Teaching wasn’t Darryl Franklin’s first career choice, but it’s proven to be rewarding for both him and his students.
Seeing his passion and dedication for teaching middle schoolers STEM disciplines, Franklin’s peers at West-Oak Middle School named him 2025 Teacher of the Year.
Franklin, a 1995 graduate of the Anderson University College of Education, said, “to get recognition from my colleagues makes it a little more special… It just lets me know that other people see not only what I’m doing in the classroom but on a day-to-day basis at West-Oak.”
Before becoming a teacher, Franklin worked in electrical construction for Duke Energy. He’s enthusiastic about teaching his students science concepts hands-on—an approach his professors at Anderson University modeled.
“I’m not a textbook-oriented teacher, I love to be doing. We build rockets. We build race cars. Every week we’ve got something else going on in the classroom, and a lot of that came from the experiences I had at AU,” Franklin said.
This hands-on learning approach rose to a new level when his students at West-Oak Middle got involved in robotics competitions, adding an exciting engineering element to their science instruction.
“We started our first team last year,” Franklin said. “We compete both at middle school and high school level. We finished the year ranked twentieth in the state out of a little over 100 teams. This year we’ve expanded to four teams… The kids go through that mechanical process and the engineering process of thinking through a problem and finding a solution. If that solution doesn’t work, we regroup and plan another solution.”
Teaching has been rewarding for Franklin, who has taught in public and private schools, and on the elementary and middle school levels.
“I try to go into it every day knowing that everyone deserves a chance to learn and everyone can, and it’s my job to present it in a way that everyone has a chance to learn,” Franklin said. “It’s not an easy field to be a part of. Days can be challenging, but the rewarding days certainly outweigh any of the bad days I’ve ever had in a classroom.”
West-Oak Middle School is located in Westminster, South Carolina, and is part of the School District of Oconee County.
Franklin shared more about his teaching career and the robotics competitions in AU Network.
The Anderson University College of Education
The Anderson University College of Education focuses on the intellectual development of the student while being attentive to the ideals of character, servant leadership and cultural engagement. Programs are offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels, onsite or online. Details can be found here.
