MADISON COUNTY, ALABAMA, Ala. — This week's Valley's Top Teacher gives a new meaning to grading papers.
His students enjoy being in his math class, and administrators love working with him.
Mr. Bill Byrd is a military veteran and an eighth grade math teacher at Monrovia Middle School. He says, "I'm a math teacher. I'm an eighth grade math teacher. I teach eighth-grade advanced and eighth-grade regular math. I've been teaching for 25 years."
And in those 25 years, he's built relationships with hundreds of students. One of his students, Ben Shull, says, "Coach Byrd...he's soccer coach, and for like a math teacher he's strict and I don't like his work. but, he's a really good math teacher. He makes sure you understand it and stuff, and if you don't he goes out of his way to make sure you do."
It's no secret that math can be a challenging subject, but Mr. Byrd has the red pen of justice to make sure that his students are performing to the best of their ability.
The red pen of justice is what Mr. Byrd uses to grade assignments. He encourages his students to pay attention to the finest details so their answers are precise. Byrd asks his class, "This is the red pen of justice, and it has no what?"
His class responds, "Friends."
And even though the red pen of justice has no friends, Mr. Byrd does. His students enjoy coming into his class and challenging themselves to be great. Shull says, "My favorite thing to do in class is like the tests or quizzes because... I don't know...I feel more confident doing those."
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