The 2019 Teacher of the Year in Muscogee County will be one of these 10 semifinalists
The 2019 Teacher of the Year in the Muscogee County School District will be one of these 10 semifinalists:
Storie Atkins, Columbus High School, math, grades 9-12.
Kunicko Byrd, Carver High School, geometry and Advanced Placement statistics, grades 10-11.
Danielle Cooper, Aaron Cohn Middle School, math, eighth grade.
Katherine Culverson, Arnold Magnet Academy, math, grades 6-7.
Shalon Gillespie, Blackmon Road Middle School, math, grades 7-8.
Dacia Irvin, Baker Middle School, math, sixth grade.
Steven Ring, Mathews Elementary School, math and social studies, fifth grade.
Kelly Roberts, St. Elmo Center for the Gifted, problem solving (all core subjects), grades 4-5.
Olivia Salgado, Eagle Ridge Academy, English language arts and social studies, fourth grade.
Natalie Teasley, Northside High School, chemistry and physics, grades 9-12.
The Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation, which conducts MCSD’s Teacher of the Year program, announced the semifinalists Friday. They were selected among the applications from the 57 nominees, one from each MCSD school.
Retired educator Tom Hackett, formerly Columbus State University provost and superintendent of Phenix City Schools, is chairman of this year’s selection committee.
“The amazing thing to all of us is the caliber of the teachers and their technical expertise and the amount of work they put in to try to improve student performance,” Hackett told the Ledger-Enquirer in a phone interview. “The 10 (semifinalists) represent Muscogee County in a positive light in the mission they’re performing. But we had to go several rounds before we could come up with the 10.”
Asked for the qualities that make the semifinalists stand out, Hackett mentioned three:
▪ “A strong, student-centered focus, particularly as it relates to how to improve student performance,” he said. “That has become more and more of a focus in school districts and in Muscogee County in a very intentional way that analyzes data to determine where students are and how to improve their performance.”
▪ “Assessing students as individuals, seeing their capabilities, their potential and the things they need to work on,” he said.
▪ “Buildings relationships,” he said. “Teaching is ultimately about relationships with students. You can have all the technical expertise in the world, but if you don’t have those relationships, the expertise won’t mean a thing.”
All but one of the 10 semifinalists teaches math or science.
“It’s just happenstance,” Hackett said. “… The committee was focused on what the teachers were doing, not the subject matter they were teaching.”
Nonetheless, he added, “I think it’s really exciting that all these creative and innovative teaching techniques and the emphasis on student performance is taking place in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). It sure says a lot about our community.”
The committee will interview the semifinalists and choose three finalists to observe teaching before announcing the winner during the April 25 gala in the Columbus Convention & Trade Center.
Other committee members are: Scott Allen, senior principal and partner of the 2WR architecture firm; Spencer Garrard, lecturer in CSU’s College of Education and Health Professions; Geniece Granville, vice president of Davis Broadcasting; Sheryl Green, the 2015 MCSD Teacher of the Year from Jordan Vocational High School, now an MCSD teacher quality specialist; Shane Larkin, the 2017 MCSD Teacher of the Year from Early College Academy; Stefan Lawrence, the 2016 MCSD Teacher of the Year from Carver High School and now assistant principal at Aaron Cohn Middle School; Marquette McKnight, CEO of Media, Marketing and More and executive director of MEEF; and Jimmy Yancey, retired chairman of Synovus Financial Corp.
MEEF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering educational excellence by focusing on teachers who are innovative and exceptionally effective in their profession. In its 23-year history, the foundation has awarded more than $2.3 million to such educators through financial incentives in the Teacher of the Year program, the Harvard Fellows program, the MEEF Grant program and the MEEF Endowment Fund.
As a Teacher of the Year semifinalist, these 10 teachers are eligible to apply to be one of MEEF’s Harvard Fellows, which provides them a trip to Harvard University for professional development.
IF YOU GO
What: Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation annual gala, where the Muscogee County School District 2018 Teacher of the Year nominees will be honored and the winner will be announced.
When: April 25; reception starts at 6 p.m., dinner at 6:45 p.m.
Where: Columbus Convention & Trade Center, 801 Front Ave.
Tickets: $50; on sale March 22 at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts box office, 900 Broadway.
Info: Media, Marketing and More, 706-660-9702.
Mark Rice, 706-576-6272, @MarkRiceLE.
This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 12:35 PM.
