Golden Apple: Taryn Painter, Apison Elementary
APISON, TN (WDEF) – Each school day Taryn Painter walks into her third-grade classroom at Apison Elementary with energy, patience and a genuine love of teaching. Her students know she believes in them. That makes them work hard and have the confidence to try new things. Ms. Painter’s boundless positivity earned her this week’s Golden Apple Award.
“She goes above and beyond for her students. She’s always dedicated. She cares so much about them even just not just academics but also just their whole being. And she just you know she’s always leading. She has student teachers in her room all the time because she cares about the profession. So she’s just over … overall you know awesome teacher,” Danielle Rungruang, Principal, Apison Elementary School says.
“Who is Taryn Painter? Depends on what day you get me Taryn Painter is a teacher. I’m a mom. I’m a cheer coach. I love being a part of the Apison community. So anything that my family and I could be involved in we try to get our hands in and really try to provide cool experience as for our kids and for the kids in our community,” Taryn Painter, 3rd Grade Reading and Science Teacher, Apison Elementary School said.
Painter says, “I like musicals and I like fish and I like Harry Potter and so I decided you know what, I’m gonna bring all the things I love into my room
“It’s so awesome! See when I was in kindergarten Miss Painter was my patriot teacher. And now I’m in Miss Painters class and it’s awesome. She has a fish tank. She has LED light and if it’s your birthday, it’s awesome,” Johnna Maples, 3rd Grader, Apison Elementary School said.
“It’s a way for me to connect with the kids and we we enjoy it together,” Painter continued.
“I have a lot of really great teachers along the way my kindergarten teacher’s name was Miss Henson. We are friends on Facebook. She still remembers my family and things that I enjoyed it and that was over 40 years ago,” Painter says.
“Miss Painter is so helpful to me as like going into this profession she guides me gives me feedback and advice on things that I can do better and she’s just she’s just overall a great teacher. She loves her students. She loves me and so it’s just an amazing experience with her,” Natalie Smallen, Student Teacher, Apison Elementary School said.
“I think I wanted to be a lady a Lady Vols, basketball player when I was in kindergarten. I want to be an artist. I still want to be an artist I could not imagine doing anything different like these. This is this is my life these kids or what what I love and what I like to do every day is be with them. I hope that when these kids look back, maybe they remember a little bit from third grade and what a good time that we had together,” Painter said.
