Julie Geoghagan is known not only for her style of shoes but also for her teaching style. Geoghagan was chosen to be Teacher of the Year for the 2017-2018 school year. She has taught here at Sequoyah in the math department for her entire career.  Although Geoghagan started teaching here 21 years ago, she knew that teaching was her calling long before that. She dabbled in various other pathways during college and knew that teaching was the path she wanted to take into her future.

“I just always felt like I was born to be a teacher,” Geoghagan said. “I tried to do something else with my life, but I always came back to teaching.”

Geoghagan said the activities she participated in growing up also helped her find her calling as a teacher.

“I was always good at helping my friends in high school,” Geoghagan said. “They would always come to me to get help with math, and I just knew that teaching was my calling.”

Geoghagan is able to reach many different types of students due to teaching a wide range of math courses from Regular to Advanced Placement (AP).

“I am currently teaching Honors Geometry, Pre-Calculus, and AP statistics,” Geoghagan said, “but I have taught everything from a Pre-Algebra to Pre-Calculus, and all levels from regular courses to AP.”

Spending so much time with students gives Geoghagan an opportunity to be there and help them with their math studies. Being able to impact so many people as a teacher, Geoghagan wants students to know she cares for them all.

“I would hope that my students remember me for being a caring teacher and that all I wanted for them was to be happy and be successful in my class,” Geoghagan said.

Geoghagan views tolerance as one of the most important qualities for her as a teacher. For her, each day is different and comes with challenges that change by the hour.

“I feel that I am a very patient person, and I often have to understand that, for some students, there are more important things going on in their life,” Geoghagan said. “I hope that I can still make school important for them. I just try to make it enjoyable to come to class every day.”

Being chosen as Teacher of the Year was a surprise for Geoghagan. There were many teachers in the running, but Geoghagan was ultimately chosen by her colleagues to receive this honor.

“I was just shocked,” Geoghagan said. “There were four of us on the list, and I just really didn’t think that it was going to be me.”

Geoghagan’s accolade did not come as a surprise to senior Ansley Davis, who had Geoghagan her sophomore year for AP Statistics.

“I wasn’t shocked because Mrs. Geoghagan is such a good teacher, and she is just such a good person too,” Davis said. “She does lots of interactive activities that I love, and when I had her for AP Statistics, we took a field trip to Stars and Strikes to play lazer tag for a data analysis activity.”

Davis also thinks that Geoghagan brings style, spirit, and spunk to the classroom each day. Davis was able to find joy in Geoghagan’s class each day because of the attitude Geoghagan brought to class.

“She is just fun and always happy and always smiling, and she is just the best,” Davis said. “I also love her style, especially her shoes. She just always has awesome heels on.”