At the annual Teacher of the Year recognition program on Thursday, Tammy Lewis was named the Seminole County 2012 Teacher of the Year, to serve during the 2011-2012 school year.
Ms. Lewis, now in her 16th year of teaching, is a fourth grade teacher at Midway Elementary School of the Arts in Sanford. Prior to her hiring at Midway in 2007, Ms. Lewis was an aide at an elementary school in Orlando, a teacher at Buena Vista Academy in Windermere and she also worked as a home school educator and tutor. Ms. Lewis is a graduate of Rollins College in Winter Park, where she earned a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Elementary Education.
“Every classroom has its own language – a series of phrases and expressions that are unique to the way that particular teacher interacts with his/her students.” So states a fellow teacher: “In Ms. Lewis’s classroom, you might hear ‘Get the Goof’ as an opener to a math lesson, for example. In the classroom language of Ms. Tammy Lewis, it is often true that what isn’t said is as powerful as what is said. In the silent, unspoken language of her classroom, students are communicating on a daily basis respect, value, honor, nobility of academic pursuits, dedication, truth and confidence.” Another educator shared this praise: “Tammy Lewis is ‘a cut above’ other teachers. Tammy is truly a ‘mover and shaker’ in the education community and serves as a shining example of what is right in our schools … a great teacher creating great results in the form of well educated citizens.”
During the recognition program 64 teachers were individually honored, escorted on stage by an administrator from their school or site, then they walked through an ‘honor receiving line,’ in which they were greeted by Superintendent Bill Vogel, all five School Board members, Foundation Chairman Henry Cooper, and the immediate past 2011 Teacher of the Year for Seminole County, Bradford Barsalou from Crooms AOIT.
Other Finalists recognized during the ceremony were Lynwood DeBrew (Mathematics) from the Rosenwald School and Marc Drucker (English/Language Arts) from Seminole High. Rounding out the twelve original Semifinalists were: Leslie Joyner-Cunningham (Alternative Education, Exceptional Student Education) – Alternative Placement; Melissa Brown (Kindergarten) – Bentley Elementary; Melissa Speakman (5th Grade) – Casselberry Elementary; Martha Lewis (4th Grade) – Crystal Lake Elementary; Janice Daniels (Business Education, Exceptional Student Education) – Lake Brantley High; April McManus (Pre-Engineering) – Milwee Middle; Felicia Naidu (ESE Language Arts) – Sanford Middle; Chimere Turner (3rd Grade) – Wekiva Elementary; and Kathryn Dixon (English) – Winter Springs High.
