Amy Thaxton, at right, and Wade Thaxton both teach in the Madison City Schools district. Their daughter Tatum is three years old. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Former instructional partner Amy Thaxton now is working as assistant principal at Bob Jones High School.

Thaxton is starting her eleventh year at Bob Jones. A classroom teacher for eight years, Thaxton instructed English for grades 10-12 and elective courses like creative writing and myth and legends, along with a distance-learning class in English.

Thaxton served as instructional partner for two years at Bob Jones.

Working as assistant principal “is an extension of my role as the instructional partner. I’m passionate about learning and partnering with our teachers to support them in their effort to empower and impact our students,” Thaxton said.

Thaxton believes if teachers are empowered, so are students. She cited Jim Knight’s book, “Unmistakable Impact”: “… Love of learning is infectious; it is energizing, joyous and humanizing. In schools where professional learning is at the core, teachers come to work excited by the prospects of what new idea or practice they might do every day …”

For 2005 and 2012, Thaxton was “Teacher of the Year” at Bob Jones; in 2012, she advanced to “Secondary Teacher of the Year” for Madison City Schools. She was named Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ “Female Coach of the Year” in 2010.

In addition, she received the “YMCA Social Responsibility Scholarship – Teacher Recognition” in 2012. A 1999 alumnae of Bob Jones, she was selected for school’s Hall of Fame in 2009.

Last January, Thaxton was pleased with “da Vinci Fridays,” a cross-curricular project requiring teacher collaboration. “These mini-courses allowed our students to (choose) what they learned that day and challenged students to think outside the box,” she said.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education at Athens State University and a master’s degree in instructional leadership at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Her husband Wade teaches sixth-graders and is FCA huddle coach at Mill Creek Elementary School and is assistant softball coach at Bob Jones. “Our daughter Tatum is three years old. We’re expecting baby No. 2,” Amy said.