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Texas Teacher of the Year Program

Texas Teacher of the Year is the highest honor that the State of Texas can bestow upon a teacher. Facilitated by the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Teacher of the Year Program annually recognizes and rewards teachers who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and excellence in teaching.

Each year, two teachers from each of the 20 Regional Education Service Centers - become eligible for two titles, Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year and Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year. To achieve recognition through this program, a teacher must be chosen as a campus and a district Teacher of the Year and ultimately a regional honoree. From this group of 40 teachers, six finalists are chosen and they are interviewed by an independent panel of judges. The state’s top elementary and secondary teachers are chosen from these half dozen exemplary educators.

The Texas Teachers of the Year become spokespersons for public education and are honored at a special ceremony in Austin. The Texas Teacher of the Year, a dedicated and highly skilled candidate who is capable of inspiring students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn, becomes a candidate for National Teacher of the Year honors.

2009-10 Texas Teacher of the Year Event Information

2009 Texas Teachers of the Year

Dora Newell
2009 Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year
Thigpen-Zavala Elementary School
McAllen Independent School District

Dora Newell, a third-grade teacher at Thigpen-Zavala Elementary School in the McAllen Independent School District, was selected as the 2009 Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year from among 20 regional elementary Teachers of the Year. A graduate of Texas State University, Newell taught special education, as well as second and third grade for 22 years in the Laredo and McAllen Independent School Districts. She served on 18 different committees in the district, including the Core Curriculum Committee and the Educational Council for Language and Learning. Encouraged by her family to pursue an education and to excel in school, she wanted to be a teacher almost all of her life. “From a very young age, the elder members of my family filled me with stories on the importance of a good education and each one always supported my efforts to excel in school.”

Becoming a teacher, she writes, “ is a decision that I have never regretted. I am determined that each day each one of my students will get my absolute best.” She believes her students will remember her “with a smiling face, a kind heart,” and as a teacher who celebrates “each student’s milestones—whether they have just had their writing published in the newspaper, mastered a difficult objective, or improved their attendance or work habits—so that each one leaves my classroom knowing they have something worthwhile to offer.”

She is a firm believer that “children learn what they live” and encompasses a lot of hands-on learning in her teaching. All of her students write for the local newspaper’s children’s column and many students have had poetry published in an anthology. Newell wants her students to read more books. “Throughout the school year, I set goals for my students and teach them how to achieve them,” she says. “I find that their first taste of success is enticing and leads them to additional successes.”

Newell encourages her students to maintain excellent attendance and over the past four years, has had her students earn recognition for achieving not just the best attendance in the school, but in McAllen ISD as well.
She is dedicated to strengthening the teaching profession by supporting its incoming, new and future teachers. “Students deserve not only qualified but also quality teachers.” She is devastated by the loss of teachers new to the profession and gladly welcomes to her classroom “new teachers, university education majors and potential substitute teachers” so they can benefit from the teaching techniques and management skills that Newell has mastered.

Christine Gleason, an all-level English teacher at Fabens High School in Fabens Independent School District, has been selected as the 2009 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year. Gleason also represents Texas in the National Teacher of the Year Program. Gleason earned a degree in English and creative writing and a master’s in English and American literature, both from the University of Texas at El Paso. She teaches English, AP English, Dual Credit English and Speech. She also serves as the Chair of the English Department, National Honor Society Sponsor, Dual Credit Facilitator, and coach for writing and literary criticism.
Gleason originally intended to be a novelist, but has found teaching to be “life-changing” and “unreservedly rewarding.”

She decided to capitalize on her secondary education training and realized years later that there is no better job in the world. She recalls,"The first day I walked into a classroom and greeted my first group of students, I knew [I was] exactly where I was supposed to be.”

Gleason’s message is simple—teacher and student relationships are important and she considers them “the pinnacle of the education system.” She is joyful when her students succeed and return to her school to let her know how they are doing. At high school graduations, students inevitably yell out, “I love you Mama G” and Gleason realizes that “there is no place on earth that I would rather be. That is my greatest reward.”

“I am not ordinary,” says Gleason. “Ask any of my students.” She intends to be a “vibrant, tenacious, creative and absolutely unforgettable teacher because that is what I never had and that is what every kid in this country deserves in every classroom they attend.” She genuinely cares about her students and she attracts them to her class, where she works her magic. She says she has “an amazing ability” to make her students learn. She says she can think of many ways to improve her lessons and every year she gets “better and better.”

Gleason believes that first year teachers should have a common period with their mentor teacher because “mentoring new teachers is one of the most important things that can happen in the education system.” She also believes that teachers should collaborate more. “Spending time with other teachers who teach what you teach is more beneficial than any workshop” she has attended. “Talking about lessons and giving each other ideas and support is key to promoting a professional learning community.”

Teacher of the Year Calendar 
Regional Coordinators for Teacher of the Year 

More information about the National Teacher of the Year Program  

For more information, please contact

Marilyn Kuehlem at (512) 463-9103

marilyn.kuehlem@tea.state.tx.us