ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½

As she got older her plans changed a bit.

“Once I was older, I had no plans to go to college,� said Dean. “I took the technical path in high school. Livingston had hooked up with the vocational school in Red Boiling Springs and offered a computer information systems class. They taught us how to use all the Microsoft programs and how to build computers and networking and all of that. This was 2000, 2001 and computers were everything. I was chosen to be eligible for that class due to my good grades and previous computer classes in high school. I won a scholarship to go back and finish it even though by the time I graduated, I didn’t want to do it. I hate computers. I mean, I like having one, but I don’t want to work with them. I finished the class and got the degree.�

After obtaining her degree, Dean wasn’t sure where to go from there.

“I started working at The Macon County Times in 2001 after I graduated,� said Dean. “I think it was in September, and I worked part-time and still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Then one day I heard someone mention signing up for substituting for teachers. I thought to myself that I could do that on the days I’m not working at the newspaper. I signed up for subbing in 2004 and I loved it. It brought back those good memories of how teachers could have a great impact on kids.�

Dean says that once she was substituting, she got that feeling again of knowing that teaching was what she wanted to do.

“I signed up at Vol State Community College in 2004 and it took me five years to complete my associate’s degree, because I didn’t qualify for student aid and had to work my way through school. I then went to Tennessee State University because they had a program on the Vol State campus and I finished, and then decided to get my master’s degree and finished that during the first year I was teaching.�

She recalls fond memories ever since, including one specific thing she shared with students.

“My favorite thing I’ve ever done in teaching is having Prairie Day,� said Dean. “I started that my very first year in 2013, and I continued it up until COVID hit in 2019. It was so much fun to teach and learn about those days. We would read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ The kids really enjoyed that.�

Dean says life also threw her some curve balls.

“The low point for me was when my dad passed away,� said Dean. “My class in 2022 was challenging, pretty much that whole year was rough. Two months after my dad passed away, I had to put my mom in hospice care. So, I was on the way to losing my mom, and I hadn’t had time to grieve the loss of my dad yet. That was such a tough year. I saw negativity pouring into every part of my life to the point where I was not my best self, and my test scores suffered that year consequently. I was just bitter about how things were going in my life; it was so hard to deal with. I couldn’t see myself coming out of that darkness. On top of all that, our house burned down. I just got to a point where I was tired of it all, the bitterness and the sadness.�

She says writing helped her overcome the bitterness.

“I started writing, and it was very angry, but therapeutic,� said Dean. “It helped me so much to get it out through writing. People around me noticed the change that was taking place.�

Dean says the award from News 2 gave her such a good feeling, and shortly after the interview, she was contacted by the former student who had nominated her for the award. That person will be 20 years old this year.

“To know that someone who had me as a teacher, and thought enough of me to remember me this way means so much to me because that reminds me of how I remember my teachers,� she said. “To have that kind of impact on someone is very special.�