Golden Apple Award: Bill Goette Chattanooga Christian School

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Bill Goette just started his 36th year teaching middle school students, but that’s just the latest chapter in his very interesting life.  Mr. Goette has never stopped searching for new and innovative ways to inspire his classes at Chattanooga Christian. That lifelong love of learning earned Mr. Goette this week’s Golden Apple Award.

Jim Arnold is the Middle School Principal at Chattanooga Christian.

He says, “I tell our faculty all the time. If you look up the words middle school teacher, there’s a picture of Bill Goette there his energy and his enthusiasm for students, his desire to see them grow and learn is really praiseworthy and remarkable.”

Mr. Goette says, “I’ve been teaching school forever, so I just kind of see myself as a teacher. I’ve been here at CCS for 30 something years and teaching middle school most of that time. Middle schoolers have a bad rap, but I don’t know, I just like the stage of life they’re in when they’re growing up. We’ve all got problems and issues and they’re just full of themselves, but it’s a lot of energy that’s kind of fun to tap into.”

8th grader Pierce Alpers says, “He is a really good person because I’ve been in his focus a few times, and he helped me out a lot.”

Mr. Goette says, “Teaching, I particularly like it when I’m able to help the kids to grab on to certain concepts and see them kind of breakthrough on what they didn’t know or what they didn’t understand and when they just kind of all fits together and they go, oh, I finally get it.”

8th grader Knox Huffman says, “He’s a really great teacher. He shows a lot of care and I love the way he teaches because he really makes you zoned into the class. He makes jokes during class, which I really like.”

Mr. Goette adds, “I guess a combination of having some good teachers in the past and when I was in high school, I had a chance to be a teacher’s aide and help the kids on the playground and just kind of thought, hey, I like working with kids.”

8th grader Bella Bruce says, “He is a great teacher who really cares about his students, and he lets us understand that even though we fail, it’s just part of the learning process.”

Mr. Goette concludes, “I share a lot of my life with them. I’ve told them that I grew up in South Korea as a missionary kid before I came here, and then I’ve told them that I love going out in the woods and hammocking and camping and hiking and things. So, I don’t know. I don’t keep much away from the kids. I kind of let them know about who I am, and as they share with me who they are.”