MARTIN, Tenn. – Paul Richards’ education career is off to a positive start as a second-year middle school literature teacher at Bradford High School in Gibson County. Beyond the classroom, his selection last May to the second WestTeach class provided knowledge and insights that will benefit his students. WestTeach is a teacher-development program created as a class project by the UT Martin WestStar Leadership Program’s class of 2017. Richards was among 22 WestTeach class members who graduated Jan. 28 at Madison Downs Venue in Jackson.
Members of the 2019 graduating class are: Cary Bivens, Riverside High School, Decaturville; Colette Carrabba, Chester County Junior High School, Henderson; Cara Chadwick, Carroll County Technical Center, Huntingdon; Sharon Clark, East Side Intermediate School, Brownsville; Sarah Comuzie, Camden Central High School, Camden; Ronny Criswell, Trenton Elementary School, Trenton; Chad Davis, Halls High School, Halls; Brittany Fowler, West Carroll Elementary School, Trezevant; Carrie Jones, Inman Middle School, Paris; Brittan Knott, Martin Elementary School, Martin; Nicole Lusk, Hardin County High School, Savannah; Stacey McAdams, Bells Elementary School, Bells; Meredith McMackins, Finley Elementary School, Finley; Catherine Nailling, Lake Road Elementary School, Union City; Madine Nichols, Selmer Elementary School, Selmer; Amanda Pruitt, Huntingdon High School, Huntingdon; Paul Richards, Bradford High School, Bradford; Shelly Russell, Bargerton Elementary School, Henderson; Beth Smith, Brighton Elementary School, Brighton; Lindsay Walker, Union City Middle School, Union City; Christina Warren, LaGrange-Moscow Elementary School, Moscow; and Anne Ladd Welch, Dyersburg Primary School, Dyersburg.
Prospective WestTeach participants must be K-12 teachers who want to remain in the classroom but also aspire to be leaders in their respective schools and communities. Program applicants must also be recommended by their principal, director of schools or superintendent, and only one teacher per school district is chosen to participate. Four WestTeach sessions held across West Tennessee from August through November covered topics in agriculture, entrepreneurship, leadership, education partnerships for economic development and building communities.
For Richards, working with fellow WestTeach teachers created bonds that made the experience beneficial. “Once we came together, we had our first session, and we started sharing our ideas, our passions, all of this, and I realized, ‘Hey, we’re one in the same here. We’re on the same side, so why not come together, for example, with WestTeach?’ And we kept building and building and building on top of that until now and our graduation. I feel like we’ve had a really successful thing happen here,” he said.
Following a reception and dinner, Dr. Charley Deal, WestStar executive director, welcomed the WestTeach class members and their families, as well as WestStar board members, alumni and program sponsors. He introduced UT Martin Chancellor Keith Carver, who served as the event’s keynote speaker and spoke about life lessons learned from his late aunt, Katie Sue Fewell, an educator who taught history for many years at Alamo High School in Crockett County. Although she was known as a schoolteacher, he said she was probably better recognized as a community leader or, in today’s world, a servant leader. Carver recalled four life lessons from this important role model, which he encouraged everyone in the audience to apply in their own lives.
Those lessons included to “always wear the same-size hat,” which meant to always practice humility. Carver said that while people can accumulate many things in life, “What we need to invest in are people, in relationships, in our towns, our communities, our schools, the school children, the people that we work with every day. And always wearing the same-size hat means … keeping grounded and focusing on people and relationships.”
Elizabeth Russell Owen, of McKenzie, a manager with WestTeach sponsor Alexander Thompson Arnold PLLC, was a member of the 2017 WestStar class that created WestTeach. She believes in the program’s purpose and what it’s accomplishing for participants. “It’s important to give the teachers, the backbone of the community, an opportunity to learn what we get an opportunity to learn through WestStar,” she said. “They don’t have the opportunity to go through the full WestStar program because of the time restrictions, but teaching is just so important because it touches everyone in the community and all of the youth and (is) building a foundation for continued progress in the community.”
The 2019 WestTeach class will next host the West Tennessee Education Summit on Feb. 28 at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson. All conference activities will take place in the hospital’s J. Walter Barnes Conference Center. A panel of teachers, superintendents, legislators, school board members and private business owners will discuss challenges facing education across West Tennessee. Anyone involved in education and workforce development are invited to attend. For information, contact WestStar at 731-881-7298.