Childers honored with Fox 17 award

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Morrison Elementary School teacher Monty Childers, right, is seen here with WZTV Fox 17 morning personalities, from left, Kelly Sutton and Charlie Chase after being awarded the station’s Top Teacher honor last week. (Photo provided)

TV cameras, celebrities, a limousine and a Warren County teacher. No, this isn’t a description of the latest TV reality show. Rather, it describes the experience last week of Morrison Elementary School teacher Monty Childers, who was selected as WZTV Fox 17’s Top Teacher.

“It was very nice, really fantastic, but there are a whole lot of other teachers who deserve it more than me,” said Childers.

Fox 17’s Top Teacher program is a joint venture between the Nashville television station and the Tennessee Department of Education. The weekly program was started two years ago by the station to honor teachers, society’s “unsung heroes,” said WZTV account executive and Top Teacher coordinator Pam Vasilevskis.

“We see the impact teachers have on our lives and we wanted to honor them. They are the ones who get trampled on the most and get paid the least,” she said.

Nominations for the honor are taken every week on the station’s Web site. The names of the Midstate teachers who receive the most nominations are then forwarded to the Department of Education, where state education officials make the final selection.

Childers, who teaches sixth, seventh and eighth grade science at Morrison, was not aware he had won the honor, or even been nominated, until WZTV meteorologist Joe Case and a camera crew arrived at the school last Wednesday afternoon and informed him.

The next day, at the early hour of 4 a.m., a limousine arrived at Childers’ house to pick up the winner, as well as his wife, mother and mother-in-law. By 5:30 a.m. the quartet had arrived at WZTV’s studios where Childers appeared on “Mornings” with Charlie Chase and Kelly Sutton.

While on the show a clip of him in his classroom was shown and he was interviewed by the pair. Additionally, he was presented with a plaque and $100.

After the conclusion of his four-minute segment, Childers and company remained in the studio and enjoyed witnessing the production of a live television program.

“Charlie and Kelly were both so nice and talked to us at length,” said Childers. “I was surprised at how small the studio is. It looks much larger on TV.”