Teacher of the Year by katey goins The influenced becomes the influencer.
the environment. I think Bullitt East, the community is still so involved, the parent, the student, and the teacher of the triangle that makes this all work. That’s what I live for and at Bullitt East I could tell that it is a community school. That was something I had in high school and I desperately wanted to have that back being a teacher,” Phillips said.
Steven Phillips carries the experiences he’s had as a student in high school into his days as a freshman math teacher. Phillips’ teaching style is made whole by the many parts of his own teachers and coaches that made an impact on him. The relationship between Phillips and his past teachers is something that he is able to create with his own students now. At the end of the day he wants to be more than just a teacher.
Being the freshman algebra teacher, Phillips feels he carries an extra responsibility to these new high school students. “I think I just want to make sure I’m providing such a supportive and good enough education that when they do go to their geometry teachers, algebra two, in their higher level math courses, that I’ve given them a good foundation. Because these teachers here are fantastic. They’re just awesome. I don’t want to be letting them down. As a freshman teacher I take it very personally, not building them up to where they need to be for those classes,” Phillips said.
Phillips grew up in the Pleasure Ridge Park (PRP) area, which also became home for his inspirations for wanting to become a teacher. “Miss Stevenson, she was just super caring and she would do anything for any student, with any student that wanted it, that wanted to go far. She was right there. It didn’t matter what time of the day, she was gonna make sure that she helped me with the material from day one to the end of the school year. And just throughout those years, she really just kept an eye on me. She just always asked me how I was doing. Then she just little by little started telling me I was one of her favorites you know, and I think it was something just to motivate me and kind of guide me. She knew I wanted to be a teacher, but she knew how hard that journey was going to be. And I think she just instilled a lot of confidence. Even if she didn’t know I was going to become a teacher or not. She wanted to make sure I had the confidence that I could if that’s what I wanted to be,” Phillips said.
Being a new teacher to Bullitt East, receiving Teacher of the year felt out of reach for Phillips. “When I first got here I was kind of looking through the halls and I would see Teacher of the Year Livewire on the wall and I would see certain teachers. I saw Mr. Fulgham’s picture on there and I was like, ‘man, that would be one cool thing, if before I leave here, you know before I retire 50 years out, to be able to come close to winning that’. You know I actually had that thought so the fact that it happened to me, it’s super thrilling. I feel honored, I’m humble about it, I feel blessed about it. I’m so glad I came here. Number one, because of the students, I wake up everyday super excited to see them. I don’t really want summer break to start if I’m being honest. But I want you guys to get the summer break. You all worked hard this year. But I can do this. I wish I was Mr. Feeny and I could travel along with this group. But I’m excited for the next group of freshmen to come in,” Phillips said.
In high school Phillips was on the soccer team. During this time the team experienced a change in leadership when they got a new coach. “The soccer coach… he lit a fire under us, he lit a fire under me. I almost looked at him like a dad, and I have a dad and a stepdad, so you know I’m very blessed. But I looked at him like a dad and he was only 24. But he was so motivating. He would just light a fire like I said, he would make up these stories about what this team said. We’d get on the bus and we we’re ready to destroy as soon as we got off that bus. And the teams we could, we were destroying the teams. There’s still teams that are maintenance that just were playing better, but the year before we weren’t beating anybody. So I liked the motivational factor that he provided and I kind of try to do that as much as I can,” Phillips said.
Winning Livewire Teacher of the Year was just the reassurance Phillips needed coming into a new job at Bullitt East. “All the positive feedback from it, it helped me realize that at 16, I made the right choice. It was what I was meant to do,” Phillips said.
Not only did Phillips know he wanted to be a teacher from a young age, but he also knew he want to end up in Bullitt County at Bullitt East. “I always had this image of moving from Louisville to Bullitt County. It was something I always kind of wanted to do. I didn’t get to move to Bullitt County, I got to move to Spencer County with my wife. My wife works in Oldham, so kind of middle ground. But the school system I just always from afar, loved. Just from from going to the website and looking around at jobs. But when sports teams would come I really just loved the demeanor of the student athletes when they would come play PRP. When I would come out here I was coaching soccer, I’d come out here playing against Bullitt East, playing against North Bullitt, Bullitt Central, and I just liked being in
Teacher of the Year Stephen Phillips teaching in his freshman math class, “I think I just want to make sure I’m providing such a supportive and good enough education that when they do go to their geometry teachers, algebra two, in their higher level math courses, that I’ve given them a good foundation. Because these teachers here are fantastic. They’re just awesome. I don’t want to be letting them down. As a freshman teacher I take it very personally, not building them up to where they need to be for those classes,” Phillips said.
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