Northwest educator a finalist for state beginning teacher award
Northwest Elementary teacher Erin Stewart, center, celebrates her selection as a finalist for the NCCAT Beginning Teacher of the Year award with her third-grade class and, from left, LCPS Associate Superintendent Frances Herring, Northwest principal Heather Walston, Beginning Teacher Cooordinator Kim Hazelgrove and Human Resources Director Pam Health. Submitted photo.
A young educator whose desire to be a teacher was nurtured in Lenoir County’s public schools and who fulfilled that goal last year by joining the faculty at Northwest Elementary School is a finalist in the statewide search for the best new teacher in North Carolina.
Erin Stewart, a third-grade teacher in her second year in the classroom, is among the 27 educators selected by the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) for its first-ever Beginning Teacher of the Year Award.
“I’m excited. Fingers crossed,” Stewart said.
The award will be presented Dec. 5, after a week of interviews and professional development sessions for the finalists at the NCCAT Cullowhee campus. Each of the state’s nine public school regions named three beginning teachers as finalists; North Carolina classifies a teacher with three or fewer years’ experience as a beginning teacher.
“We appreciate the enthusiastic response from all over the state for the Beginning Teacher of the Year Award,” said NCCAT Executive Director M. Brock Womble. “These finalists provide a snapshot of the lasting impact great teachers have on our students from the first to the last day they step into a North Carolina public school. We are excited about this opportunity to honor teachers for the important work they do in our state.”
Beginning Teacher of the Year winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize, instructional supplies for his or her school and a spot in the GoGlobal NC trip to Austrailia in 2020. The runner-up will receive a $2,000 cash prize.
Nominated by her school, then selected as the LCPS nominee, Stewart was chosen as a finalist from the Southeast Region on the basis on a written portfolio, the endorsement of her principal and letters of recommendation.
“I am so very proud of Erin Stewart,” Northwest principal Heather Walston said. “She has a natural gift for teaching and we are so fortunate to have her here at Northwest. She truly cares for each of her students and makes sure they have what they need in order to be successful.”
A 2018 graduate of East Carolina University with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and concentration in child studies, Stewart said she saw her future in the first grade, as a student at Northwest.
“Becky Smith was my first-grade teacher. She for sure made me want to be a teacher,” Stewart said. “In middle school and high school, I started seeing how teachers could impact the next stage of your life. When I got to college, it was a very easy decision to pursue teaching. Definitely when I started job searching, it was an even easier decision to come back home to work.”
Still, being in the right job in the right place doesn’t always make everything right. In one of the essays written for her portfolio, Stewart offered advice for beginning teachers.
“One of the main things is forgiving yourself,” she said in recalling what she wrote. “You spend so long preparing for this goal that when you get there you seem to be so hard on yourself. The first six months I remember going home and worrying if I had done enough for them or if this lesson was as effective, was this cute enough, was this organized enough. You just need to calm down. As long as your kids go home feeling loved every day, that’s the most important thing you can do.”
Building relationships with students is the key to a teacher’s success, she thinks.
“It’s important your students know they’re cared for as children and cared for as people rather than just cared for as students,” Stewart said. “I think teachers that know their kids and love their kids and allow their kids to make mistakes and still love them – even the kids who make mistakes often – cultivate a better learning environment all around.”
Kim Hazelgrove, the district’s beginning teacher coordinator, says Stewart’s determination to do all she can for her students makes her a worthy choice for the state award. “Erin teaches from the heart,” Hazelgrove said. “As a young educator, she’s developing the skills she needs to be an exceptional teacher, but she came into the classroom with that sense of compassion that all great teachers have.”
And the classroom is where Stewart plans to stay. “I’ve thought about going into administration at some point, but I think I can say confidently that I just want to be in the classroom,” she said. “Where I’m at right now is honestly my dream job.”
