It was a thrill, Amanda Miliner said, to be named Miss Georgia in 2006, just as it was to be named Miss Georgia USA two years later.
Those awards led to international travel and television commercial shoots. But Miliner, a fourth-grade teacher in Houston County who was named the 2015 Georgia Teacher of the Year on Friday afternoon, said something was missing amidst the travel and the glamour.
“I’d ask myself, ‘What’s my purpose?’ ” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution not long after receiving her reward. “Was my purpose to smile?”
Miliner, who teaches at Miller Elementary, said she’d get clues about her future during trips to the grocery store. Every product seemed to speak to her.
“I would go the grocery story and see things that would be perfect for a class,” she said. “Plastic eggs? That would be great for a grammar activity!”
Miliner, the daughter and stepdaughter of military members and the first in her family to go to college, decided teaching was for her. And those who know her say she’s poured every ounce of herself into the job.
“Passion is what drives her,” said her husband, Kellen Miliner. “She works so hard. A lot of the time, she’s at school ‘til 7 o’clock at night.”
As Georgia’s teacher of the year, Miliner will take a one-year sabbatical from her teaching duties. She’ll travel the state as a sort of ambassador for educators.
She has won an assortment of gifts, including $5,000 from the Georgia Foundation for Public Education and $2,500 from the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.
Miliner, chosen from among a group of 10 finalists, will be Georgia’s entrant into the National Teacher of the Year competition, whose winner will be announced next year by the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Teachers of the year from school districts across the state were feted at a luncheon at the Georgia International Convention Center.
After the luncheon, Georgia Superintendent John Barge officially announced the finalists and then the winner.
Barge’s announcement included a description that led Miliner to believe she would be chosen, but she said it still seemed like it shouldn’t really be her.
“I am, by far, not the best teacher,” she told her fellow teachers. “I am, by far, not the best speaker. But I was clearly chosen for a reason.”
Houston County Schools Superintendent Robin Hines said Miliner’s selection is a validation of the dedicated approach she and her colleagues in the district have adopted.
Miliner works as a host teacher for a math early intervention program. For several years, her class has had a 100 percent pass rate on the math portion of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
“She knows what every kid is doing, even if it’s something different,” he said. “She’s just a great teacher. She has the heart for it.”
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