If recent history is any predictor, the National Teacher of the Year for 2013 may come from Maryland. Rhonda Holmes-Blankenship, who was named Maryland’s Teacher of the Year in October, has been selected as one of four finalists in the running for National Teacher of the Year honors.
And the last two times that happened in both 2006 and 2011, the finalists from Maryland went on to be selected as national teachers of the year.
Ms Holmes-Blankenship is an English teacher at Rising Sun High School in Cecil County. Other finalists this year come from Florida, New Hampshire, and Washington. This prestigious program, sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers, allows teachers from across the country to collaborate with policy makers at every level and advocate on behalf of the teaching profession.
“Rhonda is a terrific classroom teacher who challenges and respects her students,” said State Superintendent of Schools Lillian M. Lowery. “It is teachers like Rhonda who spend their lives giving back to the profession in the service of our nation’s children who have been critical in distinguishing Maryland among its national peers.”
The 2012 National Teacher of the Year is Rebecca Lynn Mieliwocki, a middle school English teacher from Burbank, Calif. The Maryland teachers who have gone on to be named National Teacher of the Year are Michelle Shearer, a chemistry teacher from Urbana High School in Frederick County (2011), and Kimberly Oliver, a teacher at Broad Acres Elementary School in Silver Spring (2006).
At one point, Ms Holmes-Blankenship said she considered dropping out of school. She gives credit to some of her teachers for giving her college aspirations. She worked and borrowed her way through Towson University to graduate summa cum laude, the first member of her family to graduate from college.
The CCSSO will announce the National Teacher in April. The president will recognize the National Teacher in a White House ceremony.