Golden Apple Award: Loes Riggins, Cleveland Middle School

CLEVELAND, TN (WDEF) – Middle School can be a challenging time in a child’s life. Having the right teacher can put a student on track for success in high school and beyond. That’s just what Loes Riggins has done for generations of kids. We paid a visit to Cleveland Middle School for our first Golden Apple Award of the school year.

Nat Akiona is the Principal at Cleveland Middle School

She says, “In our community. Loes Riggins is known as one of the premier teachers. She is a winner of the Fitzgerald Award here. And it’s an actual element that we recognize, excellence in teaching. And it’s actually nominated by peers, voted on by a committee of educators in the area. So, she’s a recipient of that, as is her partner, her in the classroom, Miss Williams. So, they’re a rock star group.”

Loes Riggins describes herself thusly, “Loes Riggins is a mama, a teacher, an immigrant, a very passionate advocate for children. I was born and raised in Holland. I have lived in Cleveland for about 30 years. I’ve worked at Cleveland Middle School for 18, and I’ve been a teacher for 22 years. The person who told me I was going to be a teacher is my father-in-law. He was a professor for teachers at Lee University. And so, Gary Riggins is the one who saw something in me and told me that this is what I needed to do, and he was right the whole time.”

Cecily Williams is also a teacher at Cleveland Middle.

She says, ” She’s a teacher who cares about the students. She believes in building relationships and knowing that with relationships will come the knowledge.”

Ms. Riggins concludes, ” My co-teacher, her name is Cecily Williams. She is phenomenal. She came up with the wild idea to do home visits about five years ago, and we have been doing that. We ask families if they’re open to the idea of us coming into their home, just to sit down and talk about their student for about 15 minutes. And it has been the most eye opening and exciting experience. I teach because I feel like was a struggle for me when I was young to learn. I had a really, really hard time catching on to concepts, and so I felt like it was important for me to try to offer students the opportunity to feel success in the classroom. I know that it does not always look the same for every child. And so, my co-teacher and I, we really work hard to help every child feel like they can succeed.”