2008 Wake County Teacher of the Year Finalists
May 9, 2008 – One of 10 finalists will be named the 2008 Wake County Teacher of the Year at a banquet on Thursday, May 15 at the Embassy Suites in Cary.
The WCPSS Teacher of the Year program is sponsored by Wachovia.
The 10 finalists were selected from 20 semi-finalists. These teachers developed portfolios with the following content: professional background; educational history; professional development activities; community involvement; philosophy of teaching; education issues and trends; and letters of support. Ten selection committees reviewed the portfolios and narrowed the field to twenty semifinalists who were then observed in their classrooms by the selection committees. Each selection committee chose one teacher to be among the ten finalists.
The semi-finalists were chosen from the Teacher of the Year named by each school.
The finalists include:
Belinda Best of Conn Elementary
Cynthia Clavijo of West Lake Elementary
Laura Ellen Cochrane of Highcroft Drive Elementary
Taela George-East of Sanderson High
Kimberly Jackson of Project Enlightenment
Danielle McCaslin of Bugg Elementary
Melinda Mouzzon of Knightdale High
Susan Pullium of East Wake School of Health Sciences
Ann Quarles of Powell Elementary
Susan Taylor of Panther Creek High
 Best |
 Clavijo |
 Cochrane |
 George-East |
 Jackson |
 McCaslin |
 Mouzzon |
 Pullium |
 Quarles |
 Taylor |
Here is more information about the 2008 Teacher of the Year finalists:
Belinda Best teaches fourth grade at Conn Active Learning and Technology Magnet Elementary. Best has been teaching at Conn for 11 years and has been a teacher for 14 years. She is the grade level chair and has been a member of the school’s magnet grant writing team, student support team, leadership team and school improvement team. She is a mentor to beginning teachers. She has served as a volunteer tutor in her neighborhood with her school and through the YMCA Back-A-Child program. Through her membership in Delta Sigma Theta, she’s participated in many community service activities. She has also worked through her church with children and youth.
“I feel rewarded every time the bright light of ‘I got it!’ shines through a child’s eyes when they have learned a difficult concept,” said Best. “I feel rewarded when my high achievers say ‘Boy, I sure didn’t know that!’ I feel rewarded when my not-so-motivated children raise their hands to participate in class lessons. I feel rewarded when the end of the day has come and my kids are still engaged in learning, not realizing that it is time to go home.”
College freshman Veronica Hayes says she appreciates the lessons she had in Mrs. Best fourth grade classroom. “Mrs. Best taught me that learning was fun and valuable,” said Hayes. “It was obvious that our classroom was more than a group of students for her. We were her children and she had high expectations of each of us.”
Cynthia Clavijo teaches fourth grade at West Lake Elementary. Clavijo has been teaching for 11.5 years, all at West Lake Elementary. She is grade level chair, Professional Learning Community staff development facilitator, character education committee chair, EnergySavers organizer and was a member of the leadership team and school improvement team. She is a mentor to beginning teachers. She earned National Board certification in 2005. She has been active in her neighborhood helping others, through her church and in her community taking part in a cancer awareness walk, mothers’ support group and her son’s little league team.
“Believing that all children can learn has influenced me to seek out resources to help children that I have been told could not learn,” said Clavijo. “There is no greater reward in teaching than to give that belief in oneself to a child. That is something they will carry with them for a lifetime.”
Teacher Kara Williams-Mitchell is a parent who has had two children who have Clavijo as a teacher. “She ignited, in my children, an intrinsic need to be responsible and to be aware of their surroundings,” said Williams-Mitchell. “My children began reminding me about deadlines. Conversations at the dinner table include interesting topics dealing with current events or acquired information that was discussed in the classroom.”
Laura Cochrane teaches fifth grade at Highcroft Drive Elementary School. Cochrane has taught four years at Highcroft Drive Elementary and has been a teacher for 20 years. She is grade level chair, Professional Learning Community staff development facilitator and has been a leadership team chair, and an Accelerated Learning Program teacher. She is a mentor to beginning teachers. She earned National Board certification in 2001. She has been a longtime front desk volunteer with a non-profit treatment center in Greensboro and has been active at her church.
“The commitment to establishing a positive rapport with each individual student is what allows me to be successful as a teacher,” says Cochrane. “I use a variety of teaching methods to meet the different learning styles of my students as I plan instructional activities. During our unit on government, I used the School House Rock song about the constitution to help my auditory students learn the preamble. For my visual learners, students defined the Bill of Rights through illustration.”
Highcroft Drive principal Jane Ann Hughes says parents literally beg me to place their children in her class. “She inspires students to do their very best,” says Hughes. “Over and over, I have seen children who did not do well in prior years until the child is assigned to Ms. Cochrane who awakens that inner desire to work hard and learn about numerous topics, including things they didn’t even know interested them.”
Taela George-East teaches English at Sanderson High School. George-East has been at Sanderson for 16 years and has been teaching for 17.5 years. George-East has been a professional learning community leader, professional development discussion leader, school improvement team member, peer evaluator and mentor. She has volunteered as a tutor at Chavis Heights Community Center, volunteered in her children’s schools and supported her children’s swim teams and athletic teams.
“I require that all my students work and learn,” said George-East. “I make a conscious effort to ask each of my students all levels of questions on any given day. I have found that this method clearly conveys my confidence and expectations of them. The students who typically contribute to discussion learn that I will not rely solely on them and that I expect them to listen and learn from others. The students who might prefer to think quietly or rest on the comments of others quickly realize that I expect them to learn and to know and that I need their ideas and questions to build class success.”
“In her 16 years at Sanderson, Mrs. George-East has established herself as an innovator, a positive thinker and a master teacher,” said fellow Sanderson teacher Cynthia Crabree. “Her resume reads more than just an English teacher. She is a mentor, a coach and a leader. Mrs. George-East took mentor training several years ago and has been an invaluable component of our Teacher Academy at Sanderson. The high expectations she sets for herself are now passed on to others as they enter the educational field.”
Kimberly Jackson is a teacher at Project Enlightenment. Jackson has been teaching for 10 years, and has been at Project Enlightenment for three years. She serves as a demonstration preschool teacher for the NC Department of Public Instruction. She is a teacher mentor and presenter and trainer of literacy, inquiry-based learning and early childhood best practices. She earned an award this year from the National Science Teachers Association for excellence in inquiry-based science teaching. She volunteers with Building Together Ministries and at an animal hospital and serves on the board of a local education association. She has been an active church member and facilitator for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
“Creating and establishing a caring classroom community is a core component of my teaching philosophy,” said Jackson. “There are four things that are necessary for me to create such a classroom environment: family involvement, modeling behavior that is respectful of all people and materials; allowing students’ curiosities about the natural world to structure and guide the learning; and facilitating learning by providing students with a stimulating classroom environment.”
“Having observed and assessed Kim and taken numerous people to observe her work with young children, I can truly say that she is one of the best teachers I have ever had the opportunity to know,” said Patsy Pierce of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. “Kim motivates and supports each child’s natural curiosity and questions, helps them to create and seek out their own explanations, and guides them into further and more in-depth inquiry. This task is not easy with children who are speaking many languages and who are at various developmental levels. Kim can teach us all.”
Danielle McCaslin is a third-grade teacher at Bugg Elementary. McCaslin has been teaching for five years, all at Bugg. She has been a teacher leader at Bugg planning the school’s math night, serving on the school leadership team, co-facilitator of the school’s math/science committee, coordinating Read Across America week and serving on the school’s PTA Executive Board where she organized a McTeacher Night fundraiser at a local restaurant. She has taken part in the NC State University RAMP-UP math program and has shared with teachers what she learned from attending Harvard University’s Project Zero Institute.
“I believe that children learn best when they are provided opportunities to explore and discover new ideas rather than have them dictated,” said McCaslin. “It is because of this belief that my instruction is very hands-on and kinesthetic. We have sung, danced, acted, written and read various concepts. We have reflected upon what has worked and what has not, and most importantly, we have communicated our dreams and aspirations for one another in order to be sure that we are all working towards the same goal.”
“Ms. McCaslin recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of her students and provides guidance and support for those students who experience difficulty,” said Malcolm and Marsha Pharr, parents of one of her students. “She has made an impression on our son that will probably last a lifetime. She embodies what we want for our child; the desire to achieve.”
Melinda Mouzzon is a math teacher at Knightdale High School. Mouzzon has been teaching for 17 years, all of them in Wake County. She has been a teacher mentor and has taken part in school system High Five, Professional Learning Community and Leadership Seminar activities. She renewed her National Board certification in 2007. She was an advisor at her school’s African-American Female Enrichment Organization, encouraged support of student-athletes and created a student tutorial program at her church.
“My desire for excellence in my own learning is only surpassed by the high standard for learning in my classroom,” said Mouzzon. “I seek different and inventive ways to connect mathematical ideas to the real world while encouraging students to believe they can succeed in mathematics as well. I strive to use technology and to incorporate their interest in other content areas into our learning experiences so students develop an appreciation for a well-rounded, quality education.”
“She is the epitome of commitment and dedication to student success,” said Assistant Superintendent Marvin Connelly who hired Mouzzon as a teacher at Knightdale High. “She is an educator who does not see her efforts as ‘going the extra mile,’ but rather going the needed mile.”
Susan Pullium is a biology teacher at East Wake School of Health Science. Pullium has been teaching for nine years, six at East Wake. She is science department chair, student advisor committee co-advisor, student council co-advisor, teacher mentor and former varsity cheerleading coach. She has earned certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. In 2006, she earned the Claes Noberl Educator of Distinction from the National Society of High School Scholars. Through her work with student council, she has helped students organize Toys for Tots, annual campus blood drives and Pennies for Patients for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She helped students from one class to organize a Women’s Health Fair at the school.
“I believe that teaching is the most wonderful purpose anyone can serve,” said Pulliam. “An outstanding teacher is one that can get out of the way and challenge the kids to discover and explore, rather than listen and memorize.”
“Susan is a caring teacher that expects only the best from her students,” said fellow teacher Leigh Ciancanelli. “She works with all levels of students from teaching a class she developed for all freshmen, all the way up to an AP class. No matter what the class, her expectations are always the same - excellence.”
Ann Quarles is a fourth-grade teacher at Powell Elementary School. Quarles has been teaching for seven years, the last two at Powell. She is a Teach for America alumna and has worked as a graduate teaching assistant and university supervisor at the University of Texas-Austin. She is active at her church, plays with the Raleigh Area Flute Association choir and volunteers with Urban Ministries.
“Students must see themselves as learners and believe that they can learn,” said Quarles. “I believe that each child in my classroom possesses his or her own unique set of gifts and talents. It is my job to help each child build on his or her strengths to become self-directed, successful learners.”
“In observing Ann at work in her classroom, one will quickly recognize that she has an extensive knowledge base of current educational research and practice,” said her principal Jimmy Sposato. “She engages the children in explicit, focused and differentiated instruction that is both engaging and challenging. Ann exhibits best practice instructional strategies and a clarity of instructional purpose. Her room is covered with charts that provide a record of student learning.”
Susan Taylor teaches Civics and Economics at Panther Creek High School. Taylor has been a teacher for 12 years, helping to open the new Panther Creek High two years ago. She was named a Kenan Fellow by NC State University in 2006 and was the first teacher to receive the State Economic Educator of the Year Award in 2005. She has worked with the NC Department of Public Instruction to co-write personal financial literacy curriculum documents and serve as an item reviewer for the Civics and Economics EOC Exam. She’s also co-wrote curriculum and pacing guides for WCPSS. She earned National Board certification in 2000. She is involved in fundraising activities in the community through her participation in the Gamma Eta Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. With her family, she takes part in 5K and 10K races that raise awareness and financial contributions for different causes.
“My teaching philosophy centers around four basic ideas: every child deserves a quality education, students should be active learners, continuous professional development and improvement is a must and teachers are also school leaders,” said Taylor. “Every student, regardless of background, deserves a high a quality education and my daily professional goal is to deliver and facilitate meaningful, relevant lessons that engage students. I challenge myself to create high quality class activities and assignments that engage students, while also providing opportunities for them to develop a deeper understanding of their civic role in society.”
“Susan has established herself as a respected leader on our campus,” said her principal Rodney Nelson. “Her influence is empowered by her energy, enthusiasm, experience, brightness, professionalism, passion and pride. She is a woman of presence. Students, staff, administrators and parents only have to meet her or observe her to know that she is committed to excellence.”
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