Photo courtesy of the Maryland State Department of Education.
Rhonda Holmes-Blankenship, a Towson University graduate and now high school English teacher, has been named one of just four candidates for National Teacher of the Year.
The Rising Sun High School instructor was also chosen as 2012-13 Maryland Teacher of the Year last October.
The first member of her family to graduate from college, Holmes-Blankenship graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in English from Towson University in 1995 and went on to earn an M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction at McDaniel College in 2005. She now teaches English to 10th and 11th graders at Rising Sun High School in North East, Md.
“It’s just an honor and an incredible opportunity to really speak for so many hard-working, talented people,” Holmes-Blankenship told WBAL-TV.
“It means so much to me because I am graduate of Cecil County Public Schools, and I am the product of incredible teachers. I feel like this kind of recognition is overdue in a way. A lot of small districts are like that, there are incredible teachers all across the country.”
The National Teacher of the Year will be announced in April and introduced to the nation by the President during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. For the next year, that teacher is released from classroom duties to travel nationally and internationally as a spokesperson and advocate for the teaching profession, according to the Council of Chief State School Officers.
If she is chosen, Holmes-Blankenship would be the third Maryland teacher to receive the honor in the last seven years.
Related Links:
- “Maryland teacher of year in running for national honor” — WBAL-TV
- Department of English
- College of Liberal Arts
