Farragut Teacher in running for state Teacher of the Year

The Tennessee Department of Education recently announced Knox County School teacher Wanda Lacy has been selected as a Centers of Regional Excellence Finalist for the 2013-2014 Tennessee Teacher of the Year competition.

Wanda Lacy, who was recently awarded as the Knox County Schools’ High School Teacher of the Year, has been with Knox County Schools for thirty years and currently teaches at Farragut High School where she teaches AP Calculus. Ninety-seven percent of her students have earned college credit since 2007.

Lacy is a Lead teacher at her school and also assists with in-service trainings – most recently on Numeracy for the Common Core. Her community involvement is also significant. She integrates ways to assist The Love Kitchen and Second Harvest Food Bank into her classes. Her 2007 class holds the school record by collecting 13,539 cans of food for Second Harvest.

She founded the Farragut High Math Academy where she works with students and their mentors from community organizations such as ORNL, Alcoa Aluminum, and the University of Tennessee collaborate to further inspire students who are interested in pursuing careers in mathematics, engineering, science and/or technology.

She is among 27 regional finalists selected for the statewide competition. The pool of regional finalists will be narrowed to nine, then one finalist will be chosen to represent each of the three grand divisions of the state and The Tennessee Teacher of the Year will be selected from those three finalists.

The final winner will represent Tennessee in the National Teacher of the Year competition and is an ambassador for education throughout the year.

A panel of professional educators from across the state scored applications to identify these finalists.