‘All In For Learning’
Published 11:01 am Monday, August 22, 2016
- Board of Education members Dennis Deloatch and Sheila Porter announced each school’s Teacher of the Year for 2016-2017 at Thursday’s Convocation. From left are Allison Heckler (Hertford County Middle School), Barbara Norman (Ahoskie Elementary School), Michale Silverio (Bearfield Primary School and the county’s Teacher of the Year), Tondra Hedgepeth (C.S. Brown Elementary School), April Blackwell (Riverview Elementary), Menita Dairo (Early College High School), and Dr. Rosalie Merrcader (Hertford County High School). | Staff Photos by Keith Hoggard
AHOSKIE – Hertford County Public Schools held its annual convocation for employees in the Hertford County High School gym on Thursday.
School starts for students on Monday, Aug. 29.
The theme for this year’s convocation was: “All In for Learning.”
The annual event also served as the formal announcement of the district’s new Teacher of the Year. That honor was awarded to Michale Silverio, a third-grade teacher at Bearfield Primary School. He succeeds last year’s Teacher of the Year Erica Stephenson who served as mistress of ceremonies for the convocation.
Silverio reminded teachers that they aren’t superheroes, like Superman or Green Lantern, but they can still be heroes.
Hertford County Superintendent Dr. William Wright Jr. is pictured wrapping up his first Convocation on Thursday in the Hertford County High School gym.
“Instead of saving the world,” he said, “you can help save a child’s world”
The keynote speaker for the day was Dr. Kimberly Johnson.
Johnson is a professor at Clemson University and teaches Creative Activities for Youth, she is also a professor at Clinton College where she teaches, Creative Writing for Social Change – both classes in which she created the content.
She is the author of many children’s books and writes poetry, some of which she shared with the audience on Thursday.
She was a dynamic speaker for the “All In for Education” theme.
Johnson currently serves an Ambassador for the King Center in Atlanta, Ga. where she is actively engaged with creating curriculum for the NOW camp (Nonviolence Opportunity Watch).
She knew Hertford County Schools Superintendent Dr. William Wright Jr. from their days in South Carolina.
This was Wright’s first convocation since the Board of Education hired him in December.
He praised the BOE for being “All In for Education” and urged every employee to be all in, too.
Convocation ran bit longer than expected, so Wright got huge positive response from employees when he told them he would shorten his prepared remarks so they could get some lunch.
David Shields, chairman of the Board of Education, told employees, “You make Hertford County Schools great. You do the work; we take the credit.”
