Today, I made surprise visits to personally honor and congratulate the district's 2012 Teachers of the Year for high school, middle school and elementary school.
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| Ms. Graham of Cowan Elementary accepts flowers and my congratulations. |
I started the day at Cowan Elementary to congratulate Tracy Graham, or the "Jewel in the Cowan Crown," as Principal April Glenn calls her. Ms. Graham is a graduate of our school system, and says she was inspired to become an educator by some of the teachers she had at AISD. If the photo below is any evidence, there may be some future teachers among Ms. Graham's adoring second graders.
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| See if you can spot our Elementary Teacher of the Year -- she's in there somewhere! |
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| Ms. Graham's second grade class with their serious faces. |
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| Ms. Graham's second grade class -- with funny faces! |
Next stop was Webb Middle School, where I paid an unannounced visit to Alicia Brown-Forbes, who teaches English as a second language to students in grades six, seven and eight. Ms. Brown, as her students call her, caught the teaching bug at an early age when she presided over a classroom of toys and, later, siblings. I was very impressed with her students, pictured below, who correctly answered nearly every question on a true-false quiz about their Teacher of the Year.
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| Ms. Brown's ESL students speak many languages, but they all say she's the greatest! |
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| Ms. Brown enjoys her moment in the spotlight, with Principal Reynaldo Garcia and me. |
My final visit of the day took me to Anderson High, where I met
social studies teacher Matt Earhart. In his five years at Anderson, Mr.
Earhart has presided over the dramatic expansion of the Advancement via
Individual Determination (AVID) program, which he coordinates. The program has grown from 20 students in 2007 to 178 students this year. As the
first member of his family to attend college, Mr. Earhart takes great
pride in advocating for students who come from underprivileged
backgrounds.
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| Mr. Earhart's AVID class prepares students for college. |
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| Anderson Principal Donna Houser joins me in congratulating Mr. Earhart. |
It was a pleasure to meet and personally
congratulate these three exceptional educators, one of whom will be
named Austin Teacher of the Year on May 23 at
Salute, and will serve as the
district’s nominee for Texas Teacher of the Year. The three finalists represent the exemplary teaching that goes on every day across the district, and I was thrilled to see firsthand the dedication they bring to their classrooms.
