Golden Apple Award: East Lake Elementary, Patricia Adkins

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Third grade math means multiplication tables, rounding and fractions. A teacher at East Lake Elementary has dedicated her career to helping students always find the right answer. That earned Patricia Adkins the Golden Apple Award.

Jehann Kazem is also a 3rd Grade Teacher at East Lake Elementary School.

Kazem says, “She is my second mom, and she is the most caring, thoughtful person. She’s a wonderful educator. She really goes out of her way to make sure that these kids understand and really get to know all the strategies and tools that they need to be successful.”

Fellow third grade teacher Allison Vaughn says, “We are all very close, all the teachers on our third-grade team. So, this is very exciting to honor Miss Atkins.”

Teacher Tanya Till chips in, “I wouldn’t choose anybody else to work with. She’s just a great. She’s great inspiration to all of us.”

And co-worker Lindsey Gaddis adds, “As a third-grade team. We are really a family, and we respect each other and love each other. Beyond the doors of our classrooms, we really get to know each other on a personal level, which has helped our team grow exponentially this year. And Ms. Atkins love for the children and for us continues to grow every day. She’s amazing.”

When asked to describe herself, Mrs. Adkins says, “I’ve been teaching for about 30 years. Next year is my last year. And the last few years has been the best years that I’ve had in teaching. I think team wise.”

She continues, ” The kids are awesome most of the time. They’re great most of the time. Sometimes we have a little bit of brain freezes, don’t we, guys? And we forget, but it’s just fun watching the kids when the light bulb goes off. My husband’s been teaching for about 35 years. He got the golden apple years and years ago. I just watched what he was doing and we got married. When we got married, he was still in school. He graduated, and I was still one of those that didn’t know what they wanted to do when they grew up.”

Mrs. Adkins says this is what she hopes her students will always remember, “I just want them to know they can do the work no matter how hard it is and no matter how hard it gets.”