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N.C. English Teachers Association Selects Whitaker of WHS as Outstanding English Teacher of the Year

Dec. 1, 2014. The North Carolina English Teachers Association (NCETA) has chosen Watauga High School English teacher Mary Kent Whitaker as the Outstanding English Teacher in North Carolina for 2014-15. NCTEA makes this award annually to “an English/Language Arts Teacher who exemplifies the best of teaching the discipline.”

Mary Kent Whitaker
Whitaker

The recipient of this award is selected from nominations submitted by teachers and administrators across the state. After serving one year representing the best in the teaching of English, NCETA will pay her an honorarium for presenting an address at next year’s NCETA Conference and will cover the cost of her attendance at the event.

Whitaker said “It is humbling to be selected for this honor. We have so many outstanding English teachers in North Carolina who deserve this recognition, especially right here at Watauga High School and throughout our Watauga County Schools.”

Whitaker has already been recognized as an exceptionally accomplished teacher by her peers at the high school and by the Watauga County Schools system. She has twice been named the Watauga High School Teacher of the Year and the Watauga County Schools Teacher of the Year, and is the only two time winner of the district-wide award in the history of the Watauga County Schools. She won the honor last spring for the 2014-15 school year and won the same recognition for the 2010-11 school year.

Watauga High School Principal Marshall Gasperson praised Whitaker as “a truly outstanding teacher who has earned the respect of everyone at the high school and across our school system. Her statewide recognition is well deserved and we congratulate her on this latest honor.”

Mary Kent Whitaker has taught students for 38 years and is in her eleventh year at Watauga High School. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Columbia College and a master’s degree at Appalachian State University. She has also achieved National Board Certification, the highest professional credential available in the teaching profession.