Baltimore City Public Schools Names Commodore John Rodgers' Berol Dewdney Teacher Of The Year
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore City Public Schools on Tuesday named Berol Dewdney its Teacher of the Year, recognizing her passion, dedication and ability to persevere through the last two years of COVID-19—a challenging time for teachers, to say the least.
This is a pretty competitive process. It requires applications, essays, interviews, recommendations and then a classroom observation. Ultimately, Dewdney, a pre-K teacher at Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School, received this very well-deserved recognition.
Moved to tears, she accepted the award from Baltimore City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises.
"This is such an incredible honor," said Dewdney. "I'm just so grateful to come to work every day."
She said she owes this all to her students.
"It's my life's biggest honor to elevate the kids here in our city, and I think our youngest learners are our mightiest. And so any opportunity for the world to see their greatness and be inspired by them is something that I'm just so honored to be a part of."
Dewdney got her master's in education from Johns Hopkins and has been teaching 4- and 5-year-olds at Commodore John Rodgers for almost a decade.
Santelises said what stands out about Dewdney is her leadership and her understanding of the science of how kids learn.
"She talked about how what she does will impact students when they're in middle school and in high school, and that's rare for a pre-K teacher," said Santelises