Among the 16 winners named Tuesday as the 2010-11 Los Angeles County Teachers of the Year, representing the profession’s “best of the best” in the state’s largest honors competition for K-12 educators, was Long Beach resident Nicole Jackson, who teaches kindergarten at MacArthur Elementary School.
At a morning hotel ceremony, the teachers’ names were announced by Los Angeles County Interim Superintendent of Schools Jon R. Gundry as outstanding educators who have been serving with praiseworthy distinction. Judged as the county’s top public school teachers for this academic year, they will serve as standard-bearers for the teaching profession and their 80,000 classroom colleagues countywide.
The winning educators, composed of 10 women and 6 men, teach a range of grades and subjects at a diversity of school locales, including Arcadia, Baldwin Park, Canoga Park, Culver City, Downey, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Paramount and Pasadena.
The entire field of 81 teachers who participated in the LA County competition had all been recently selected as teachers of the year by their respective school districts.
The LA County Teachers of the Year Program, presented by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, is the largest local competition in the state and nation, and is part of the oldest and most prestigious honors contest in the US for public school teachers. The number of winners is determined by program rules based on the total number of school teachers (80,000) in LA County. In addition to being interviewed, contestants submitted essays, lesson plans and other materials to judging panels consisting of peers.
“These hard-working teachers have been judged by their colleagues as exemplifying the very best in this wonderful profession of public education. Every day in the classroom they make the most of a precious opportunity— to make a positive difference in the lives of their students,” said Gundry about the group of 16, each of whom received a $1,000 cash prize courtesy of the California Credit Union, the program’s main sponsor. They all automatically advance with other county titlists from around the state to the California Teachers of the Year competition this fall. The state is scheduled to announce its five co-winners in November, but only one of those state co-winners will be chosen to represent California in the National Teacher of the Year contest next spring.
