Tennessee’s 2018 Teacher of the Year Cicely Woodard teaches math at West End Middle School in Nashville.

Here is a truly inspirational teacher: Cicely Woodard, who teaches eighth grade math at West End Middle School in Nashville, Tennessee. She’s been named the 2018 Teacher of the Year for the state of Tennessee.

Cicely teaches her students to understand high-level math tasks through small-group discussions and plenty of writing. One of her favorite assignments is for students to solve systems with equations by having them determine the best company to clean her carpets. “They create tables and equations and graphs to compare these two companies,” she explains, “and by the end of the lesson, they have helped me choose the best company,” she continues.

“We have whole class discussions about math, where they justify their thinking and critique the reasoning of their peers,” Cicely says. “Whatever they choose to do in life, I just want them to be prepared to face challenges and face them well.”

Cicely has been teaching for 13 years in Tennessee. In addition to serving in many leadership roles within her school and district, she has also served as an adjunct instructor at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, where she received her Master’s degree.

View the video below to learn more about Cicely: