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East Forsyth Health Science Teacher Wins NCCAT WS/FCS CTE Teacher of the Year
Kelly Hooker has been named Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools’ Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year for the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.
NCCAT recognizes teachers from all over the state as teacher of the year in different categories. Candidates go through a rigorous application process by assembling portfolios with essay questions and letters of support from community members, colleagues and students, and they also have to make their case through in-person interviews. Hooker says that making it this far was highly challenging, so becoming the district’s finalist was a huge honor.
“You know how it is when you go through interviews and you think you’re answering all of the questions well, and then once you get out you spend the next 48 hours thinking about everything you might have done wrong,” Hooker said. “I was surprised when I got it.”
While she was surprised, her students and coworkers weren’t. Hooker has been teaching for six years and she also brings 23 years of experience as a nurse, so she has plenty of valuable insight to offer her health science students. She has a strong reputation for caring more about an individual student and their long-term success than about their grades, so everyone who takes her classes can depend on her for help when they need it.
“I have never had a student fail my class because they know I’m here for them,” Hooker said. “They know that I’ll work with them and we’ll figure it out.”
This will be the first year that NCCAT specifically recognizes CTE teachers, a decision Hooker feels is long overdue. CTE classes prepare students to start rewarding careers in a variety of essential fields, and CTE teachers do important work to get students invested in those fields. The core academic subjects are also important, of course, but it’s validating to have some attention reserved just for CTE.
“When it comes to recognition, sometimes CTE gets left behind,” Hooker said. “It’s nice to be recognized.”