“I will work with the seven elementary schools and the two moderate-to-severe units at Graves County Middle and High schools,” she said in a recent interview. She has worked as a special education teacher the past seven years at Graves County High School. Prior to that, she was employed as a teacher in a private home school situation for two years for Christian American missionaries’ children in Brazil.
Reed spent her freshman year of post-secondary education at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., and completed a bachelor’s degree in social work at Murray State University. She earned two master’s degrees at MSU: one in learning behavior disorders-special education and the other in moderate-to-severe special education. She then completed a director of special education master’s degree at Morehead State University.
“I am passionate about what I’m doing,” Reed explained, saying she believes it’s important to enjoy her work and to help the students to have fun at school and enjoy it as well. “I came into the high school seven years ago nervous about what that job was going to entail. Then, I felt really good about getting a peer tutoring program started where we brought students from throughout the school into our classroom to work with our students. So many general ed students are in our class every period of the school day that they just become part of our class and are just like big brothers and sisters to our students. Once those students without disabilities come into our classroom and are around our students, they realize that there’s really no difference. They just see our students for who they are as individuals and not so much as students with disabilities. It bridges the gap and really works well.”
In addition, Reed noted, “I am grateful for our success in helping students transition into working in the outside world and being successful there.”
While leaving her work with a set group of students on a daily basis will be a major change for her, she aspires to become a special education director at some point. Presently, “this door has opened and it is the next step for me,” she said. “I’m excited because in this position I’m looking forward to helping other special ed teachers and all teachers throughout the district. I really hope to be a resource to them. I can still work with students, but even more of them and with teachers as well.”
Summarizing her career, she concluded, “For me, I’ve always been a cheerleader for the underdog and this is just the perfect position to help make sure all students are thriving and transitioning from one point to the next so that they can live as independently and successfully as possible.”
Reed and her husband, Jeremy Reed, have a 1-year-old daughter, Ellie Jo Reed, and are expecting a baby in January.
