The nonprofit Tennessee Performing Arts Center announces Joy Patton, an English and Theatre teacher at Renaissance High School in Williamson County as its 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year.
Despite TPAC and Williamson County Schools being closed during the current Safer-At-Home order, the arts organization presented Patton with the award via video with help from Renaissance High School principal Brian Bass and Rob McNeilly, President of Tennessee Division for Synovus Bank, which sponsors the award.
“Joy challenges her students to be themselves, ending each of her classes with the same three words — ‘your words matter.’ Her standards of excellence in using the arts to inspire her students shine not only in her 11th and 12 grade English classes, but also in her roles as head of her school’s theatre department and coordinator of its innovation lab,” McNeilly says. “TPAC and all of us art appreciators at Synovus are honored to name Ms. Patton as Teacher of the Year.”
Now in its 26th year, TPAC’s Teacher of the Year Award honors excellence in arts education and includes a $1,000 grant for the recipient’s school, made possible by Synovus Bank.
Patton brings her students to performances on TPAC’s Season for Young People as often as she can, occasionally twice in the same school year. For many of her students, it’s the first time they experience a live performance.
“Sometimes kids just need to get out to the building. Everyone should get to experience the performing arts, especially when classic works of literature come off the page and into real life,” says Patton, who has escorted students to performances of “1984,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Our Town,” “Hamlet,” “Inherit the Wind” and “The Crucible” in recent years.
Though Patton teaches English and Theatre, she also worked with the school’s Freshmen Academy to bring the freshman class to see “The Code,” a play by the Vancouver-based Green Thumb Theatre that addresses the issue of cyber-bullying in schools.
Then, Patton challenged her students to write their own scenes addressing social issues they see at school and perform them for the freshman class.
In addition to starting the school’s chapter of the International Thespian Society (serving as Troupe Director), coordinating the school’s Innovation Lab, and acting as producer and technical director for the Moonlight Players, the after-school theatre program, Patton makes time for her own professional development.
Participating in TPAC workshops provides Patton with practical ideas to help create an environment in her classroom where all students feel safe and confident and can connect with the work.
“Especially with Shakespeare. The connections made for Ophelia during the ‘Hamlet’ workshop influenced how I approached our studies,” says Patton, who asked students to think about characters in contemporary ways like Twitter after class readings of Shakespeare plays.
“For me, teaching is a creative outlet, and the workshops challenge me to keep creating and keep innovating,” Patton says. “It keeps me from getting stuck in the same pattern and gives me the courage to try new approaches.”
Institutional sponsors for TPAC include Nissan North America and Coca-Cola. TPAC is funded in part by support from the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission.
