DeKalb teacher wins national honor

It all started for Andrea King in Ms. Duby’s fourth-grade classroom in Boston. Ms. Duby, much to her pupil’s delight, chose Andrea to be a “teacher for a day” — leading lessons and otherwise championing students’ work.

“That was it,” King said. “In my heart, I always wanted to be a teacher.”

Vino Wong / vwong@ajc.com

Andrea King, of DeKalb County’s Rock Chapel Elementary School, was named a national teacher of the year by the Milken Family Foundation.

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Now there’s no looking back. The Milken Family Foundation on Tuesday named King a national teacher of the year during a surprise ceremony at DeKalb County’s Rock Chapel Elementary School.

“Athlete’s get gold medals. Entertainers get Oscars and Grammys. [But] educators have the most important job in the whole country,” said Jane Foley, a teacher and past Milken winner who now works for the foundation and flies coast to coast handing out the awards.

The honor brings with it a $25,000 check. The money has no strings attached, so King, a gifted-student teacher at Rock Chapel, can spend it any way she wants.

The award took King by surprise. Tuesday morning, she thought she was attending an academic pep rally to celebrate her students and school, which is located along the southeastern portion of DeKalb. Foley was there, although King didn’t know who she was. So was state schools Superintendent Kathy Cox.

In fact, King got so excited to find out Cox used to teach American government, she tried to sneak out during the ceremony and make copies of a sample ballot — her classes are learning about the American political system and she thought she could pull Cox into her room to talk with her students about it.

No dice. Forty minutes into the ceremony, Foley called King’s name. King, a 15-year teaching veteran, was stunned. She said later that she didn’t do anything different from other good teachers: respect students and make sure they learn.

“Teaching is a noble profession,” King said. “Not everyone is going to be a doctor or a lawyer but you can inspire someone to be a doctor or a lawyer” as a teacher.

The Milken awards, given out since 1987, are considered the Oscars of the teaching world. Two teachers in each state, as well as the District of Columbia, get one each year, although New York and Delaware do not participate.

What makes the process such a surprise is that there’s no formal application process. Instead, names and stories of success get passed along by word of mouth to a committee of educators in each state. That committee then investigates the good work.

DeKalb’s last Milken winner was Kristen Drake, who won the award two years ago as a teacher at Dunwoody’s Vanderlyn Elementary School. DeKalb schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis is also a past winner.