Meet CCSD 2019 School Teacher Of The Year: Karen Reynolds Of Little River Elementary School

From the Cherokee County School District: Our teachers are amazing, which is why we share the story of a school’s teacher of the year every week. Little River Elementary School's 2019 Teacher of the Year is Karen Reynolds.

Every day is different in Karen Reynolds’ classroom at Little River Elementary School, and not just because she’s taught curious kindergartners, and now first graders, for 25 years.

It’s different because Reynolds puts so much creativity and care in her lessons and classroom. When Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian V. Hightower came to visit to announce her selection as one of CCSD’s teacher of the year four finalists, it had been transformed into a campsite, where children peeked out of a reading tent wearing plaid flannel shirts matching their teacher’s own. Principal Karen Carl said she wishes her children had experienced a year in Reynolds’ class.

“Her classroom is like magic, and she is the magician,” Carl said of Reynolds, who earned her education degree at the University of Tennessee and is a two-time teacher of the year.

The parents of her students agree: “She has a way,” one shared, “of making school the best place to be, and her classroom one big circle of learning and friendship. That’s the Mrs. Reynolds magic.”

“My greatest accomplishments lie in the relationships I have built with my students. While my students are only with me a short time, they leave my classroom knowing they are loved and special. They are my students for life," Reynolds said.