Florence produces state Teacher of the Year

Ellen Meder of the Florence Morning News delivers the winner:

A Pee Dee teacher took the state’s top honor for a South Carolina educator Tuesday night.

Amy McAllister-Skinner won South Carolina’s Teacher of the Year award, which was selected by the S.C. Department of Education and presented by South Carolina Future Minds. She teaches 11th grade English at Johnsonville High School, and with only five years in the classroom under her belt, the Francis Marion University graduate is already making a mark on her students in a big way.

At a large gala in Columbia, Education Superintendent Mick Zais presented a surprised McAllister-Skinner with the award.

“At first I thought he was kidding, but then I figured that was probably not part of the plan,” McAllister-Skinner said with a signature giggle after the awards ceremony.

As part of the award, she’ll get to drive a new BMW for the next year on top of receiving $25,000. She’ll travel around the state advocating for public education, which she said she’s honored to do but that it’s still bittersweet because she’ll deeply miss her students.

When McAllister-Skinner returns to the classroom, she’ll also get a smart technologies package to integrate into her classroom, which particularly suits her because she’s known for integrating technology, like blogging or filmmaking into her lesson plans. She even Tweeted her students as soon as she won the award, with a picture of the keys that read “We got a BMW!”

She said she’ll spend the next year refuting the bad reputation South Carolina education occasionally gets, saying it’s improving all the time. She also wants to highlight and encourage the many innovative ideas Palmetto State teachers are bringing to their classrooms.

She said she was honored and humbled to get the award and said many others are just as deserving. When pressed she said it was her hands-on approach to getting involved in students’ lives as well as learning that likely set her apart.

“I care about my kids as more than just a student in my classroom, and so I’m constantly at ballgames and at all different types of things that touch their lives because I want them to know they’re not just test scores to me, they’re actual people that I want to build lasting relationships with,” McAllister-Skinner said.

By the end of the month McAllister-Skinner will also finish her master’s degree from Coastal Carolina University.

Bojangles donates books to honor Upstate teachers

First, congratulations to those teachers who have been selected as Teachers of the Year by their peers in those schools where that is the process.

Second, congratulations to Bojangles for recognizing the value of great teaching and for its donation of books to the honored teachers.

This note in today's Spartanburg Herald-Journal identifies that county's teachers of the year and gives credit to Bojangles for its participation:

Recently Bojangles' presented hundreds of books to local District Teachers of the Year. This donation event was one of 16 planned for this year, and is part of Bojangles' ongoing partnership with South Carolina Future Minds, which is designed to support teachers across the state who make a positive impact on their students and the future of South Carolina through their commitment to education.

Teachers honored at the event included: South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind (SCSDB) Teacher of the Year Carrie Ramella works with ninth through 12th graders in the deaf high school on speechlanguage therapy. She has an undergraduate degree from Columbia College and earned her Masters of Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of South Carolina.

Spartanburg School District One Teacher of the Year Laura Dickson teaches physical education at O.P. Earle Elementary School in Landrum and says that the rising epidemic of obesity in our children motivated her to become a P.E. teacher. It is Dickson's hope that their experience in elementary P.E. will lead to a lifetime of health and wellness.

Spartanburg School District Two Teacher of the Year Patricia Hardee is employed at Boiling Springs Elementary School, where she teaches third grade. Hardee believes that, as a teacher, she has the power to transform lives, encourage, teach and love children for the majority of their day. She finds this to be an awesome responsibility and one that she takes great pride in.

Spartanburg School District Three Teacher of the Year Veronica Carroll tries to inspire her fifth grade math students at Cowpens Elementary School by creating an exciting classroom. She works to create a love of math for her students through the use of music, rap and hands-on activities. Carroll loves when she is able to teach a student something they thought they could not do or that was confusing to them at first.

Spartanburg School District Four Teacher of the Year Tina Harrell is the library media specialist at Woodruff Middle School where she believes the best part of her job is learning alongside her students.

Spartanburg School District Five Teacher of the Year Christy Emerson believes that building a strong literary foundation for her first grade students at River Ridge Elementary School will help them succeed in other areas of academic instruction. She considers her ability to create an environment where children love learning as one of her greatest accomplishments. Emerson refers to her first grade students as “Super Kids” and strives to help them become the best they can be.

Spartanburg School District Seven Teacher of the Year Nancy Crowe teaches adapted physical education at McCarthy Teszler School in Spartanburg and enjoys inspiring her awesome and unique students to turn their disabilities into abilities.

“Bojangles' is proud to continue its support of education in the Palmetto State,” said Bojangles' President and CEO Randy Kibler. “Partnering with South Carolina Future Minds and the Teacher of the Year program for the third consecutive year gives us the opportunity to thank South Carolina's outstanding teachers for their dedication to the nearly 700,000 students currently enrolled in the public education system.” This year Bojangles' will be donating nearly 3,000 books in honor of District Teachers of the Year.