Glenda Conner has been teaching Algebra 1 to freshman students for the past 18 years.
Photo by Collin Brooks
By Collin Brooks
Glenda Conner put up plenty of points during her basketball career at Milligan College where she left as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,868 points. But it wasn’t tallying big numbers that turned Conner into the Algebra 1 teacher that she is today, one that garnered the award of Johnson City School System’s Teacher of the Year at Science Hill High School.
“I was always good at math and then education just seemed like a natural thing for me to fall into,” Conner said. “(Math) has always been my thing, and it’s been my thing to help students understand it on their level.”
The 2004 Milligan Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, who is in her 18th year of teaching freshman Algebra 1 at Science Hill, said that it was an honor to receive the award, especially considering the talent of the teachers she shares the hallways with.
“I am actually very humbled to even be nominated, much less get it,” Conner said. “To be nominated by my fellow colleagues, who model such high standards and strive for excellence in the classroom, makes this award so much more meaningful.”
Conner said that in 18 years she has learned a lot about the classroom, but the most important thing she has learned is how to interact with her students.
“I want them to know that I care about them and that I am more than just a math teacher,” she said. “And I think that over the last 18 years I’ve turned into more of a mother figure, than I did when I first started.
“I get them fresh into high school and they are still somewhat babies. They aren’t quite seniors, where they have their own car and they’re driving. I just think that is my niche.”
