Tim Axley

Tim Axley is a technology teacher at Hidden Valley Middle School in Roanoke, VA.  Although he is a new teacher in Roanoke, having moved here in 2015, Mr. Axley has been teaching for 26 years.  He acquired his master’s degree in education at the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.  Mr. Axley is a hidden hero for his outstanding devotion to the children in his classes and for his inventive ability to create an engaging class that allows students to enjoy learning.  Students leave his class with plenty of knowledge concerning valuable skills for the future, along with a positive attitude.

Mr Axley never thought about the possibility of being a teacher as an adult during his childhood, but the idea first occurred to him when he was taking a leadership class in the Navy.  The class developed a determination to teach within him, and he eventually made his way to the middle-school classroom.  Mr. Axley teaches middle-school technology because he learns alongside the students, he can comfortably teach the students, and he enjoys using the technology in the classroom.  “Being a teacher forces me to learn,” says Mr. Axley, when asked how he taught his classes; he learns how to operate new forms of technology and software through his classes, and then he teaches the students using the knowledge he discovered.  This method is innovative to format a Tech ED curriculum.  Being able to comfortably teach is very important, for according to the wise Mr. Axley, “If you aren’t happy with a group of people, you won’t perform at your peak efficiency.”

Mr. Axley is very interested in his job, and the determination to educate students about the uses of technology is apparent in the time spent after school or in one-on-one discussions with students to help them understand the material.  This is shown when he said, “I think about what I said, what I did, what I could have done,” showing persistence in perfecting the ever-changing curriculum for technology.  Mr. Axley makes the best decisions in achieving this goal by incorporating communication and collaboration into his classes.  He has encountered several classes in which the students have no desire to understand the material being discussed in the class, but it only challenges him further to educate the students.  Mr. Axley had a student who slept through his classes, so he talked to the child about the issue.  The student said he couldn’t sleep at night, so Mr. Axley would come to school early in the morning to let the student sleep before school began instead of sleeping in class, demonstrating his devotion to his students.  Mr. Axley, discussing his feelings about teaching, said, “I’m getting more comfortable with teaching middle school than I was before…if it stops getting better, I’m not doing what I need to do.” 

Mr. Axley is a humorous, passionate man who lights up the path before him by educating students and providing an outlet to people who need it.  He tries to understand the difficulties of the students and helps them through their problems while teaching others about the amazing abilities of the technology around them.  Mr. Axley has encouraged young people to fight for a brighter future, and he deserves to be recognized for those deeds.