Three teachers have been named as finalists for Prince William County’s Teacher of the Year and the Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award.  Cynthia Baird, mathematics teacher at Brentsville District High School; Frances Michaels, Montclair Elementary School librarian; and Catherine Turner, who teaches accelerated and advanced placement English 10 and 11 at Woodbridge High School, were selected from among thirty-six nominees by a panel of parents, teachers, school administrators, and other school division personnel.  They were selected based on their ability to instill in students a desire to learn and achieve, understanding of the individual needs of students, thorough knowledge and ability to share that knowledge, cooperative relationships, and outstanding leadership.  The school division will announce the winner in mid-April.

Cynthia Baird

 Cynthia Baird, Mathematics Department Chairperson at Brentsville District High School since 1996, earned National Board Certification in 1999 and received a Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in September 2001.  She is also assistant varsity soccer coach at Brentsville.  An adjunct professor for Clemson University, Baird teaches a weeklong Clemson Algebra Project to teachers in the southeastern United States.

 Baird came to Brentsville upon her graduation from Virginia Tech in 1993, and earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from George Mason University in 1998.  She has achieved outstanding success, her nominators say, not only with her Calculus students, but also with those who are taking Integrated Algebra and Geometry III (IAG), a course designed for the unconventional learner. 

Baird designed Brentsville’s IAG program to meet the needs of students who learn better with a variety of teaching styles, without lowering expectations.  While less than fifteen percent of the students in the IAG class had passed an earlier standardized mathematics test, at the completion of their time with Baird, eighty-six percent achieved a passing score on the IAG exam. 
“In terms of her teaching abilities, Ms. Baird is a master teacher,” says Brentsville’s Principal, Michael Mulgrew.  “She has the unique ability to make students discover and understand math and its principles.”

Frances Michaels

 In nominating Frances Michaels for this award, her assistant, Nancy Craft, describes her as “an unbelievable instructor, innovator and expert in her field.”  She is a model for her peers and other educators, Craft says, noting that “many have come to visit, take notes, ask questions and learn from Frances, and they leave with folders full of ideas, sample lessons, and a new awareness of how children can learn.”

 A magna cum laude graduate of Florida State University with a B.A. in library science and history, Michaels earned a master’s degree in library science with a teaching certificate from the University of Michigan.  She came to the school division in 1979 as a librarian at Triangle Elementary School after serving in that role in Culpeper County, Virginia, for three years.  She later was librarian for King, Featherstone and Pattie elementary schools before moving to Montclair Elementary School in 1995.

 A founding member and second president of the Prince William School Librarian’s Association, Michaels helped develop the school division’s language arts and social studies curriculum and the required reading lists, as well as the information management portion of the Prince William County proficiency test.

Cathy Turner

 Armed with the knowledge that academically orientated activities at Woodbridge High School lacked the financial support of booster-backed activities like sports and music, Catherine (Cathy) Turner in 1995 “single-handedly” founded the school’s Academic Booster’s Club to raise funds for publications, drama, debate and other activities. 

 The heart of Woodbridge’s forensics and debate program, Turner was its coach for ten years and, since turning over the reins in 1992, she remains “the chief recruiter, fundraiser, cheerleader, administrative sponsor, debate evangelist and team defender,” while serving as English department chair and facilitating writing workshops for Woodbridge students preparing for the National Council of Teachers of English Writing Awards.

 Turner was named her school’s Outstanding Educator of the Year in 2000 and was previously nominated for the Agnes Meyer Award in 1986 and 1987.  In 1989, she received the Dan Masterson Service Award from the Washington Arlington Catholic Forensics League.  This prestigious award is given to one outstanding coach each year who puts the needs of the league, its competitions, its members and students above the needs of their own team and students. A coach can win it only once.  Woodbridge is one of only two schools to produce three Masterson Award recipients, Turner and two of her protégés.

 Turner is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in English and earned a M.A. in education from George Mason University.  Prior to coming to Prince William County’s Parkside Middle School in 1980, she taught language arts at schools in Newport News, Virginia, sixth grade in Missouri and directed a preschool through first grade facility in Oklahoma.