Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame inducts Class of 2022

WKU President Timothy C. Caboni delivered remarks on the Kentucky Instructor Corridor of Fame induction ceremony. (WKU photograph by Clinton Lewis)

The Governor Louie B. Nunn Kentucky Instructor Corridor of Fame inducted members of its 14th class Friday afternoon at Western Kentucky College.

The 2022 inductees, Katy Cecil of Hodgenville, Addie Henry of Richmond, and the late Wilma Tempo of Hardin, had been formally acknowledged within the ceremony at Gary Ransdell Corridor.

“It is a outstanding alternative for us to have a good time and acknowledge three vital people in our state,” WKU President Timothy C. Caboni stated.

President Caboni congratulated this 12 months’s inductees and thanked all academics for his or her work that extends past the classroom.

“To all our academics and directors right here with us immediately, thanks,” he stated. “Thanks for educating. Thanks for uplifting. Thanks for main. Thanks for safeguarding. Thanks for caring. And thanks for altering lives.”

The most recent Corridor of Fame inductees had been honored and humbled by the popularity.

“It’s an incredible honor. It’s unbelievable,” LaRue County Excessive Faculty trainer Katy Cecil stated, noting that educating is the household enterprise. Each of her dad and mom had been academics as had been 4 of their 5 kids. Cecil’s husband and their daughter additionally educate.

“To consider the legacy of training that’s in my household. You add all of it up and it’s over 150 years of educating,” she stated.

Addie Henry, who retired in 1996 after educating for 28 years in Breathitt County, stated her choice to the Kentucky Instructor Corridor of Fame “got here as a complete shock.”

“I used to be completely delighted and really stunned. I felt each honored and humbled,” Henry stated.

Carolyn Johnson and Douglas Tempo, the kids of Wilma Tempo, stated their mom would have been humble and grateful. Tempo, who taught for 29 years, died in 2012.

“I believe she would say she’s accepting this for all of the academics in Kentucky,” Douglas Tempo stated. “She was such an lively member of the Kentucky Schooling Affiliation and I believe she would say she’s accepting this award on behalf of all of the academics within the state.”

Jamie Hyperlink, Secretary of the Kentucky Schooling and Labor Cupboard, stated: “Every of those inductees excelled of their occupation and possessed the outstanding capability to empower every of their college students and set them on the trail to success. We salute them and all of the academics all through the Commonwealth.”

State Sen. Mike Wilson thanked all academics for the roles they do. “Crucial job that now we have within the state and in the US is that of a trainer,” he stated.

Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman provided congratulations by way of a video message and famous the very important position academics play in Kentucky’s financial future. “We’d like nice academics now greater than ever,” she stated. “The Commonwealth is experiencing an financial growth like by no means earlier than. We will need to have a workforce that meets this second.”

Corinne Murphy, Dean of the School of Schooling and Behavioral Sciences, launched this 12 months’s Corridor of Fame honorees and shared highlights of their educating careers.

Katy Cecil
Hodgenville, Ky.

Katy Cecil is a trainer at LaRue County Excessive Faculty (2009-present), educating English and Public Talking to each grade degree. Her total profession has been within the LaRue County Faculty System; she labored LaRue County Center (2001-2009) as seventh and eighth grade Language Arts and Humanities trainer earlier than transferring to the highschool. A colleague says, “Her strategy to educating is inclusive and welcoming, and he or she strives to make her content material related to her college students’ lives and the world wherein they reside.” A former pupil says college students in her class “push themselves to be one of the best, usually for no different purpose than they need to be the individual Mrs. Cecil sees.”

Cecil is a three-time Western Kentucky College graduate, incomes a Bachelor of Arts in English and Secondary Schooling (2000), a Grasp of Arts in Schooling ESL Endorsement (2005), and Grasp of Arts in English Literature (2009). She is also an alumna of the College of the Cumberlands, incomes an Schooling Specialist in Educational Supervision (2019).

She can be the speech and debate coach, successful Coach of the Yr in Kentucky as nicely and was inducted into the Kentucky Speech Corridor of Fame in 2015. A former pupil turned educator calls her a “secure haven, a motivator, a coach, and a guiding gentle” and credit Cecil for serving to “conquer my efficiency anxiousness, overcome my stutter, and develop into a regional champion and state finalist… she expanded my worldview, taught me empathy, and restored my confidence.” The Govt Director of the Kentucky Excessive Faculty Speech League fondly speaks of her management and heavy affect on Speech and Debate, saying Kentucky “advantages from her perception in others.”

She’s credited with revitalizing the drama program because the director. Her efforts are for the entire group. College students of all ages and even adults take part within the many performs she directs and organizes yearly. Her nominator famous even a world pandemic didn’t cease her, Cecil “managed to prepare a play for the scholars and city, giving everybody a short escape.”

If that wasn’t sufficient, she additionally dedicates her time to ACT Prep. Her nominator says she “sacrifices her weekends and evenings to make sure her college students obtain they assist they want… she by no means fails to be there for her college students.” A former pupil says, “the care she reveals each pupil to assist them study vital life classes as nicely of the curriculum… is actual why so a lot of her college students excel” on AP and ACT exams.

A last enjoyable notice that reveals the affect Cecil has had on her college students and the group in LaRue County, considered one of her former college students notes that anybody can order her favourite deal with at Baskin Robbins by asking for a “Katy Cecil Cappy Blast.”

Addie Henry
Richmond, Ky.

Addie Henry is a retired trainer with 28 years’ expertise educating English at Breathitt Excessive Faculty in Jackson (1968-1996). She earned her Bachelor and Grasp of Arts in Schooling from Japanese Kentucky College (1968 and 1971, respectively). Henry additionally taught journalism and was answerable for the annual creation of the varsity’s yearbook was an advisor for the scholar council and coordinated the varsity’s yearly Homecoming occasions.

A typical theme with a lot of her former college students and nominators is her affect has helped them to go on and be part of the training discipline as adults. One nominator was her pupil and later colleague and talked about her love and help saying, “She taught me the ins and outs of the educating occupation… She taught me that the primary rule is that you just educate your college students and you then educate your content material.”

A former pupil and present educator says Henry’s educating profession “was dedicated to attempting to assist younger folks understand their potential and to encourage them to pursue their desires.” One other former pupil and present educators shared that “in the event you had been her pupil, you knew you had been cherished… and revered.” Her nominator believes she would have been a highschool dropout with out Henry. “With this outstanding woman’s strategy to educating, her seemingly endless endurance, and her steady encouragement… I used to be in a position to succeed.”

Her 24 years because the yearbook advisor and a household and group affair. A former pupil notes she “was consistently attending college occasions to take photos.” A darkish room was constructed as the varsity so college students might study the ends and outs of images and design. The Breathitt County Retired Lecturers’ Affiliation President, former pupil, and coworker says within the Nineteen Eighties, Henry and her late husband opened Murphy Studios, a images studio, and so they took photos for the senior class yearly. Henry additionally donated the Murphy Studio assortment to the native library, permitting households and the group to entry and luxuriate in all their work and relive these valuable reminiscences. 

Wilma Tempo
Hardin, Ky.

The late Wilma Tempo taught for 29 years, with practically all of them at colleges in Marshall County, together with Hardin Excessive Faculty (1946-1953, her alma mater) and each South Marshall Center (1975-1980) and Excessive (1958-74). She taught a wide range of topics together with English, French, and Enterprise for grades 5 by 12. Her profession began in 1940 after graduating from Murray State Lecturers School with a Bachelor of Arts in secondary training and a minor in French. On the time, she was simply 20 years previous. She took a break for a number of years to boost her kids, who nominated her for the Kentucky Instructor Corridor of Fame, and had been additionally her college students. She returned to Marshall County in 1946. Moreover educating, Tempo additionally directed college performs and the refrain, sponsored the Beta Membership, Pupil Council, the varsity newspaper, yearbook, and extra. Tempo retired in 1980 and handed away in 2012 on the age of 92.

Tempo’s profession was crammed with all types of change. From college consolidations, to including topics and applications, from maintaining with adjustments in sources and methods, she “tailored… and by no means wavered.” Her kids say, “she had a novel capability to succeed in the essential basic abilities at no matter grade degree she was assigned whereas instill a ardour for realized and put together her college students.”

Her former college students reward her for educating them correct grammar and use of the English language, and so they credit score her with their capability to deal with writing on the faculty degree and past. Two former college students, now married, so eloquently defined, “Taking English sentences aside, seeing how one half associated to a different, helped us learn to produce a satisfying concord of phrases and which means.”

A number of former college students commented on her witty, dry humorousness that not solely entertained her college students and made her relatable however helped and motivated them to study. One remark explains, “she has an amazing humorousness and was at all times smiling and encourage her college students together with her constructive angle.” She was additionally a mentor to many, taking “trip of her busy schedule to hear, encourage, and provides recommendation.” For one present pupil that later grew to become a trainer, Tempo provided these phrases of knowledge, “Go in powerful. It’s a lot simpler to let up than bear down.”

In regards to the Instructor Corridor of Fame: The Governor Louie B. Nunn Kentucky Instructor Corridor of Fame was created in 2000 by a present by former Gov. Nunn, who hoped to acknowledge the very important position that classroom academics in Kentucky play within the training of younger folks and the constructive affect training has on the state’s financial system. WKU was chosen as the house of the Instructor Corridor of Fame due to its greater than 100-year historical past in trainer training. Study extra at https://www.wku.edu/kythf/.

Contact: Jessica Basham, (270) 745-4030

– WKU –

Western Kentucky College prides itself on positioning its college students, college and workers for long run success. As a student-centered, utilized analysis college, WKU helps college students develop on classroom studying by integrating training with real-world functions within the communities we serve. Our hilltop campus is situated in Bowling Inexperienced, Kentucky, which was just lately named by Reader’s Digest as one of many nicest cities in America, simply an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.