An elementary school teacher who works in different ways to improve academic performance for students was honored Tuesday night as Gwinnett County’s Teacher of the Year.
Brookwood Elementary School’s Sharon Smith was selected among the more than 10,000 teachers in Georgia’s largest school district. Smith is a gifted language arts teacher, a literacy coach and is an early intervention program teacher at the school.
Smith, who has taught at Brookwood since 2008, said “I encourage my students to always ask ‘why,’ to evaluate ideas, to consider multiple perspectives, and to develop their own thinking in order to comprehend on a higher level.”
Every Friday, she and her students participate in a “weekly recap” in order to discuss what they have learned throughout the week. The students then decide what of that information they want to share with their parents, writing them a letter in their Home/School Journal.
As Gwinnett County’s Teacher of the Year, Smith will now compete for the Georgia title. She will get to drive a new Jeep Cherokee for one year, receive a new laptop computer and gets an annual award of $1,000 for as long as she is employed with the school district.
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