Joyner named county Teacher of the Year
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on August 19, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Angela Joyner accepts the Teacher of the Year Award for Wayne County Public Schools from Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore Tuesday night at Lane Tree Golf Club.
Angela Joyner knew early on that she would become a teacher.
Tuesday night, her heartfelt passion earned her another title -- Teacher of the Year.
"I'm a Wayne County product -- I went to Brogden Primary, Brogden Junior High School, Southern Wayne High School and on to East Carolina University," she told the audience after the announcement was made that she is Wayne County Public Schools' representative for the honor.
Retracing the steps that led her there, she shared an early memory of being a student.
"When I went to kindergarten, that very first day I fell in love with Miss Reeves and Miss Parrish. I was in kindergarten but she had a first-grade class," she said. "I can remember sitting there when I was supposed to be at nap time, listening to her read to the first-graders, and I came home and I told my mama, 'I'm gonna be a teacher one day.'
"So it's a thrill to have been able to actually live my dream because for the past 24 years, starting on my 25th year this year, I have been able to be a teacher."
The fifth-grade English/language arts teacher at Grantham Middle School has enjoyed being able to teach reading, she said, because it centers around her educational philosophy -- you have to be literate no matter what area you go into.
In addition to her family, which included husband Bill Joyner, assistant principal at Grantham Elementary, himself Teacher of the Year finalist for the high school level in 2009, and son David, a senior at Carolina, she thanked her principal, Lisa Tart, for being an "outstanding leader."
"She provides lots of wonderful professional development opportunities and we learn so much," Mrs. Joyner said. "I'm so eager to go back into the classroom and share it with my students.
"On early dismissal days, my students ask, 'What are you going to do, Ms. Joyner?' I say, 'Well, I'm going to go learn something new, and I'm going to come back and teach it to you.'"
Since entering the profession nearly 25 years ago, she said she had only left the classroom once, for a year when she was an AIG specialist, which afforded her the opportunity to spend time in other schools around the county.
"I want to say that there are dedicated people in every school," she said. "You work hard, you're courageous. Every day you get up, you don't know what's going to happen in that classroom that day. But you are there, you are prepared and you welcome every single minute of it because you do know when you go home at night that you have made a difference. And that's what it's about.
"That's why we're in education. It's not the money. It's not the test scores. It's about being involved in a child's life and making a difference."
The newly minted Teacher of the Year began her career at Norwayne Middle School, where she taught sixth grade for six years. She then taught fourth grade at Grantham School for 14 years. After the year stint in the AIG, academically and intellectually gifted, program, she returned to Grantham four years ago, teaching fifth grade.
In addition to the recognition, she receives a $5,000 Kemp/Twiford Worldview Travel/Study Award, to be used for travel outside the United States, as well as a $1,500 check.
The district's other two finalists also each received a $4,000 travel/study stipend.
Holly Medlin, a fourth-grade teacher at Northeast Elementary School, was elementary grades Teacher of the Year.
Steven Thorne, a technology and engineering teacher at Charles B. Aycock, was high school grades Teacher of the Year.
Mrs. Joyner will now advance to the regional Teacher of the Year competition.
Allyson Daly, an English teacher at Wayne School of Engineering and last year's Teacher of the Year, spoke about her experiences traveling over the summer to Krakow, Poland. The two-week excursion was funded by the Kemp/Twiford award and a State Department grant, she said.
The opportunity to visit a city "steeped in culture" that had not been destroyed by World War II also provided her with an educator's dream, she said. Joined by her 20-year-old son, Preston, they stayed with a local family and spent time teaching at a school.
"Real relationships happen when you step out into the unknown. And this is the reason why we do it, right?" she asked her fellow teachers. "When we bring all these things, when we answer this call, we create pre-emptive trust, things before there's war, solutions before there were problems. We create a more just and peaceful world.
"We're not just preparing students for tests at the end of the year. We're preparing the world to be worthy of the people that we are pouring our lives and our love into."