Golden Apple Award: Dyan Winters, Ingleside Elementary School

ATHENS, TN (WDEF) – Elementary school classrooms are made up of students with vastly different skills and experiences. The ability to reach each one of them is the hallmark of a good teacher. That certainly describes Ingleside Elementary’s Dyan Winters

Jill Swafford is the Principal at Ingleside.

Jill says, “Ms. Winters is very dedicated to her job. She loves her children and she makes her classroom very exciting.”

When asked to describe herself, Ms. Winters says, “Dyan Winters is a wife, a mother of three children, and a teacher, of many, many children through the years. I’ve taught third grade. I’ve taught second grade. I’ve taught first grade, and I’ve taught interventions in reading, and math, from kindergarten all the way through eighth grade.”

Gunnar Martin is a 1st grader at Ingleside.

He says, “She helps me read.  Sometimes she helps me on math stuff. That’s about it.”

We asked Ms. Winters what inspired her to be a teacher.

She responded, “Oh that’s an excellent question, I had a very special teacher when I was in school at Mountain View and in the McMinn County school system, and I was fortunate enough to have this teacher twice. I had her in first grade. She taught me to read. It’s a powerful thing, and her name is Julia Reedy. Why I teach? Because it’s the best way for me to get to spend all of my days with children, and that’s what I really love. Two important skills in life (it doesn’t matter how smart you are how rich you are or any of those things) if you work hard, you will be more successful. And if you be kind to other people, children, or adults, everyone. If you’re kind to others, you will you will have more success fall upon you.

She concludes, “I want to teach them to be successful in life one day. So, I hope they learn to read and the math that we’re doing, but more importantly I hope they get learned to get along with each other and are.  I’m preparing them to be successful adults one day in the real world.”

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