Go to the homepage for the Sylva Herald and Ruralite

Robinson is county's Teacher of the Year

By Lynn Hotaling
Dora Robinson Jackson County's 2001 Teacher of the Year, Smokey Mountain Elementary's Dora Robinson, center, discusses the plants in the school's herb garden with eighth-graders, from left, Stephanie Hughes, Brittney Burns, Matt Hawkins and Drew Hamilton. Robinson, who helped construct the student-designed garden, told her class that their job this year would be to keep the area weeded. - Herald photo by Lynn Hotaling A member of Smokey Mountain Elementary School's faculty has taken home the county's most prestigious teaching award.

Eighth-grade science and math teacher Dora Robinson of Qualla was named Jackson County Teacher of the Year Sept. 11 during a banquet at Western Carolina University's Ramsey Center. First Union Bank sponsors the award.

The top teacher is chosen by a panel of county teachers and area education professionals based on nominees' portfolios, presentations and interviews. As county winner, Robinson will now compete for the title of North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

Others considered for the award, who were chosen Teacher of the Year at their respective schools, are Stacy Stiwinter, Blue Ridge; Pat Palmer, Scotts Creek; Novella Greer, Fairview; Carol West, Cullowhee Valley; and Betty Foti, Smoky Mountain High.

A math and science teacher for the past 12 years, Robinson has been part of Smokey Mountain's faculty for the past six. She previously taught in Transylvania County.

Robinson was led to a teaching career, she said, by "divine intervention."

"I had planned to major in business, and I was sitting in my first economics course one morning when it hit me: I wanted to be a middle school teacher, and I wanted to teach math and science," Robinson said. "It is a calling I have never regretted."

In summing up her teaching philosophy, Robinson said that she believes every student is capable of learning and that it is her job to discover what it takes to get students to learn and enjoy doing so.

"If I talk with my students about their interests, they will begin to open up to me," Robinson said. "If I care about what they care about, they will begin to care about me, science and math."

Robinson and the five other local winners received awards from Brad Moses, assistant vice president with First Union in Sylva.

"To date, First Union has awarded more than $525,000 to North Carolina's outstanding educators," Moses said during the Sept. 11 ceremony. "But the real focus of today's program is our educators, and the debt we owe them for their dedication, wisdom and the sacrifices they make daily to benefit our next generation of leaders."

Back to Archive: 09/20/01.