Hello from "Cloud 9"..
haha.... I am so excited because just a
few weeks ago, I was honored with being titled, St. Johns County "Rookie
Teacher of the Year!"hip-hip-hooray! Just to give you a bit of detail,
every school in our district (38 of us) selects 1 TOY and ROY for the year. Once
those are selected we interview with the district to then possible be selected
as the county wide TOY and ROY which is announced at an annual banquet put on
by our amazing Education Foundation. The banquet was beautiful and I was joined
by my wonderful administration, team, husband and in-laws.
Being surrounded by such an amazing support group that night was so precious and
humbling. I could not have asked for a better group of people to spend my life
with. If you are like me and stay at school all hours of the day, your team
becomes your family. It feels great to be able to represent our school and to make them each so proud! I think that every
teacher hopes to win a title such as this, but when I walked into the banquet
room and saw teachers that were fellow classmates at
Flagler
College and peers who were selects for various job interviews after graduation, I
knew that there would be no way that I would win. Despite every one's advice about taking
a job at a title one school, my heart had been called to these students since the first day that I
volunteered. Back to the evening, our superintendent began reading off the bio of the winner and it didn't even register that I fit all of the pieces to what he was saying. Realization hit
when I heard my name called and my table stood up in an uproar of cheering and
celebration. After being nudged by my husband to get up, my knee trembling self
made it up to the front of the room, somehow! I can say that I should have
listened to every ones advice when they told me to have something prepared to
say to everyone just in case. Of course I didn't prepare and lucky enough for me, my
wonderful husband recorded it for me to see later! Who knew that those few minutes could be such a blur afterwards?
Check out the video below!
Video of Rookie Teacher Announcement
Flagler College Article
Here are some pictures from the
night!
After shock!
Thank you sweet Sam for all of your love, support and continually listening
to me talk about school! Those of you with non-teacher husbands know what I
mean! :)
My wonderful
administration for giving me a job and chance as a "rookie" teacher!
This team is a
blessing. Love them!
I will forever remember that moment because I knew that I had made my
school, team and family proud! As if the night of the banquet wasn't enough, I
was showered with beautiful flowers, cards, balloons and my very own parking
spot at the school!
Needless to say, all of this excitement has been so much fun and a huge honor.
To God be the glory for the great things that He has done! Please remember that
the Lord can do immeasurably more than you can ever ask or hope for if you just
seek after His will and plan for your life!
Blessings to you all,
Kelly Thigpen
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