Catherine Ethridge

Tell us why you became a teacher

I “fell” into teaching! I am a music therapist and we moved due to my spouse’s job (he’s a Methodist minister). No music therapy jobs were close by. I was asked to teach an autism classroom since as a music therapist I had worked with all populations of students. I loved working with my students in this capacity and dedicated my time to excelling as a special education teacher! I have taught for 33 years. Populations may have changed but my love of teaching these students has only grown!

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

There are so many - when my students had the “ah ha”, when they scored better than expected on tests, when they were nonverbal and gained speech through months of teaching and working with the SLP, when they reached for the stars and grabbed them!

What would you do with the $25,000?

I would use the money to fully outfit my classroom, to outfit a shared sensory classroom for the school, have an account for students that could not afford lunch. I would use any remaining money for nursing needs (school nurse).