Last week, the Dawson County School System announced its Teacher of the Year and Kerri Whitmire was the big winner.
Whitmire is lifelong resident of Dawson County and is a kindergarten teacher at Blacks Mill Elementary School. She has been teacher for 16 years and has spent her entire career in Dawson County. This is the first time she has been named Teacher of the Year.
I am a fourth generation teacher, so it is something that I always wanted to do, and I wanted to give back to the community that made me into the person that I am today, said Whitmire.
She has not always been a kindergarten teacher but she says that she was drawn to it.
I chose to move to kindergarten, she said, and I absolutely love working with my students.
Before teaching kindergarten, she taught third grade for nine years.
Whitmire says she was inspired to teach by her favorite teacher in school, Doris Fausett, her third grade teacher.
She inspired me to always do my best, and she never accepted anythingless, Whitmire said. She also loved me as a person as well as her student. She truly cared about me.
Many people have said that teachers never stop learning, and Whitmire agrees.
You never stop learning, because I learn new things from my students each and every day, she said. Teaching has also taught me that each child is a blessing, and it is a privilege to get to work and mold them each and every day.
The other Teachers of the Year from the individual schools are Amy Swafford at Robinson Elementary, Sandra Tankersly at Kilough Elementary, Debbie Boyd at Riverview Elementary, Rick Land at Dawson County Middle, Patrick Johnston at Riverview Middle and Deneen Trammell at Dawson County High.