Teacher of the Year 2021-2022

For the Burke County Public Schools District, District Teacher of the Year is not a competition to choose the school district's best teacher. It is only intended to recognize a teacher who demonstrates the qualities all educators admire and exhibits the qualities of the district’s belief statements,  Build positive relationships, foster Unwavering perseverance, prepare students to be Ready for life after high school, put Kids first, and provide an Engaging learning environment and opportunities. The finalist represents all of the outstanding teachers who are part of the BCPS family.

Each year, we honor those teachers who stand out and lead the way for other excellent educators to Make BURKE Work. Through contributions from our valued Partners in Education, each year we are able to shower all of our Teachers of the Year and their families with a pre-game reception and amazing rewards for going above and beyond the call for excellence. It is during this game’s half-time show we announce the District’s Teacher of the Year.

The process all begins in the classroom and the selection of a teacher representative from each of our five schools.  The five school-level Teachers of the Year complete an online application based on the Georgia State Teacher of the Year competition, which is scored by a panel of judges.  The applications are anonymous so that there is no opportunity for bias. The judges score the applications on a 100 point scale. 

As the new school year begins, the panel of judges, who are educators themselves from outside our school district, participate in a 30-minute classroom observation, followed by a 20-minute interview with each teacher.  All observations are done on the same day. Afterward, the three judges decide who the top candidate is based on what they saw in the classroom and heard in the interview.

After the winner is announced at the football game, he/she has until December to tweak the application to be entered in the competition for Georgia's State Teacher of the Year, which is announced in the Spring.