Tonight I went back to where this first began. I attended our district TOY celebration at Disney's Contemporary Hotel. It was a great chance to reconnect with friends across our district, give back to my district through my participation and just have a wonderful evening with the teachers of my district.
A red carpet led everyone to the gala event with interviews by our own "Joan Rivers", aka Patty Villane (see the second picture). Patty is a senior administrator for community relations at the district office, a great comic and cut up, and most importantly Patty is my first cousin. She is the spitting image of my aunt Jean, who was a major cut up and funny lady! Patty is my "baby" cousin and I love her dearly. Patty's interviews set the tone for the fun to come.
After a few short speeches (mine was 3 minutes), a nice dinner, and the recognition of all of our school Teachers of the Year our new district winner was announced. Jennifer Bohn heads the IB program at Evans High School (first picture). When our selection committee entered Jennifer's room all of the students rose as a display of respect. They do it any time an adult enters the room. Much of the school was scheduled to leave on buses for an Orlando Magic game during our observation. Not one student left that room. Jennifer was more important to those kids than an NBA basketball game. Evans is a failing school in a high crime, high poverty community. There is much concern with what to do with Evans. It's the type of school that can run off many teachers. Jennifer has been there for thirteen years, has been nominated school TOY three times and is incredibly devoted and proud of her students. And if all of this isn't enough - Jennifer and her students volunteeer at a homeless shelter and began interviewing people a year ago. As a result they wrote a book consisting of a collection of the student interviews which ended up changing the lives of many of these young authors. These are kids that have practically nothing and yet are thankful for their lives and care about the lives of those they have found to be even more unfortunate.
Our district finalists proved to be a hard group to pick from. Each could easily be the TOY for any school system in our state and across the nation. But we had to pick one. All five finalists are my heroes and it will not surprise me to see each in leadership roles across our district or even make a run for District TOY again.
I am extremely proud that I am being replaced as OCPS District Teacher of the Year by Jennifer. Her dedication brings tears to my eyes and I can't imagine a better story that needs to be told. I look forward to following her progress through the state selection process and spending time with her next summer at the state TOY Roundtable. This has been a very rewarding evening.
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