Angie Crutchfield is Eagle Tire Pros teacher of the week

By Charlotte Underwood 

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Angie Crutchfield is Eagle Tire Pros teacher of the week.

Teachers make a difference in their students lives each and every day. For many students, having a teacher who cares and goes that extra mile can be the difference in a successful education and graduation. We’ve all had that teacher who inspired us or helped in some way. That’s why WLAF and Eagle Tire Pros salute all of our hard working educators with a weekly feature.

This week’s featured educator is Valley View Librarian Angie Crutchfield who has been an educator for nearly 30 years.

She is a Campbell County native and attended Ridgewood Elementary, Jacksboro Jr. High and Campbell County High Schools. Crutchfield received her B.S. in Secondary Education with an emphasis in English from Tennessee Tech University. She stayed for an extra semester to also get certified in Elementary Education and also received her M.S. degree from the University of Tennessee.

Crutchfield began teaching English at CCHS in 1992 and moved to East LaFollette Elementary School in 1993 where she team-taught during her first three years there. 

“I team-taught 3rd and 5th grades, then moved into 4th grade where I taught a self-contained classroom for seven years,” Crutchfield said. 

From there, she moved back to the high school where she taught English once again before learning that Bobbie Heatherly was retiring from the library. Crutchfield received permission to attend classes at TTU to get her certification for Library/Media Specialist and served as the librarian at CCHS for five years before moving to Valley View Elementary where she has been the librarian for the past 14 years. 

According to Crutchfield, she had several teachers responsible for inspiring her career in education.

“My inspirations were Margaret Chapman, my 3rd and 4th grade teacher at Ridgewood; Joanne Overton, my English teacher at JJHS; Bobbie Heatherly and Diana Thomason from CCHS. Ms. Thomason allowed me to substitute for her, and this made me realize that teaching was the career path I was meant to follow,” Crutchfield said.

Her favorite part of her job is “sharing books with students, reading to them and getting them addicted to reading.”

“It makes my job worthwhile. If I can get them hooked on a particular author or series, I have accomplished my main goal. Whenever a student comes in and requests a particular book I’ve read to them, or shares a particular book they have read, it makes my day,” Crutchfield said. 

It’s moments like these that help with the inevitable hard days. 

“When a student comes in and gives me a good hug, or tells me how much they love coming to the library, that’s what keeps me going,’ Crutchfield said. 

 She will be retiring in January after 30 years in the field of education. 

“I look forward to retiring after a fulfilling career,” Crutchfield. 

Every Thursday, WLAF’s Charlotte Underwood features the WLAF – Eagle Tire Pros teacher of the week. That educator also receives a free oil change from Eagle Tire Pros. To nominate a teacher for teacher of the week honors, please send your nomination to wlaf@1450wlaf.com (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 10/13/2022-6AM)