Faculty Testimonials and letters

"July 19, 2018

Dear Foundation at West High,

I am a new science teacher teaching IB Biology and Anatomy and Physiology, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be at West High School! I have taught in three states, at three schools, in three years and I have never encountered such a positive teaching and learning environment, that encourages teachers to continually strive to be better.

This year I had a the privilege of participating in two amazing professional development opportunities at the NSTA National STEM Conference in Atlanta and an IB Genetics workshop in Asheville this summer; both were incredibly inspirational. In each experience I return to school flooded with new ideas, directions, and excitement. Following both of the professional development opportunities, I was motivated to go deeper and experiment more in the classroom. After all, it is this energy that sparks student interest and curiosity to learn and want to learn.

Both of the professional development workshops were invaluable. I can’t thank you enough for making them accessible and providing the support and encouragement necessary for me to grow as a science teacher.

With gratitude, and warm regards." 

David Krebs

Science Teacher

"The AP Language and Composition Summer Institute was immensely beneficial for me in countless ways.  The training helped reinforce the rigor and high expectations that West High School has for all students, and the Language and Comp course is completely common core aligned.  This training will help me in every class I teach, not just in an AP course, as we were provided with numerous strategies and resources to implement on a daily basis."

Ashley Stroud
English Teacher

“I would like to thank the West High School Foundation for their generosity in sending me to the AP Statistics training this past summer at Maryville College. I cannot say enough about what it did to help prepare me for teaching the course this school year and the years to come! Thank you for all you do for the students and staff of WHS!”

Jimm Allen
Mathematics Teacher

"I am so thankful that the WHS Foundation sent me to the AP training in Atlanta. West is so blessed to have the community involvement that cares about their teachers and their students!"

Tiffany Kelly
English teacher

“Thanks to the generosity of our wonderful Foundation, the new aerobic room is fully functional and well equipped. The two large screen TVs purchased through the Foundation provide us with many different aerobic activities sure to tap into our diverse population of students' interests and abilities. We are so blessed to have such wonderful means of support within our West High family.”

Debby Jones
Physical Education Teacher

“Because of the generosity of the West High School Foundation, I was able to attend the annual conference of the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling in April 2013. This conference is the best professional development to which I have access! The sessions I attend help me to stay current on college admissions trends and I can share this with West High students and parents. I am able to network with college admission professionals from a wide variety of colleges and universities including the most selective institutions in the south and forming these relationships is invaluable.  Most importantly, I am able to represent West High School, the IB Programme, and our students to the college admission professionals. Listening to them tell me who much they respect West High School’s academic excellence and the great students we graduate is priceless!”

Sarah Bast
IB Counselor/IB Coordinator

  “I would like to formally thank the foundation for both a grant for materials and the funding for AP training this summer. I was able to purchase stopwatches and tape measures to use in both my mathematics and physics classes. Those tools enable the students to put real life situations in a mathematical context.

Typically, when I teach quadratic functions and modeling, the best I can do is to use Youtube videos of people doing crazy things that my classes can explain with equations. That is good, but having these tools that I can put in their hands and allow them to measure for themselves has been a great help. I struggle with new ways to answer the question of “When am I ever going to use this?” Two classes ago, we were struggling to understand the tangible meaning of slope as a rate of change. To put it in context, I marched the entire class to the stairwell and had the students measure the vertical rate of change of the staircase with the tape measures. We definitely made progress that day.

The AP physics training has been a huge boost for my ability to teach this class for the first time. I came away from the training with some resources that I use in class each day. I would not have been able to create all the presentations, lab guides, and problem sets on my own. I was ready to go on day one with the tools I needed to help these kids earn college credit while still at West.

Thanks again for all you do for us here at West High School. Our kids are the real beneficiaries of what you are doing.”

Tommy Eggleston
Math and Physics Teacher