Cherokee Bend's Corgill a top four National Teacher of the Year finalist
Cherokee Bend Elementary teacher Anne Marie Corgill has been named one of the top four finalists for 2015 National Teacher of the Year.
The finalists were announced on Jan. 14. The winner will be named in April and then spend a year traveling the nation to represent educators and advocate on behalf of teachers.
“[Ann Marie] has mastered the best practices of teaching but along with that she is also a teacher who sincerely desires to find out how to help a student learn most effectively,” Mountain Brook Superintendent Dicky Barlow said. “With those strategies and her care and concern for individual students, she deserves all the accolades she is receiving.”
Corgill is Mountain Brook's first ever national Teacher of the Year finalist, and Barlow believes she is the first Alabama teacher of the year.
The other three 2015 national finalists are from Hawaii, Indiana and Texas.
Corgill, a 20-year veteran in education, teaches fourth grade at Cherokee Bend. When she was named Alabama Teacher of the Year last May, she told Village Living she hoped to see standardized testing become deemphasized and multiple means of student growth incorporated in classrooms, among other ideas she wanted to spread as the spokesperson for the state.
“If we are listening and talking with [students], we can learn a whole lot about children,” she said. “I’d like to see more than just tests be a way to track students. I want the public to see there are multiple ways to celebrate success, not always in a test score.”
The National Teacher of the Year is selected by a panel representing 15 renowned education organizations, which collectively represent more than 7 million educators. The President of the United States will recognize the National Teacher of the Year in a White House ceremony this spring.