News - For Robin August, school is where the heart is

Teaching has taken Robin August to plenty of amazing and fascinating places. In her 17 years as an educator, her teaching has led her into shark tanks and giraffe houses. It has taken her to Pompeii and the Parthenon. Teaching has led her to visit museums and mayor’s offices, courtrooms and jail houses, hospitals, canoes, and cabins in the woods.

But the most important and interesting place for Baltimore County’s new Teacher of the Year is a place that, after so many years, resides in her heart as the most magical place of all.

“I can honestly say that the most exciting place teaching has brought me has been and remains the classroom,” says the Deep Creek Magnet Middle School sixth-grade math teacher. “When the lights come on, the bell rings, and the students enter the room, that’s when passion comes alive. To spend each day engaged in learning with students is such a gift.”

2006-07 Baltimore County Teacher of the Year Michelle Dressel (left) stands with new Teacher of the Year Robin August in front of August’s new Toyota Prius, which August will use during her tenure as Teacher of the Year, courtesy of the Baltimore Area Toyota Dealers.

It was that passion that has earned August, a seventh-year math educator in Baltimore County’s public schools, the title of Baltimore County’s 2007-2008 Teacher of the Year. She was awarded that honor on May 9 during an emotional ceremony that paid homage to the county’s 8,000 educators and the children they teach.

“Today, as we honor our remarkable Teacher of the Year and all of our outstanding finalists, we honor every teacher in our system,” said Superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools Dr. Joe A. Hairston. “All of our teachers are extraordinary – for the lessons they share about what it means to be a responsible, caring citizen of the future, and for encouraging our students to reach higher levels of achievement than they believe possible.”

Teacher of the Year Robin August (left), and the Teacher of the Year finalists (left to right): Jason Bowman of Hereford High School, Phil Bressler of Eastern Technical High School, Amy Branum Huggins of Pine Grove Elementary School, Kara Minoglio of Halstead Academy, and Kim Worth of Milford Mill Academy.

For August, who taught for the first 10 years of her career in Baltimore City public schools, the honor begins a year of special events and accolades, appearances and recognition – and it begins the process of competing for the title of Maryland Teacher of the Year in October.

August’s interest in teaching flowed from the circumstances of her youth, much of which was spent moving with her family – she attended school in six states as a result. A perceptive child and one eager to learn, she discovered both differences and similarities in the schools she attended that influenced how well she learned. Through all the transitions, she learned to love school as “a place to feel safe, and the place in which I could be part of a community.”

Julia Lynton-Brown of Comcast awards new Teacher of the Year Robin August with a check from Comcast for $1,000 to purchase a new laptop computer for the Teacher of the Year.

Her passion for learning led inexorably to a passion for teaching, and not just any teaching. August has made it her mission to teach in challenging Title I schools throughout her career. “I feel so fortunate,” she says,”to have found a career that still keeps me brainstorming every day on how I can do things differently to improve my teaching ability and my students’ success.”

August has taught in Baltimore County schools since 2000, after 10 years teaching grades 2 through 5 at Holabird Elementary School in Baltimore City. Beginning as a Baltimore County teacher at Deep Creek Elementary School, she taught fourth grade until she moved to Deep Creek Middle at the beginning of the current school year to teach grade six mathematics, including a Gifted and Talented math course and Algebraic Foundations.

August’s was just one success story celebrated through the Teacher of the Year program, which since 1988 has fed into the Maryland State Teacher of the Year program. This year, a record 42 superlative educators applied for county Teacher of the Year honors, resulting in six finalists including August. Other finalists were:

Jason Bowman, an English teacher at Hereford High School;
Phil Bressler, a social studies teacher at Eastern Technical High School;
Amy Branum Huggins, a music teacher at Pine Grove Elementary School;
Kara Minoglio, a third-grade teacher at Halstead Academy; and
Kim Worth, an English teacher at Milford Mill Academy.

New BCPS Teacher of the Year Robin August celebrates with her principal, Anissa Brown-Dennis of Deep Creek Magnet Middle School.

Along with August, the other five finalists were honored by Dr. Hairston and other school and community dignitaries during the May 9 ceremony. “All six of today’s honorees are lifelong learners. They are enthusiastic about the subjects they teach and the students in their classes and they understand the power of the teacher-student relationship,” said Dr. Hairston. “These teachers know that they are teaching and modeling for their students lessons – about character, about service, about integrity – that cannot be written in a lesson plan.”

But it was August’s day, and it will be her year for the foreseeable future. With the honor came a $1,000 check from Comcast to use in purchasing a laptop computer, a gift bag from the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, installation of Whiteboard technology in August’s classroom from the county school system, and the use of a 2008 Toyota Prius Hybrid during her tenure as Teacher of the Year, provided by the Baltimore Area Toyota Dealers.

She and other teachers of the year from throughout Maryland will be lauded May 31 by the State Board of Education for their accomplishments, and this summer she will prepare for interviewing to become the state Teacher of the Year.

Despite the honor, August was eager to get back to her “home” – her classroom – and inform her students of her award. After all, she said, they make her classroom – and her career – so special.

“The students who enter our many classrooms inspire me,” she says. “Their willingness to become problem solvers, critical thinkers, and risk-takers amongst their peers in the classroom amazes me.

“They are all outstanding, and so worth all that we have to give.”

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Story by Charles Herndon, communications specialist. Photos by Brice Freeman, director of communications