September 2023 Winner - Kelley Davis:(Northeast High School)

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Meridian Star Article

The September Golden Apple teacher of the month is Kelly Davis an English literature teacher at Northeast High School. Mrs Davis knew early on that teaching would be her life "There's so many things that I love about being a teacher, it's all I've ever wanted to do when I was little. I would line my stuffed animals up and I would get them to learn how to read. Even at the age of three I would go into other classes and want to read in front of other kids. I thought it was exciting. I love the interaction with the students the students were probably my favorite. I love literature, I love reading, it's exciting to me to get somebody else to love it like I love it.

Mrs Davis says her enthusiasm for the subject helps to get her students interested every year. "I get kids that tell me English is their worst subject it's harder because it's not cut and dry like some of the other subjects are. If I can get a kid excited about what I'm teaching and they tell me that I'm a Storyteller. They get into the story and then they realize, oh that relates to this movie I saw or that this TV show I watch. So they start pulling all of those elements out and other things they're interested in. I have kids that'll tell me that's the first time I read a book in my whole life or that's the first time I made it to the end of a book. I think part of that is because I love it and so I'm pouring so much of that out that it has to pour on them a little bit. I'm not saying they all love English, but they at least have an energy for it that they didn't have when they got there," she says.

She hopes new teachers come into the profession with a passion for the students teaching as a career is not something a lot of people are going into because it's a very difficult profession to choose but it's valuable I think that we need more teachers going into the profession that understand and love the kids and love the education and love the fact that you're getting the Next Generation ready for whatever they're going to become