Cathy Bishop captures the title BHS Sweetheart

Business teacher Cathy Bishop has effectively earned the adoration of teachers and students at Bartlett High School. Her business-style classes have become the favorite of many students. As the founder of the school’s bookstore, sponsor of DECA, and also a full-time business teacher, Bishop has a hand in many students’ lives. Because her classes have stolen the hearts of many at Bartlett, she takes the title of BHS Sweetheart this month.

“I love Mrs. Bishop’s class, it’s so much more interesting than some of the other classes I’ve taken at Bartlett,” said senior Parker Bryan.

A thriving and lively teacher at school, Bishop also has a rewarding home life. She has a sweetheart of her own, husband of 33 years named Tom. He supported her as she went through school to become a teacher, and her friends jokingly call him “the perfect man.” Her son Justin deserves the thanks for inspiring her to leave her job of thirteen years in sales and marketing to become a teacher. She knew the day he started kindergarten she wanted to be able to be home when he was, so she went back to school to earn a master’s degree in education.

When Bishop is done with school work and DECA, she enjoys gardening, and Saturday night trivia games with friends. She also enjoys music of all varieties, her small dog Betty White, and shopping, even though her favorite shopping buddy, her daughter Caroline, has gone off to college.

From the outside, a life balancing so many tasks and responsibilities can seem stressful, but Bishop loves what she does. As the teacher to dream up the idea of a school bookstore her previous knowledge of sales and marketing showed through. Though Bishop began in marketing some years ago, she was inspired to become a teacher when her son Justin began school. She has even admitted to trying to persuade some of her students to become teachers, but many prefer marketing careers.

“I’m always trying to talk my students into teaching someday, but many of them go into marketing careers.  Maybe someday they will come around!” said Bishop.

DECA has become more than a club at school for Bishop; not only does she run the organization at Bartlett High but she is also the district coordinator. She feels that DECA has become as much a part of her job as teaching is. She also insisted that it wasn’t a club but a co-curricular student organization with a demanding amount of attention needed. Even though she can’t tell which way is up sometimes, Bishop loves what she does.

“Mrs. Bishop is an amazing teacher, and person. She has taught me so much in class and in DECA,” said senior Elizabeth Reed.

Bishop loves building relationships with her students and giving them opportunities to lead, and has captured the hearts of students and teachers alike.

Culinary Arts, Earthwatch doing the dirty work

Earthwatch and Culinary Arts are taking spring in stride and making the school a better place for next year’s students. How so?

By planting gardens, of course.

Bartlett is getting a little greener (and purpler and pinker and yellower…) with the addition of two new gardens, a flower garden by Earthwatch and an herb garden by Culinary Arts.

Culinary Arts is planning practical uses for its garden, while Earthwatch intends to brighten up a common student walkway and raise environmental awareness. Both are intended to beautify the school.

The herb garden was the brainchild of Marsha Johnson, culinary arts instructor and overseer of the Panther’s Den, and business teacher Cathy Bishop, who oversees E4, the Panther Bookstore.

“Gardening is my hobby,” Bishop said, who has been in charge of the flower beds at the front of the school for four years.

The herb garden should be an asset to future student chefs at Bartlett, teaching them to recognize aromas and distinguish quality herbs from non-quality ones. A variety of plants–including different types of thyme and lemon grass–will grow.

“We want students to see that food comes from places other than Kroger,” Johnson said.

The herb garden is also cost-friendly: Not only will it be entered in a school beautification contest that will hopefully earn the school some money, but by growing herbs instead of buying them, the culinary arts classes will save money.

“[There is] a cost factor. Herbs are very expensive to buy but not expensive to grow,” Johnson said. “For what we’re spending on herbs now we can manage the garden.”

Earthwatch is getting permission to plant the garden this week. They plan to plant flowers in the patch of grass between the student and teacher parking lots, where the portables used to be. No further information was available at publish date.

DECA students deck the competition

They did it again! Forty-two students from the Bartlett High School chapter of DECA, An Association of Marketing Students, will be competing at the state level of the annual DECA competition.

Whether it was writing extensive research papers or participating in role plays, students from both Shelby County Schools and Memphis City Schools competed in an all-day competition Jan. 21 at Hope Presbyterian Church.

According to marketing teacher Cathy Bishop, students in her classes have been practicing  and preparing for this event for the past nine weeks.

Students involved in writing the research papers had to choose a topic, conduct elaborate research, and write a paper. On the other hand, students who competed in the business decision making role play categories chose a topic and had to compete impromptu.

“My category was Travel and Tourism. It was one of the most difficult role plays,” senior Kirby Elliott  said. “We [Elliott and senior Josh Bay] had to convince our judge that they need to change their prices of their point systems because of the decrease in ‘our’ loyal customers.”

Although the role play competition was all based on previous knowledge, students who competed in role plays were allowed time to look over their topics and prepare for their questions.

“We went into a room and reviewed our role play for 30 minutes. In that time, we wrote down notes and prepared to talk to the judge,” Elliott said. “We had 7 minutes to present our ideas, and then the judge asked us 5 questions.”

Though the work seems tedious in addition to normal schoolwork, senior Taylor Morton, who competed alongside senior Matt Mitchell, disagrees.

“It was easy. I mean, you had to put time into it, but it was fun,” Morton said. “It’s not like we were forced to do it. We chose to do it. So, it was easy to be motivated. Mrs. Bishop gave us practice packets to look over so we knew what to expect.”

Competing in the sports and entertainment category, Morton and Mitchell were asked questions involving a situation in which “their” NFL team was caught filming another team illegally. After “fans” lost respect for Morton and Mitchell, they had to create a way to “gain their support back.”

“There was another group in the same room with us, and each group had 30 minutes to get our material together,” Morton said. “Whenever we were ready, we presented, but we couldn’t watch other groups prior to us.”

After a long day including a lunch and an awards ceremony, the results were released, and 42 of the 56 students who competed for Bartlett made it to the state level.

The state competition will be held on March 6-8 in Franklin, TN. After competing against schools from across the state, those who won will have the opportunity to compete on a national level in Louisville, KY.

Bishop is confident that the majority of her students will make it to the national level. Last year, five students made it to nationals, but with this year’s group being the largest in Bartlett’s history, the chances are even greater.