Her Story
Penny Ferguson has been part of the Maryville City Schools since 1954, first as a student, then as a student teacher, and finally as an English teacher. She began in 1969 teaching seventh grade English at John Sevier Elementary and has taught eleventh grade English at Maryville High School since 1970. She is a Maryville College graduate (B.A., 1969) and earned a master’s degree, an educational specialist degree and a doctor of education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her desire to teach, she says, “took root in the sixth grade,” and today she teaches alongside 18 of her former students, one of whom is now her principal.
She has taught well over 6,000 students and has coached tennis, directed plays and sponsored the National Honor Society and Maryville Scholars. Her students’ writing scores have led the state on Tennessee’s writing assessment since its start. She has also been an adjunct faculty member at Maryville College since 1991, helping prepare student teachers.
Her honors include a 2003 Disney American Teacher Award, a 2003 National Education Association Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, a 2003 National Council of Teachers of English Teacher of Excellence Award, the NCTE and State Farm Good Neighbor Teaching Award (1996) and a 2007 Tennessee Education Association Teacher of Excellence award. In 1996 the mayor of Maryville proclaimed May 2 “Penny B. Ferguson Day,” and in 2003 the Tennessee House and Senate passed a joint resolution recognizing her teaching excellence.
Beyond the Classroom
Ferguson was part of the Governor’s Academy for Teachers of Writing, first as a participant in 1986 and then, in 1996, as a core team leader and writing instructor. She has published nine articles in the Tennessee English Journal, presented at state and national English and social studies conferences, and served since 1993 on the state’s Language Arts Advisory Board.
She is a certified National School Reform Faculty facilitator, trained in the Critical Friends Group approach, and in 2007 was named director of the Tennessee Center of Activity for that organization. She judges NCTE writing competitions and chairs the teacher awards of the Tennessee Council of Teachers of English.
Philosophy Into Practice
Ferguson builds her teaching on the “3 R’s” of educator Willard Daggett: rigor, relevance and relationships. On the first day of school she asks students what one thing they can choose to bring to class every day, and the answer she wants is “a good attitude.” They memorize a line from Thoreau, “Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world,” and she tells them to fake it until it comes naturally.
She takes her students “beyond the four walls” of the classroom. After a University of Tennessee institute on local history, her students researched, wrote, illustrated and bound a three-volume history of Blount County, with local experts as advisors. Her American literature class has joined with American history for four projects: a Multimedia Decade Museum, a Family History Project (now in its thirteenth year), “Is It Hollywood or Is It History?” and an American Studies Documentary Film Project. The museum was featured in a PBS series on innovation.
“Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money and power and influence.”— Henry David Thoreau, quoted by Penny Ferguson
“The greater lesson that I teach them is an outlook on life.”— Penny Ferguson
In Her Own Words
“Teaching is not merely a vocation, but a way of life.”— Penny Ferguson
“My students are my estate.”— Penny Ferguson
“A teacher affects eternity; she never knows where her influence stops.”— Penny Ferguson
“Teaching is one of the greatest professions in the world!”— Penny Ferguson
What Others Said
“Her indefatigable commitment to excellence for her students and for herself and her innovative approaches to teaching qualify her for this award.”— Mary Barth, nominator and former colleague
“Passionate, enthusiastic, creative.”— Lynn C. Brown, Assistant Principal, Maryville High School
“Educational reform would not be necessary if more teachers taught at Penny Ferguson’s high level of competency and enthusiasm.”— Lynn C. Brown, Assistant Principal, Maryville High School
“Dr. Ferguson is the type of teacher that all students should have before they graduate from high school.”— Jarred C. Cook, former student, MHS Class of 2002
“Penny is positively affecting the lives and education of her students.”— Maelea Galyon, Technology Coordinator and former student, Maryville High School
“She is committed to her community, her school, her profession, her family, and her students.”— Dr. Mike Dalton, Director of Schools, Maryville City Schools