Seventh Grade Math and Seventh and Eighth Grade STEM Teacher Amber Daly is Copper Basin High School’s Teacher of the Year.
In her 16th year teaching, Daly said, “I wanted to express thankfulness to my colleagues for awarding me with this honor and considering me worthy of the title. I also wanted to express the love I have for my school, kids, community, administration and coworkers for making my job one that I love to come to each day. It is truly rewarding to know that I’m where I’m supposed to be, doing the job I was made to do. I love my job and feel so very blessed to get to be a part of Copper Basin High School.”
Daly has taught at Basin for eleven years, and previously taught fifth grade for five years at an inner-city school in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“They are so similar you just wouldn’t believe it,” Daly said in comparing the children in metro versus rural areas. “Kids are kids is what it amounts to, doesn’t matter where you are.”
She is the coordinator for the Verizon Innovative Learning program for the school and instructs in the school’s After School Program.
With a B.A. in Psychology and a M.S. in Education from the University of Tennessee and an Ed.S. in Curriculum & Instruction from Lincoln Memorial University, Daly said, “Education is important.”
With that said, she added that she intends to pursue a doctorate.
“We’re all working two or three times harder than we normally do because I am, I feel like, I am not only a classroom teacher, but I’m an online teacher, so we’re all wearing a bunch of hats right now, and so to be voted for it this year is just extra special I feel like because we’re all going above and beyond,” Daly said of being named Teacher of the Year.
The title is nomination based where teachers nominate peers they feel are deserving of the title. They also must provide an explanation for their chosen nomination.