Nancy Miles was one of three Johnson City School System Teachers to earn the Teacher of the Year award.
Photo by Collin Brooks
By Collin Brooks
It’s an honor that was earned by South side 3rd grade teacher Nancy Miles, but she is quick to make sure that her students feel the love too. That was her first reaction when she was informed that she had won the Johnson City School’s Teacher of the Year award.
Miles — a second-year teacher at South side, who spent her previous 13 years at Woodland — said that by earning the honor, she has fun with her class in telling them that they’ve earned class of the year.
“Any teacher will tell you that if there weren’t kids to teach, there wouldn’t be a need for teachers,” she said through a smile. “They’ve just embraced it and ever since then, they have called themselves the class of the year.”
But Miles also said that she has higher expectations for her “class of the year” and she reminds them of their boastfulness in their time of
trouble.
All jokes aside, Miles said that it is a complete honor to have earned the award.
“It’s an honor, because initially they vote on it at your individual schools,” she said. “Knowing that your colleagues think of you in that manner is just humbling and it’s an honor. It meant even more because I was just establishing myself as a new person on that faculty. So to have them think of me in that manner and to have me represent them is just such an honor.”
It appears that Miles is a natural, as teaching isn’t something that she had her heart set on coming out of college. Actually, it seemed like the classroom drew her in. After volunteering at her children’s school while a stay-at-home mom, Miles gained a love to be inside the classroom.
After she realized it may be her calling, she went back to ETSU to gain her Masters of Arts in Teaching, after already having graduated with a degree in marketing.
“When I went to college I wanted to be in the business aspect and I wanted to be in the marketing,” she said. “I’d never considered it, but I loved being in the classroom.”
Given her accolades, it’s the place she is supposed to be.
