Teresa Dove, an online math/Algebra II instructor for grades 6-12 at the Florida Virtual School, has received the first National Online Teacher of the Year Award, founded by the Southern Regional Education Board and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. The award was presented Wednesday at the annual meeting of the SREB’s Educational Technology Cooperative and Electronic Campus representatives in New Orleans.
Dove credited online teaching with allowing her to spend more individual time with her students.
Spending only a moment with students in a traditional classroom is “not enough, and our kids deserve better,” she said. Online teaching, she said, has also allowed her to care for two young children at home, and at one point tend to her mother in the hospital.
Dove, who lives in Tazewell, Va., has taught for four years at the Florida Virtual School, while also serving as a schoolhouse literacy coordinator, a mentor, and a member of the school’s reading leadership team. She was the school’s first Algebra II teacher to create a model literacy classroom, a school program aimed at getting teachers to complete literacy instruction with their students, provide them literacy enrichment activities, and attend literacy professional development.
Dove was selected from 50 nominated teachers from public online schools and state virtual schools in 24 states. She’ll receive a trip to iNACOL’s Virtual School Symposium, Nov. 14-16 in Glendale, Ariz., as part of her prize.
Other finalists honored Wednesday were Gabrielle Bray, a social studies department chair for the Gwinnett County Online Campus in Georgia, and Steven Sproles, a professor of AP psychology, macroeconomics, and microeconomics at Virtual Virginia.