Wicomico County Taking Nominations for Teacher of the Year
Celebrate a great teacher with a nomination for Wicomico Teacher of the Year! Nominations will be taken Oct. 4 through Nov. 4 for 2022-2023 Wicomico Teacher of the Year. Anyone in the community may seek recognition for an educator quickly and easily using the online nomination form by clicking on this TOY Nomination Form.
The Wicomico Teacher of the Year Program provides students, parents, colleagues, and others in the community the opportunity to nominate, celebrate and honor top educators from around the school system. Outstanding teachers may be nominated in each Wicomico school as well as in Wicomico’s special programs (Birth to Five program, English Language Support Center and Choices Academy). The online nomination form is available in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Paper forms in each language are available on request by contacting a school office.
This year, each school’s top three nominees will attend the Wicomico Teacher of the Year Kickoff Celebration on Dec. 2, with the Teacher of the Year semifinalist for each school announced that night. The semifinalists will participate in the Fishbowl public speaking event in January, and will interview with a blue-ribbon judging panel in February. An event to name the four finalists and the 2022-2023 Wicomico Teacher of the Year will be held in the spring.
“We have so many wonderful teachers in Wicomico Schools, and once again this school year they are doing an amazing job in the classroom for their students and families,” said Dr. Donna C. Hanlin, Superintendent of Schools and herself a former Wicomico Teacher of the Year. (She was the 1987-1988 Middle School Teacher of the Year, before Wicomico began naming a single top teacher.) “The annual Wicomico Teacher of the Year Recognition Program is an excellent opportunity for anyone to give thanks and appreciation to a great teacher with a nomination.”
Wicomico Teachers of the Year model teaching excellence, and include finalists and winners at the state level. Current Wicomico Teacher of the Year Dustin Thomas, a Physical Education, Health and World Music teacher at Prince Street Elementary, is a finalist for Maryland Teacher of the Year. The Virtual Maryland Teacher of the Year Gala will air at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7 on channel MPT2 or can be seen on mpt.org/TOY . Good Luck to Mr. Thomas!
Hemalatha Bhaskaran, then an environmental science teacher at James M. Bennett High and now Wicomico’s Supervisor of Science, was a finalist for Maryland Teacher of the Year in 2020. Wicomico is proud to have on its staff three Maryland Teachers of the Year: Bonnie Walston (1994), then a resource teacher at Parkside High School and now the Director of Special Education; Aaron Deal (2004)l, then a computer education teacher at Salisbury Middle and now the Supervisor of New Teacher Induction and Educational Technology; and April Todd, who was named both Somerset and Maryland Teacher of the Year and is now a middle school Thinking and Doing (TAD) teacher for Wicomico Schools.
Also, take some time to watch this video of our Wicomico County Public Schools State Teacher of the Year Finalist for 2021, Mr. Dustin Thomas and all of our Teacher of the Year Semifinalists! Here is the link:Â Wicomico County Public Schools State Teacher of the Year Finalist 2021 – YouTube
