Celebrate a great teacher with a nomination for Wicomico Teacher of the Year! Nominations will be taken through Dec. 14 for 2019-2020 Wicomico Teacher of the Year. Anyone in the community may seek recognition for an educator quickly and easily at Celebrate a great teacher with a nomination for Wicomico Teacher of the Year! Nominations will be taken through Dec. 14 for 2019-2020 Wicomico Teacher of the Year. Anyone in the community may seek recognition for an educator quickly and easily at https://tinyurl.com/TOYWCBOE2019. The form is accessible on mobile devices, too.
“We are fortunate to have many wonderful teachers in Wicomico Schools, including our 2018-2019 Wicomico Teacher of the year Lisa McKinnon of Parkside High, many past Wicomico Teachers of the Year, and three Maryland Teachers of the Year. We are truly dedicated to excellence in education for all Wicomico students,” said Dr. Donna C. Hanlin, Superintendent of Schools and herself a former Wicomico Teacher of the Year. (She was the 1987-1988 Middle School Teacher of the Year, before Wicomico began naming a single top teacher.) “As we focus on the key goal of recruiting and retaining a high-performing workforce for Wicomico Schools, the teachers highlighted through the Teacher of the Year recognition program serve as shining examples of our great educators.”
Nominations will be accepted through Dec. 14, and most nominations will be made online. Paper forms will be available for those who prefer to submit a nomination that way. Check with a school or the Wicomico Schools main office at 2424 Northgate Drive in Salisbury. For more information, please contact Teacher of the Year Coordinator Laura Bounds, 410-677-5287 or lbounds@wcboe.org.
The Wicomico Teacher of the Year Recognition Program annually receives nominations from parents, students, the community and colleagues to recognize outstanding teachers in each Wicomico school. Teachers must be current tenured teachers in Wicomico Schools who have taught full time in Maryland for at least five complete years to be eligible for recognition as semifinalists or Teacher of the Year, but nominations will be accepted for any Wicomico teacher.
Wicomico Teachers of the Year model teaching excellence, and include past finalists and winners at the state level. Wicomico is proud to have on its staff three Maryland Teachers of the Year: Bonnie Walston (1994), then a resource teacher at Parkside High School and now the Director of Special Education; Aaron Deal (2004)l, then a computer education teacher at Salisbury Middle School and now the Central Office Technology Trainer; and April Todd, who was named both Somerset and Maryland Teacher of the Year and is now a middle school Thinking and Doing (TAD) teacher for Wicomico Schools.
From among all eligible nominees for each school, a semifinalist will be selected to represent the school. Semifinalists for Wicomico Teacher of the Year will be challenged in a public speaking exercise called the Fishbowl, and they will later be interviewed by a blue ribbon panel of judges. On March 28 during the Teacher of the Year Banquet at The Fountains in Salisbury, semifinalists and many other nominees will be celebrated. The finalists at the primary, intermediate, middle and high school levels will be named, and the 2019-2020 Wicomico Teacher of the Year will be announced.
