Band Director Joshua Bloodworth Wins Educator of the Week

Central High School is full of teachers with a passion for education a knack for connecting with young people. Though, one teacher in particular has been recognized as a News Channel 9 Educator of the Week: Joshua Bloodworth, music history teacher and band director at Central High.

“I was very excited when I heard that I had been named Educator of the Week.  The main source of my excitement was from the fact that students had to think highly enough of me to fill out paperwork to nominate me for the award,” explained Bloodworth.

Bloodworth has had a passion for music for most of his life, with his interest originating in middle school after discovering the trumpet. He loved it so much to peruse music and follow the education route in college.

As an upcoming senior in high school, he attended a summer music camp at the University of Georgia, where he got to rehearse and perform with some of the best students from across the state with college directors and professors.  After that experience, he decided that he wanted to start taking music more seriously and chose to follow in the footsteps of his band director and his mother, an elementary school music teacher, and become a teacher himself.

After graduating college, Bloodworth started his teaching career at Chattanooga Central High School, with the hopes of continuing the success of Central High’s band. This quickly proved to be a challenging position, as it takes a lot of hours outside the school day to run an effective and functional band program.

“The biggest struggles with being a teacher come outside of the instructional time. On a normal day, I am usually at the school until 6:00. [The band] rehearses after school from 2:45-5:00 PM, and then usually I try to stick around for another hour or so to work on paperwork and planning for the next day,” stated Bloodworth.

However, the reason that most educators become a teacher is to help their students succeed. Bloodworth is beloved by many of his students, especially those in the band program.

“We love Mr. Bloodworth!” exclaimed many of the band students collectively.

The Central Digest congratulates Mr. Joshua Bloodworth for becoming Educator of the Week and thanks all of Central’s fantastic teachers for all the hard work they put in to make our school great!