Local Barren county teacher wins teacher of the year

BARREN COUNTY, Ky.- Barren County Schools has announced a local elementary school teacher was selected as the 2026 Teacher of the Year for English.

Angela Reeder, a second-grade elementary teacher who has been in the classroom for a decade, was nominated for her passion for literacy and commitment to the teaching profession, and receiving that recognition reassures her.

Reeder says, “It just, it feels good to think you’re making a difference in someone noticed because some days would come in, and it’s hectic and you’re dealing with, you know, communicating with people and getting data and things like that, and you think you might not be making a difference at all.”

Another motivation for Reeder is her students and their peaked interests when it comes to learning.

She also says, “Sometimes I can’t hardly read the stories they’re so excited to tell me. Hey, what about this? And ask all these questions? And, a lot of times I have to tell them, ‘we’ll have to come back to that later,’ and I’ll have to figure that out. But they get really excited about it. And they are really getting into the stories and enjoying, you know, learning. So that’s exciting to watch.”

The growing excitement for reading and writing brings the students joy and leads to unexpected success that Reeder never thought she would receive.

“When I got the email, I was kind of beside myself. I thought, ‘this is not what I expected.’ So it’s an honor then whenever you know, someone comes in and says, ‘hey, you did a great job with this,’ it does make you kind of get inspired to just keep trying harder and to do more and more to encourage the kids and help them to learn.”