November 23, 2015
Current and Former North Carolina Teachers of the Year Meet in Greenville
On Saturday, November 14th, thirteen current and former state and regional North Carolina Teachers of the Year met at the College of Education at East Carolina University to discuss teacher leadership, development, and recruitment at the quarterly meeting of the newly founded North Carolina chapter of the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NC-NNSTOY). The NC-NNSTOY chapter is a service organization that was chartered in 2014-2015 and is spending this year planning activities to promote education as a profession across North Carolina. The purpose of the organization is to “advance the teaching profession and advocate for public education to ensure the best educational opportunities for all North Carolina students.” The group is currently working its platform for encouraging more individuals to consider teaching as a profession as well as avenues for supporting current educational professionals.
As a part of the members visit to Greenville, the current N.C. Teacher of the Year team engaged with 5th grade students in Jami Dickerson’s classroom at Eastern Elementary as well as visited Pactolus Elementary where they were hosted by Steve Lassiter, the current North Carolina Principal of the Year.
The NC-NNSTOY chapter looks forward to growing its membership and to taking a leading role in shaping educational policy, advocating for education, as well as sharing professional expertise within the field of education. For more information about the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, visit this website: http://www.nnstoy.org/
In attendance were teacher leaders from across the state including:
- Diana Beasley, 2006-2007 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
- *James Bell, 2007-2008 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
- Jennifer Bell, 2010-2011 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
- *Laura Bilbro-Berry, 2000-2001 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
- *Jami Dickerson, 2015-2016 Region 1 Teacher of the Year
- Allison Ormond, 2003-2004 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
- Ruth Ann Parker, 2008-2009 Region 2 Teacher of the Year
- Malinda Pennington, 2012-2013 Region 3 Teacher of the Year
- Cindi Rigsbee, 2008-2009 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
- Sonya Rinehart, 2008-2009 Region 1 Teacher of the Year
- Mariel Barker Sellers, 2015-2016 Region 4 Teacher of the Year
- Keana Triplett, 2015-2016 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
- Jennifer Whitley, 2015-2016 Region 6 Teacher of the Year
*ECU College of Education Alumni