Published Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Elm Street's Winstead 2008 Teacher of Year
The Times-Herald
Carly Winstead, a second grade teacher at Elm Street Elementary School, was selected as 2008 Coweta County Schools Teacher of the Year at Monday night's reception.
"She was born to be a teacher," said Allison Davis, Winstead's mother.
Davis -- who held Winstead's silver platter award and flowers after the announcement -- blotted away tears as she watched her 25-year-old daughter accept the TOTY award on stage from the Coweta County Board of Education and Superintendent Blake Bass.
Winstead applauded her students, fellow teachers and the school system for giving her the honor, reserving the humorous and equally endearing comments for her family who occupied two rows in the auditorium of the school system's Central Office on Werz Industrial Drive.
The family included two sets of grandparents; her parents who are both educators; her sister, a special education teacher at Thomas Crossroads Elementary; her two brothers, all her aunts and uncles and several others, Davis said.
Winstead, who was told of the award Wednesday night... shared with the approximate 200 administrators, teachers and family members that she had to keep the award a secret from her family although Dean Jackson, the public information officer, told her she could share the news with them.
"Dean, if you don't want anyone to know, you better keep it a secret from my family," she said.
She finally told her mother Thursday.
Winstead was chosen from among 29 entries, one submitted from each of the county's public schools. The 29 entries were pared down to three finalists.
Besides Winstead, the other finalists were Janey Allen, a 30-year veteran educator and kindergarten teacher at Poplar Road Elementary and Amy Benton, a science teacher and cheerleading coach at Newnan High School.
Each finalist was introduced and commended by the principal of their school.
Joining Allen was Principal Rebecca Gibson who lauded Allen for Jumpstart, a collaborative program for at risk and special needs students. The program's success is being closely watched by the state for use as a model, Gibson said.
Joining Benton was Newnan High School Principal Doug Moore who commended Benton for getting students involved in extracurricular and community activities such as the successful annual Can-a-Thon.
The county's top teacher was selected by an independent panel of three judges who were teachers from outside the school system who interviewed the three finalists separately at their schools and in their classrooms.
The day that the judges came to interview Winstead, she had on baseball pants and a home-made Brooklyn Dodgers shirt because she had promised her second grade students that day that she was going to dress up like Jackie Robinson, a baseball player who was credited with breaking the color barrier in major league baseball. These fun and interesting quirks appear to be signature Winstead.
Winstead has taught second and fourth grade at Elm Street since 2005 following graduation from Mercer University where she received her bachelor's degree in early childhood education. She subsequently earned a master's degree in early childhood education from the State University of West Georgia.
In receiving the TOTY honor, she thanked her husband Josh who has yet to watch a televised sports event without having to help her cut up laminated sheets, grade paperwork or the other multitude of tasks that teachers bring home long after the bell has rung.
Elm Street Principal Julie Raschen said all of Winstead's actions are guided by a passion to teach her students.
She recalled the time that Winstead made her students spend the day as a pilgrim confined to a space the same size as the Mayflower, eating stale food and beef jerky so they could understand and appreciate what it was like to be a pioneer.
Raschen also told about a former student who talked about how Winstead's used crowns of broccoli that the students weren't expected to eat, but wear as an exercise to learn a lesson about being perfect -- which was that everyone is perfect in their own way.
Raschen said students in Winstead's class also learned firsthand about gas explosions when they were shown what happens when Coca-Cola and Mentos are mixed. The principal said she expects Winstead's class to announce the birth of some ducks and quails any day. The class is tending to some eggs that everyone is expecting to hatch soon. The class is also expecting the results of an exercise involving Freckle Juice and whether it'll have any lasting effects on them.
Winstead said she rarely has a chance to speak in front of adults so instead of thinking about everyone in their underwear -- an old speech-making tip supposedly to help a speaker calm his nerves -- she encouraged the audience to instead whisper to each other, laugh out loud and dream big like, distractions that she's more familiar with from the students in her classroom.
She thanked the school system for giving her the honor of teaching students and fellow teachers for their inspiration.
"I will show up in August even if you can't pay me so if the budget gets tight, count me as the first," she told Bass.
As Coweta Teacher of the Year, Winstead will be a candidate for the Georgia Teacher of the Year.
The announcement followed welcoming remarks and recognition from Sue Brown, a member of the school board, Harriett Steele, president of the Newnan Pilot Club which served as co-hosts of the event and reception; and Clay Hidebrand, Coweta County 2007 Teacher of the Year. All 29 teachers were recognized and received plaques in recognition of their honor.
(This story has been edited to correct a reference to the developer of Poplar Road Elementary’s Jumpstart program, Janie Allen.)