Governor Ron DeSantis was in Orlando on Tuesday, July 23 to congratulate the five Teacher of the Year finalists. The Florida Teacher of the Year will be announced Thursday.
The yearly awards acknowledge teachers who have gone above and beyond in their classrooms.
Among the five finalists is Central Florida’s Jennifer Brown, a math teacher at Forest High School in Marion County.
Brown teaches geometry and trigonometry to high school students. She has a bachelor of arts in teaching and mathematics from the University of Northern Iowa.
If Brown wins, she’d be the first teacher of the year from Central Florida since 2018. The last Central Florida teacher to win the award was fellow math teacher Tammy Jerkins from Lake County.
DeSantis said he’s upped the ante for the awards this year.
“One of the things I asked was for the finalists, we wanted to increase the awards. It used to be $15,000, now it’s $20,000. And the teacher of the year is going to get $50,000,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said the process to be named top teacher in Florida is a rigorous one. Each district selects a district-wide teacher of the year first.
Then finalists and the statewide Teacher of the Year are chosen by a panel of teachers, parents, students and educational experts from throughout the state.
“We have 74 district teachers of the year, they’re nominated by their colleagues, and five finalists have been chosen and the teacher of the year will be announced at a gala on Thursday night,” DeSantis said.
Winners of the Florida Teacher of the Year, according to the Florida Department of Education, are recognized as “an expert in their field and have demonstrated a superior capacity to guide students of all backgrounds and abilities to academic excellence.”
Along with receiving this recognition, the Florida Teacher of the Year also serves as the Christa McAuliffe Ambassador for Education. In this role, they serve as a goodwill ambassador representing the Department of Education and teachers.
All Teacher of the Year finalists have been participating in three days of professional development leading up to the gala on Thursday when the top award will be announced.
