RINGGOLD, GA (WDEF) – Good kindergarten teachers have a gift for making learning fun and exciting. Carolyn Parker is a pro at instilling a healthy love of reading in her Graysville Elementary school students. All that earned her this week’s Golden Apple Award.
Kerri Sholl is the Principal at Graysville Elementary.
She explains, “Ms. Parker is a phenomenal teacher. She has taught kindergarten here for years. Came to us from another school and only heard wonderful things about her. She just, time after time, she’s even taught my grandchildren, and she’s just an amazing stellar teacher.”
When asked to describe herself, Ms. Parker says, “I’ve been a kindergarten teacher now for 23 years. This is my 23rd year. I am a wife and I’ve been married to my husband Edward for 32 years. And I have two sons, one who is 24 and graduated from Kennesaw State. And I have another son who is at Dalton state right now. Obviously, I’m a teacher. I feel like this has been my gift, my calling. So, this is going on my 23rd year of teaching just kindergarten. I’ve always taught kindergarten. And I love kindergarten just because you can see so much growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. You see them coming in, you know some of them hardly know anything. And then by the end of the year, they are reading and adding and subtracting. And their little brains are just full and they’re excited because they can finally read.”
Her students say:
“She’s nice.”
“She’s really kind.”
“She’s really kind…”
“Is she a good teacher?” asked Sholl.
“She is really nice.”
“She a good teacher.”
“She’s really funny.”
“She’s a good teacher.”
“ She’s really nice.”
“She teaches us.”
Ms. Parker concludes, “My mom was a teacher, although she taught high school for years. So, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I taught pre-K at UTC for a little while. And then I taught at another school in the county for a little while. But we live closer to this area. So, I’ve been at Graysville now for I think maybe 10 years. And I love it. It’s close to home. I feel like at all my schools that I’ve been to it’s like a big family. So, I’ve been very fortunate and very blessed to be at the schools that I have been at.”
