Corbin’s Doolin named state’s best teacher

Corbin Schools Superintendent Ed McNeel hugs Corbin Middle School Teacher Kristal Doolin shortly after she was named Kentucky’s Teacher of the Year at a ceremony in Frankfort last week.

For Corbin’s Kristal Doolin, the road to being named the 2012 Kentucky Teacher of the Year began one weekend on the back roads of Missouri – a promise being fulfilled by her father.

Doolin was honored as Kentucky’s top teacher during a ceremony in Frankfort last Wednesday sponsored by the state’s Department of Education and Ashland Inc.

As a little girl, Doolin fell in love with the Little House series of books, written by famous author Laura Ingalls Wilder. In the back of one of the books was an advertisement enticing readers to visit the home, now a museum, where Wilder died in Mansfield, Mo.

"I showed him that ad. He said, ‘you want to go?’ How many dads would do that first of all?" Doolin says, remembering back to when her family loaded up in their car and took off to visit the museum. "That’s just part of the way I grew up. My parents supported me and encouraged me and did those extra things for me that really fostered my love of reading and writing."

As a language arts instructor at Corbin Middle School, where she’s taught for the last seven years, her enthusiasm for the subject matter she teaches is evident.

Doolin received a $10,000 cash prize for winning Teacher of the Year, and will get the chance to compete for national Teacher of the Year that will be decided next April.

During last Wednesday awards ceremony, Doolin told fellow educators that her passion for reading and writing is something she tries to pass on to the students she teaches. She said it is a vital ingredient to guiding students to success.

"I love middle school kids and I love the content that I’m teaching," Doolin said. "I really feel like being passionate about your content is part of it … If you don’t love what you are doing, its contagious. The kids know. If you are not passionate about what you are doing, it rubs off the wrong way and you influence a lot of people in the wrong direction."

Doolin, a 1992 graduate of Knox Central High School who later earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Union College with a double major in English and Secondary Education, is the first teacher in the Corbin School System to receive the overall Teacher of the Year honors. Corbin Middle School, however, has become a breeding ground for highly skilled teachers in recent years. In the last five years, four other teachers have received honors as teachers of the year in various disciplines like science and social studies.

Corbin Schools Superintendent Ed McNeel said he thinks one of the reasons so many teachers, and students, have thrived at the school is because of its atmosphere. He said one of the judges for the Teacher of the Year competition was pleasantly surprised by the school during a recent trip there.

"He said when he got out of his care … he looked at the building and the gym and said it was really not very impressive,"

McNeel said. "But when he went in, he immediately felt like the school was warm and inviting and that the students were polite and engaged. It was a delight to be in the school. He said he felt like the whole school felt like a place he’d want to send his own kids."

Doolin said one of the reasons the school has a positive vibe is because administrators support and find ways to get the things needed to ensure success.

"Honestly, at this school, there is just an understood effort by everyone, and we have an administration that leads by example and we follow" Doolin said. "I really and truly feel like every teacher that works here gives 110 percent and is generally concerned about the students and goes the extra mile to help them accomplish the things they need to get through."

She also credited the school districts permissive policy on students bringing their own devices like Ipads, Ipods and tablet computers to school has helped increase the usefulness of technology in the classroom.

Doolin turned down an opportunity to take a sabbatical in order to travel the country for conferences and network with other teachers during the next year. She said she simply could not abandon her students for that long.

As far as the $10,000 … no exciting plans. Just pay a few bills and save the rest.

And she’s approaching the possibility of winning the National Teacher of the Year Award with equal parts realism and humbleness.

"I hope I can. That would be great," Doolin said. "But really, I’m just one person representing a lot of really awesome people. There are tons of great teachers out there."