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Haggard named top teacher
By Lynn Hotaling
Jackson County’s top teacher is a high school music instructor who says she believes in an inclusive classroom where students of all ability levels can feel successful.
Smoky Mountain High School music teacher Linda Haggard, this year’s county Teacher of the Year, accepted her award during a recent banquet honoring the seven local school winners. SunTrust Bank sponsors the annual award.
Haggard was chosen based on a written portfolio she prepared and an interview and oral presentation before a selection committee made up of educators and community leaders.
Smoky Mountain High School music teacher Linda Haggard, shown here explaining the intricacies of Mozart’s “Sanctus” to her concert choir students, is Jackson County’s Teacher of the Year. “Can you hear the harmony?” she asked the class. Haggard, who is beginning her fourth year at SMHS, received the honor two weeks ago during the annual TOY banquet. The award is sponsored by SunTrust Bank. – Herald photo by Nick Breedlove
“I’m very excited and very humbled,” Haggard said this week. “I hope to represent Jackson County to the best of my ability.”
As county TOY, Haggard now moves on to district competition.
Haggard described her teaching philosophy as one that accommodates the variety of learning styles she encounters each day.
“A good teacher must relate to the needs of all students and meet the needs of all students,” she said. “That requires flexibility to teach to a wide range of students.”
That’s especially true of music, where each group displays a wide range of ability levels.
“Even with my audition-based ensemble, the show choir, I still see differences in style and speed of learning,” she said.
A good teacher is also continually monitoring the classroom to see how students are doing, Haggard said.
“I’m constantly taking inventory and assessing,” she said. “I do that to figure out who needs help and what help they need.”
Though Haggard is in only her fourth year of public school teaching, she has worked with teens for more than 20 years as a church youth director.
“With teenagers you have to motivate and engage them,” she said. “You have to make them feel worthwhile and let them experience success; otherwise, you’ll lose them.”
Last year Haggard’s show choir members learned about success. As participants in the National Anthem project, the group was selected for a field studies program in New York. Haggard is continuing that initiative this year, and her first-period class provides a live rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” every day during morning announcements. Haggard’s increased the scope of the project this year, which means that her music students are providing a live national anthem before many SMHS home athletic contests.
She plans for this year’s show choir to also audition for the National Anthem field study program. Success in that effort will land the group a performance in New York’s Carnegie Hall.
In addition to her class load, Haggard advises the SMHS student council, directs the spring musical, advises the spirit club, serves as head of the fine arts department and is an officer in the school’s athletic booster club.
During her interview, when she was asked what she’d say to the citizens of North Carolina should she be chosen state Teacher of the Year, Haggard spoke of the role teachers play in molding society.
“Teachers are leaders who organize and motivate students to act in ways that are beneficial to both themselves and their classmates,” she said.
In addition, good teachers take the lead in advocating for schools and children, she said.
“Good teachers believe in the teaching profession and advocate for the advancement of the teaching professional and for school conditions that encourage teaching and learning,” she said. “Teachers should play key roles in improving communication and collaboration btween the schools and community.
Haggard and her husband, Bill, live in Cowan Valley with their twin daughters, Sarah and Amy, who are SMHS seniors.
Other local school winners for this year were Susan Norman, Cullowhee Valley; Liz Harmon, Fairview; Kia Rizzo, School of Alternatives; Ella Wright, Smokey Mountain Elementary; Dawn Cannon, Scotts Creek; and Richard Plotts, Blue Ridge.
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