Watauga High School English teacher Amanda Wallace has been selected as a member of the Teacher Voice Network (TVN) for NC, a group established with the primary purpose of helping to facilitate a public dialogue on ways to support professional educators and strengthen education.
“Being chosen to participate in the Teacher Voice Network is an incredible honor and we are extremely proud of Amanda Wallace for her selection,” said Watauga High School Principal Marshall Gasperson.
Watauga County Schools Supt. Dr. Scott Elliott said that the participation of Wallace was a tribute to her commitment to excellence and to the professionalism that characterizes teachers in the Watauga County Schools.
“We are very proud of the way our teachers lead and serve in their classrooms and in their profession,” Elliott said. “As a member of the Teacher Voice Network, Amanda Wallace will be an important voice for her colleagues throughout our schools and our state. We congratulate her for being chosen and we thank her for this service.”
Just 31 teachers from across the state have been selected to participate in the TVN. Candidates were chosen on the basis of a demonstrated record of excellence in teaching, strong leadership and communication skills, and their support for education reform at the local, state, and national levels.
Wallace holds National Board Certification, the highest credential available in the teaching profession, and completed a masters’ degree in reading education at Appalachian State University. She has been very active in international education initiatives, having been a participant in the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program and in the exchange program between the Watauga County Schools and Pakistan. She was also awarded a fellowship with Teachers for Global Classrooms, a program that includes field experience in the Philippines.
The NC TVN is a partnership of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), and Hope Street Group, a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization focused on helping teachers understand and influence the development of education policy. TVN participants are provided with special training and resources to help them identify teaching challenges and propose solutions to district and state policy-makers. The training they will receive includes methods to collect and analyze data, how to engage and coordinate with state and national peers, and ways to communicate effectively with other educators, the general public, and policy makers.
Similar programs have already been implemented in Hawaii and Kentucky and are being pursued in additional states. Each state program shares the common goal of helping local, state and national policy makers make decisions about education policies that are informed by the experience, insights, and ideas of teachers.
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