Here are the Alabama 2021-22 Teacher of the Year finalists
Updated May 11, 2021;
Reflecting on his experiences as the most recent finalist, and Alabama’s current Teacher of the Year, Dr. Andrew Jackson said, “Congratulations to these highly skilled educators, who have been selected to represent their local school systems and our regional education districts. Each of these Alabama Teacher of the Year 16 Finalists truly demonstrate outstanding classroom leadership and are elevating our profession to new levels of success.”
The pool of candidates will be narrowed to the top four by a state-level committee. The 2021-22 Alabama Teacher of the Year will be announced in August.
By Erica Wright
The Birmingham Times
When the U.S. shut down last March, Birmingham City Schools (BCS) quickly transitioned to virtual learning with seven weeks left in the academic year.
“What we realized was that many of our students did not have the devices or internet access needed for us to provide instruction in a digital way,” said BCS Superintendent Mark Sullivan, EdD. “Not only that, but we had not really trained our teachers on many of the digital platforms we were using because no one could have predicted where we would be.”
The system began to make immediate adjustments, said Sullivan, who was named permanent superintendent on Aug. 31, 2020. He had been the school system’s acting chief since April 2020, shortly after the pandemic began to cause major disruption.