At the start of class, Molly Seifert takes attendance by asking each student’s favorite pasta shape. It’s not just a fun icebreaker, but a careful tactic backed by research.
“There’s all this research about kids going to an eight-hour school day, and no teacher at any point has actually said their name,” Seifert’s co-teacher C.J. Fryer explained. “So she intentionally does this every day, so that every kid hears their name every single day.”
Seifert has asked a question like that during roll call for as long as she can remember during her 21 years as a high school English teacher at Beechwood. She taught freshmen for 18 of those years, then transitioned to teaching seniors a few years ago.
Seifert facilitates Northern Kentucky’s regional speech and debate program and Beechwood’s speech, debate and drama team, called Beechwood Forensics. She also directed musicals for 10 years.
“I like this job a lot. It’s a front row seat in the human condition, all of it,” Seifert said. “The good, the bad, but mostly the good.”
The Kentucky Department of Education named Seifert Kentucky’s Teacher of the Year and High School Teacher of the Year in Frankfort on Wednesday evening. She was selected from 600 nominees from the state’s pool of 40,000 teachers.
Seifert said she received notice to apply for more than a decade, but had deleted those emails, not realizing it meant she had been nominated.
Seifert called the recognition surreal and said she’s most eager to represent and connect with other teachers throughout the state during a six-month sabbatical.
“I’m not even the best teacher in this building, I’m not even the best teacher in this hallway … This is definitely by no means, like ‘Molly Seifert is the greatest teacher in the land,” she said. “I’m honored to be the spokesperson for so many outstanding educators in the state.”
But even an hour at Beechwood High School highlights how special Seifert is to the 135 students she teaches, and even those she doesn’t.
Her students showered her with flowers and congratulations Thursday morning after learning of her win, but deflated quickly when Seifert told them the award came with a sabbatical.
Seifert called the opportunity awesome, but scary, adding she knows the school will find a strong substitute. “I feel such a great responsibility for these children in my classroom.”
Coen Yang has had Seifert as an English teacher twice, as a freshman and now as a senior. This is also Yang’s fourth year on Beechwood’s Forensics team.
“I didn’t know a human could be that good, and that kind and compassionate,” Yang said.
She described how Seifert responded when she started crying in panic before a speech and debate event that was new to her. Yang said Seifert didn’t ask questions, or pressure her to push through, rather pulled her from that one event, allowing her to still place first or second in the others.
“She knew that wasn’t in my cards that day,” Yang said describing Seifert’s strength of meeting students where they are.
In Seifert’s experience, that means celebrating everyone’s dreams and futures. Her classroom is home to a wall where every senior creates a pennant for the program, internship or four-year university they’re accepted into.
Another part of meeting students where they are is making English practical for her students from the jump. She kicks off the year by teaching students how to send a professional email, set up an email signature, refine their resume and write a reflective essay.
But Seifert’s impact permeates beyond the classroom.
“Hey, that’s one of my favorite teachers!” junior Jordan Compton shouted, pointing out Seifert to his grandma when LINK nky visited the high school’s main office Friday morning. Compton isn’t actually one of Seifert’s students, but the two have developed a relationship in the hallways and outside of class.
“But I’ll have you next year, right?” Compton asks.
When Seifert confirmed, Compton smiled.
“Bet, bet, bet,” he said.