Golden Apple Award: Kevin Parsons, Central High School
HARRISON, Tenn. (WDEF) – The written word comes to life in Kevin Parsons English class. At least one of his Central High School students calls him, “the best teacher ever.” Adding, “You just can’t hate him.”
Phil Iannarone is the Principal at Central.
He says, “Well, we’re pleased to see Mr. Parsons win this award. Mr. Parsons has been teaching with us at Central High School for the past 14 years. He’s an outstanding English language arts educator. He makes connections with his students, and he makes the learning come alive for them.
When asked to describe himself Mr. Parsons says, “Who am I? Um I’m an English teacher. I’m a father. I’ve got one child she’s seven. My life tends to revolve around my kid. It used to revolve around them, now it’s a mixture of them and the one I’ve got at home. I think that teaching is like… it’s our, one of the if you want to be on the ground level trying to like change things and make things better. I think that teaching is where it happens. It’s hard, and the impact we make sometimes, it feels very small, but I still like I feel like everybody needs to chip in and make society better.”
His students say, ” No, he makes like learning fun and easy to do. He just, he lets us do stuff that other teachers wouldn’t. He makes English fun, and he makes it worth learning. Most of the time we speak our mind in a class. Parson’s class it’s enjoyable. It never makes me upset to come to his classes. I enjoy having him as my teacher.”
Mr. Parsons concludes, “For me it was it was teaching that was that was where I wanted to find myself. Through middle school and high school, I mostly focused on the sciences. I thought about getting into like genetic research or something like that. And I was really lost my high school years. Like when I graduated from high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t know where I wanted to go so. I, I went to UTC and started exploring; took some classes in Psychology, and I had an English teacher that just like struck a chord with me. And it was in in that moment that I, I realized that I love literature and I always had. I just never realized it. I like the interactions, the relationships with, with the students. Like a lot of them feel like my own children sometimes especially after having them for a few years. And it’s just it’s just cool to see a kid grow up you know, and it’s hard to not feel like they’re mine. And when you, we walk across the stage at the end you know.”
