Congratulations, Latrece Brown, 2017 Florida Blue Duval County Teacher of the Year!
2/24/2017
Latrece Brown was named the 2017 Florida Blue Duval County Teacher of the Year at the 26th Annual EDDY Awards. Brown, a fourth grade math teacher at Andrew A. Robinson Elementary, was selected among five exceptional finalists.
Brown consistently demonstrates exemplary leadership qualities. She serves as the anchor of her grade level and the STEM committee as the chair. In recognition of high quality instruction in the classroom, she is designated as a model teacher for the DTO Transformation Region by Superintendent Iranetta Wright.
In addition to being a phenomenal teacher, Brown serves as a great resource to parents. She created a closed group Facebook page to help parents understand the concepts of mathematics she is teaching. Weekly, she goes live to model strategies for solving a variety of problems or review commonly missed questions from parents and students in real time. Because of her ability to think outside the box, Brown has created a firestorm at the school as it relates to the Facebook page. Students and parents from other classes frequently request information for participation in the group.
Brown is charismatic and creative. She has shown classroom management skills and develops a rapport with students, colleagues and parents that is characterized by mutual respect.
As the 2017 Florida Blue Duval County Teacher of the Year, Brown will go on to compete for the statewide title. In addition to a cash prize and a classroom grant from the Rotary Clubs of Duval County, Brown will join the Jacksonville Public Education Fund Board of Directors as an ex-officio member as is tradition with every Florida Blue Duval County Teacher of the Year.
The EDDY Awards teacher of the year recognition program is an initiative of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund. It is a year-long effort to celebrate and elevate Duval County’s best public school educators.
Teachers of the year from 173 schools were nominated and evaluated by committees of volunteers, who ultimately narrowed the down to 15 semi-finalists, and then five finalists. Bios, photos and more information on all the teachers of the year are available at www.eddyawardsjax.org.
The other four finalists — as well as all school-level teachers of the year — were also honored at the EDDYs, which took place at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. The finalists are:
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Allison Bear, J. Allen Axson Elementary
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Michael Bostic-Jones, William H. Raines High School
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Holly Hultgren, Frank H. Peterson Academies of Technology
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Caitlyn Stetson, Reynolds Lane Elementary School
Tonight’s EDDY Awards also included a presentation of the Fourth Annual Innovation Prize Award, presented by the Community First Cares Foundation, to recognize the most innovative project submitted to PowerUP Jax, our teacher innovation competitive grant program. The winner was Susan Burns, a teacher at Fishweir Elementary School, for her project “One teacher’s trash…” which aims to teach her students the principles of running a small business and the importance of recycling.