Golden Apple Award: Andrew Barnett, St. Jude

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF) – Teaching second graders can be extremely challenging and extremely rewarding. Andrew Barnett meets that challenge every day at St. Jude Elementary School in Chattanooga. We spent a little quality time in Mr. Barnett’s classroom for this week’s Golden Apple Award.

Joshua Overton is the Principal at St. Jude.

He describes Mr. Barnett thusly, “He’s a dedicated teacher. He comes in every day for the right reasons, positive attitude, and he wants to make a difference, and the reason he comes here is for the kids, and that’s what you want.”

We asked Mr. Barnett to describe himself.

He said, “I have two children and a wife. They’re wonderful. My wife is an artist, and my kids are in middle school and high school.

Principal Overton chips in, “He reaches each kid individually. He comes in with enthusiasm as you saw.”

Mr. Barnett adds, “I have a lot of energy. I’ve got two hyper parents. It runs in the family, (a) hyper brother too.

Principal Overton agrees, ” He loves life. He’s dedicated. He’s been here 22 years. He has a deep skill set when it comes to students. He can reach high achievers or students who are struggling.

Mr. Barnett continues, ” I always enjoyed school, and I always enjoyed reading. I just wanted to do that. I wanted to like help people read. And I wanted to help people learn. And I wanted to help people enjoy school because I know sometimes school cannot be enjoyable; sometimes when you’re struggling or when you’re doing a subject that is not… doesn’t come easy to (you).

He explains, “My day, there’s a lot of movement. A lot going on. It’s exciting though. It’s usually exciting, and then towards the end, I settle down and kind of calm down. Sometimes I play guitar.”

Mr. Barnett concludes, ” I really enjoy making music. I’m a musician as well, but I love being part of this community.  I love helping children learn. I’m a person who really enjoys being silly and having fun and making sure that people have joy throughout the day. I hope that they remember that I made them feel excited and joyful and happy. That I passed a message on that they’re important, and that life is goodl, and that they should be joyful and happy and that they’re appreciated.”