Lisa Young, a gifted-and-talented resource teacher at Atholton Elementary School in Columbia, has been named one of seven finalists for the Maryland State Department of Education’s Teacher of the Year Award.
Young was named the Howard County Teacher of the Year in May, and was one of the 24 teachers from Maryland counties to receive that respective honor.
Over the summer, the teachers were evaluated with a set of national criteria that included teaching philosophy, community involvement, knowledge of education issues and suggestions for professional and instructional improvement. The field was then narrowed down to seven.
Oral interviews with the finalists are scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 8, and the Maryland Teacher of the Year will be announced Oct. 5.
Young has been a Howard County educator since 2003, and has pioneered the used of the Six+1 Writing Traits model — a program that helps teachers and students communicate about what constitutes good writing — which is now used in county elementary and middle schools.
