Alabaster honors Teachers of the Year
Published 2:33 pm Thursday, January 15, 2015
By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor
ALABASTER – Two Alabaster teachers will move on to the statewide Teacher of the Year competition and one will enter the Jacksonville State University Teaching Hall of Fame after they were among six named Teachers of the Year in the city school system.
Alabaster Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers honored the Alabaster City School System’s six teachers of the year during a Jan. 12 Board of Education meeting, thanking them for their service to the city’s children.
Meadow View Elementary School first-grade teachers Linda Hogue, Creek View Elementary School physical education teacher Catherine Mohon, Thompson Sixth Grade Center English and advanced math teacher Daniel Farris, Thompson Intermediate School fifth-grade teacher JoEllen Blackmon, Thompson Middle School English language arts teacher Melanie Tingle and Thompson High School English teacher Beth House were all named Teachers of the Year at their respective schools.
During the Jan. 12 School Board meeting, the six teachers each were awarded $100 to help purchase class supplies.
After they were named Teachers of the Year at their schools, two teachers were eligible to move on to the Alabama Department of Education’s statewide Teacher of the Year contest.
Hogue will move on to compete in the elementary division of the state’s contest and House will compete in the secondary division. Tingle also was named to the Jeff State Teaching Hall of Fame, and all three teachers received an additional $500 classroom stipend for their classrooms.
“We’ve got some great teachers,” Vickers said. “It doesn’t matter the trends in society. When the bell rings, it’s up to the teachers to make a difference. Our teachers truly make a difference.”