|
Click here to download the complete list of Cobb School
Teachers of the Year
The Cobb County School District has
continued its annual tradition of recognizing a Teacher of the
Year for each academic level. Congratulations to Mr. Paul
DeVigne of Shallowford Falls Elementary, Ms. Jennifer
Dawson of Lost Mountain Middle, and Mrs. Denease
McCullough of Harrison High, the 2006-2007 Cobb County
Teachers of the Year. One of these three will be named
district-level Teacher of the Year in the coming weeks.
Elementary honoree Paul DeVigne started at
Shallowford Falls in 1997 and has remained at the school for
all nine years of his teaching career. A graduate of Auburn
and Georgia State universities, DeVigne approaches his second
grade classrooms with a simple maxim: “Children will learn
while having fun.” Aiming for kids’ imaginations, he develops
lessons that are applicable to second graders’ learning styles
and meet the District’s curriculum standards. DeVigne is
actively involved in his school’s committees, runs an
after-school soccer club, co-sponsors the Drama Club, and
works with Pope High School’s teacher apprentice program.
Jennifer Dawson of Lost Mountain Middle
School began teaching sixth grade Social Studies and Language
Arts at the school in 2000. Dawson says that teaching “found
her,” and began growing her passion for the profession while
working as a youth minister with children of Hmong refugees.
Dawson worked to obtain certification while teaching at Lost
Mountain under the Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation
Program. She feels that her uncommon path to the classroom has
made her “the antithesis of traditional” when it comes to her
teaching style. Dawson focuses on finding ways to make Social
Studies applicable to middle school students, whether the
subject is civics or geography.
Dawson attended undergraduate studies at
Mercer University, earned a Master’s degree from the Candler
School of Theology at Emory University in 1999, and attained
her teaching certification through Mercer in 2004. She serves
as Relay for Life team captain at Lost Mountain and is sponsor
of the Helping Hands community service club.
Veteran teacher Denease McCullough has
spent the better part of two decades teaching art. After five
years in Douglas County Schools, McCullough returned to her
alma mater, Osborne High School, from 1993-1996 before joining
the Harrison High staff for the 1996-1997 school year. The
daughter of two Cobb teachers, Roy and Shirley Norman,
McCullough’s interest in art instruction began during her
years as a student at Osborne. “The look I see on a child’s
face in the act of creation is beautiful,” says McCullough. “I
cannot imagine the world without the arts, and I cannot
understand why the fine arts are sometimes viewed as
‘finishing touches’ that we can live without.”
Denease McCollough is a three-time graduate
of the State University of West Georgia, with a 1988
bachelor’s degree in Art Education, a 1994 Master’s in
Education and a 2005 specialist degree in Media/Technology.
She is an active member of the Georgia Association of Art
Educators and the Phi Delta Kappa professional association.
She organized Harrison’s first annual Community Service Day in
April 2006 and works with various charities throughout the
year. McCollough is also active in Fair Oaks United Methodist
Church in Smyrna.
The Cobb County School District began
recognizing Teachers of the Year for all three levels in 2004,
providing an opportunity to recognize more than one
outstanding educator and allowing the honorees to showcase the
unique talents and skills needed at each academic level.
The teaching staffs at each school select
their own Teacher of the Year who is, in turn, nominated for
the district-wide honor. Each application is read and rated
independently by a committee of administrators. The
highest-rated applicants from elementary, middle, and high
schools become the Teachers of the Year.
The District Teacher of the Year is chosen
from among the three finalists following a comprehensive
interview process. The district Teacher of the Year will be
announced at a surprise ceremony in the coming weeks.
|
