored by listening to some of the nominations he read aloud.
Applause erupted as soon as Reed mentioned that this teacher uses songs in her classroom. Students of Kathy Moody, a pre-algebra teacher, knew she had been selected as teacher of the month.
One student wrote: "She makes the classwork and homework much easier for her students. When someone doesn't understand what she is doing ... she makes up stories and tells us, make songs, and she even tells real stories about her life as a child to help us understand what could happen if we didn't pay attention in class ... She is very nice patient and gentle."
Another student wrote: "She made learning fun. She would help us memorize things by making them into a song and she would dance to them. (She) would make us do a lot of work but it was simple things that made it easy, but we were learning a lot. That is how I got to be in the honors math."
That student has observed another very important thing about Moody: "She loves what she is doing too."
That's exactly what Moody said during an interview following the presentation of the Golden Apple Award, which comes with a trophy, a check for $300, and a voucher for $1,000 in school supplies.
"I was just shocked and overwhelmed and full of emotion," Moody said of the moment she realized she was getting the award. She knew it was her when they mentioned singing in the classroom.
"I felt like that had to be me when the singing was mentioned and I was really humbled by it and overwhelmed by it. I'm truly not one who likes attention, believe it or not. I like to go in my classroom and do my job," Moody said. "It was just very touching to think that that many students thought enough of me to nominate me. I truly can't put it into words. I never would have dreamed that."
