Kentucky Science Teachers’ Association honors Richmond teacher
By Bryan Marshall
Register News Writer

Education and Madison County go hand-in-hand with Tracy Powell-McCoy.

The eighth grade Madison Middle science teacher graduated from Madison Central High School, and she is a 1986 alumnae of Eastern Kentucky University. After teaching science for two years at Central,

Powell-McCoy spent four years at Clark-Moores Middle School before joining the staff at Madison Middle, where she has been since 1992.

Recently, her hard work and tireless effort as a teacher was honored by the Kentucky Science Teachers’ Association, a group consisting of more than 200 science teachers across the state. The organization named Powell-McCoy Middle School Science Teacher of the Year, and the Madison County school board recognized her accomplishment at the November board meeting with a plaque.

“I was pleasantly surprised and excited about it,” Powell-McCoy said. “I do a lot of things that might not be your typical science activity, so it made me feel good that maybe that was being appreciated. It was a great honor, and I’m very thrilled with it.”

Madison Middle Principal Doug Roberts said he has known Powell-McCoy for a long time, and she is very deserving of receiving her accolade.

“(Tracy) has always been very professional and does a very good job,” Roberts said. “Her best asset is probably that she is always involved with the community.

“It’s a great honor for our school system and also our school that she has been awarded most
outstanding science middle school teacher of the year.”

Powell-McCoy teaches about 100 students every day of the week. It is her philosophy that everyone can learn, but people learn in different ways. Therefore, Powell-McCoy tries to incorporate short discussions, videos and visual components in her daily lessons. She also finds putting an agenda on the chalkboard to be a helpful tool.

Powell-McCoy said she believes involving kids in the community is an important way to teach real-world learning. She has taught her classes about recycling and the nerve agent issue, and she recently wrote a curriculum for Backstreet Boy and Kentucky native Kevin Richardson’s Just Within Reach Foundation, in which she keeps the charity updated on Kentucky environmental issues. By being involved in community issues with her class, Powell-McCoy has been invited to be a board member for several organizations, including Kentucky River Keeper, Richmond Recycling Task Force and Kentucky Environmental Foundation.

The science teacher also thinks integrating different subject areas, especially art, is good for students. In her class, students have participated in a poster contest titled “Is There Seaweed in Your Food?” and they made a recyclable art project. Powell-McCoy said she first was inspired to teach science from her experiences with her high school science teacher Sandy Fryman, who is retired from Central.

“I just loved her class and I’ve always been interested in the outdoors,” Powell-McCoy said. “But having her as a teacher really got me into science. Then, of course, growing up in an education family that was all I knew. (Teaching) just seemed like the right thing for me.”

Teaching has always run in Powell-McCoy’s family, as she is the third generation in her family to guide students in their education. Both her mother and father taught students before becoming principals, and her uncle was a teacher as well. Along with her uncle and parents, her grandmother — who taught first grade — also served as a teacher, and Powell-McCoy said she was a big influence on her career path.

“I used to take (my grandmother’s) papers from first grade and teach the neighborhood kids how to read,” Powell-McCoy said. “That was probably my first inkling that I would be a teacher.

“I think I’d like to follow in my parents’ footsteps some day and be an assistant principal or principal. I’m not tired of teaching, but I think it would be a new challenge for me.”