MADISON – Molly Wright is “Teacher of the Year” at Horizon Elementary School.

A first-grade teacher, Wright serves on various school- and district-level committees. She has assisted three student teachers; next year, Wright will work as a new teacher mentor.

This past year, Wright’s students impressed visitors to Horizon’s International Night. While studying Venezuela, students picked a Venezuelan animal and wrote a nonfiction book with photographs and nonfiction captions.

Working with the media specialist, Wright’s students photographed each page to create an IMovie. “I then made QR (quick response) codes for each IMovie so visitors at International Night could see our digital projects,” Wright said.

Wright enjoys “seeing the growth each student makes throughout the year. Many students come to first grade reading only a few words. By the end of the year, they can read anything they wish.”

“The transformation is sometimes incredible. It’s a huge responsibility to mold young readers, but it’s so rewarding to know I’ve helped so many young children learn to love reading,” Wright said.

The challenge occurs when students “have circumstances beyond their control that impact their learning,” she said.

Wright finds great reward in visits from former students and seeing “how they have matured and are preparing for success.” This year in a local store, she saw a former student who had been in her first class at Horizon. He remembered many special activities from that year.

That student eventually enrolled in her husband’s history class at Bob Jones High School. “It made me very proud to see the young man he had become,” Wright said.

Wright earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at the University of North Alabama and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi.

Before moving to Madison, she taught fifth grade one year at Central Elementary in Oxford, Miss., where she was named “New Teacher of the Year.”

Her husband Cory is a history instructor at Bob Jones. Their daughters are Emma, 5, who will enter kindergarten at Horizon, and three-year-old Addison, who attends Primrose School of Madison.