Kelly Burnette, a longtime teacher at WAHS, has always been a writer. Upon hearing her speak about different authors and their works within her creative writing class, it’s clear that writing is her passion. She has a love for creativity, and encourages her students to write what they want and what they feel.
Burnette has been teaching at Western for 35 years now, and in that time she’s taught a variety of subjects. “I’ve taught World History, Psychology, Sociology, AP Art History, and then I switched over to the Art Department and I do Digital Imaging, Art 1, and Creative Writing,” she said. Burnette became interested in teaching because “I taught swim lessons…and I just loved making those connections with kids,” she said. “I think that’s when I thought ‘Oh maybe this is something I should try.’”
She’s also been involved with the Fralin Art Museum’s Writer’s Eye competition for quite a while. She said, “When I was in college I was an occasional docent [at what] used to be called the Bayly, and I worked with their educational director a little bit in the very early years of Writer’s Eye. I was a participant writer…and as I came back to teaching Creative Writing I’ve really made it a priority just because my connection to it goes all the way back.” Burnette also helps organize the Crozet Teen Poet Laureate, which has been running at the Jefferson Madison Regional Library for around two years now.
Through all of these different phases in her life, Burnette has always come back to writing. Mainly, she said, during lifechanging or monumental moments in her life. “Right before I got married, I was prolific, and then right when I had my child, I was writing a lot,” she said. “There was a need to process, so I think that the writing came more naturally. It’s been a really nice way to process significant things that have occurred in my life.”
Adam Reinhard, the art teacher at Western, has been working with Burnette for about two years. They share the same classroom, B228, where they both teach art. Reinhard has enjoyed working with her and said that it’s nice to work with someone who’s “motivated to teach well and cares about the kids… I think she’s so funny and nice, and also has the best sense of style…we’re lucky to have her.”
