Teachers of the Year

by Cassandra Sproles
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The Today show named Billie Yardley (’77; MS ’82) its Teacher of the Year during a televised broadcast in November. The Jefferson County High School drama teacher and cheerleading coach is putting the $10,000 worth of school supplies to great use. She lost her classroom to a roof collapse at the school in July 2013. Her co-workers, students, and community banded together to give her the most votes in the Today show’s online contest.

Watch Yardley’s big win on the Today show website.

The Tennessee Teacher of the Year for 2013–14 is Knox County AP calculus teacher Wanda Lacy (’71; MS ’91). She teaches her students at Farragut High to take on real-world problems using group collaboration to produce results. Every student in her six years of teaching calculus has taken the AP exam, and 97 percent have earned college credit. Part of her reward includes travel to conferences in Arizona, New Jersey, and Washington DC to collaborate with other state teachers of the year.

Read more about these award-winning teachers in the fall 2014 print edition of Accolades magazine.