KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (SUBMITTED) -- A.L. Lotts fourth-grade teacher Resa Byrd has been named the 2010 East Tennessee Teacher of the Year during the annual Teacher of the Year banquet held in Nashville. She is a 17-year veteran in the teaching profession.

Byrd has been at A.L. Lotts for three years and in Knox County schools for the last 10 years. Byrd earned her Associate of Arts Degree from Alabama Christian College and her BS Degree in Secondary Education from Tennessee Wesleyan College followed by Post graduate work for her Elementary Certification at the University of Tennessee. She began her teaching career at North City School in Athens, Tennessee. After six years she started teaching math at Lee High School in Montgomery, Ala. for one year. Starting in 1998 she moved to Cedar Bluff Intermediate in the Knox County School System where she taught fourth and fifth grade. In 2006 she was hired at A.L. Lotts Elementary in Knox County to teach fourth grade. She also is a leader in her school by currently serving as the fourth grade chair and previously as chair and co-chair of the Tennessee School Improvement Planning Committee at A.L. Lotts and Cedar Bluff Intermediate schools. Byrd also leads in her community and church, serving as a volunteer coach for the Lads to Leaders and Leaderettes character and leadership development program as well as numerous medical mission trips to Central America.

“Teaching is a wonderful career. It is a privilege and a calling and it’s also hard work and you need to be ready and willing to give to people more than you could have ever dreamed, but it is one of the most rewarding things you could ever choose to be,” Byrd said. "As a teacher I take joy in encouraging my students to contribute to their community. My classes are known for efforts such as delivering plates of goodies to the staff members of our school each Thanksgiving and for writing letters of encouragement to the homeless children at Knox Rescue Mission.”

The overall winner for Teacher of the Year was Patty Kiddy, a first grade teacher at Selmer Elementary School in McNairy County. Barbara Hills, a fourth grade teacher at Dibrell Elementary in McMinnville, was named Middle Tennessee Teacher of the Year.

Tennessee’s Teacher of the Year Award Program and Banquet is sponsored by the Niswonger Foundation, a Greenville-based organization that provided student scholarships and resources for school systems in Tennessee. Each of the finalists receives a cash award courtesy of the Niswonger Foundation. For more information about the Niswonger Foundation, visit http://www.niswongerfoundation.org/.

(This information was submitted by Knox County Schools.)