Karen Cantrell

Tell us why you became a teacher

It was actually by accident that I became a teacher. I was taking classes for kinesiology degree and had actually thought about going into sports medicine. My mom suggested going into education and coaching so that's what I did for many years. Now after 23 years of teaching, I have taught every grade and every subject and several different electives. Come to find out, I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

When I was teaching 4th grade English, one of my behavior students had a very special friend with him. I was going around checking papers and the next thing I know the girls where screaming and climbing on their desk. When I turned around and asked what does Sam Hill was going on, one of the boys ran up to me and said that this kid had a frog in backpack and it got loose! I told him to get over there and catch that frog and get it out of my room now!

What would you do with the $25,000?

The first thing I'd do after I gave my tithe, would be to buy each teacher in the building hand sanitizer, Kleenex, and pencils. The rest I'm going to save.