- Duplin County Schools
- Overview
NDJS Teacher Named WITN's Teacher of the Week
DUPLIN COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - WITN’s Teacher of the Week for November 4 is Sheila Young, an English teacher at North Duplin Jr-Sr High School.
Young, a Duplin County native, says teaching is her second career. For 20 years, she worked at Duplin County’s hometown newspaper as a news reporter. After the paper underwent some dramatic changes, she decided to switch career paths. She began substitute teaching for several months before heading back to school and getting her teaching license from ECU.
Young says her passion has always been writing. She strives to show her students how fun and creative writing can be. She says she also tries to encourage her students to love reading by bringing stories to life in the classroom. Her students write poems, plays, TV scripts, create their own superhero and write letters to interesting characters in literature in her class. Young says they also act out scenes from stories and plays in the classroom to make it as visual and engaging as possible.
As a teacher, Young says making a connection is important to her. She says she shares many newspaper war stories and ties them into the lesson of the day. She also shares personal stories from her own career working as a reporter with her students.
Her teaching philosophy is to believe in second chances and to care for her students. She says that is ultimately what many students need and what she works toward every day.
Young is married with two daughters, two grandchildren and another on the way.
The person who nominated Mrs. Young wrote, "I would like to nominate Mrs. Young from North Duplin Jr-Sr High School.
She is a hard-working teacher that works no matter what day or time. When I’m doing an assignment and have a question at 11 or 12 at night, she answers me in less than 10 minutes. She is grading assignments at midnight and even on Labor Day! This shows how much she cares about her students and her work.
I am doing school online and she makes me feel like I was at school. She makes assignments easier to submit. If some of us are falling behind, she will extend the deadline so we don’t get points off. When I’m worrying too much about submitting an assignment, she calms me down and tells me not to worry.
She is a great teacher and her first career was not even teaching! She was a professional journalist for the newspaper for 20 years, but she is doing a great job teaching now.
These are the reasons I believe Mrs. Young should be Teacher of the Week."
Congratulations Mrs. Young!
Every week during the school year WITN will recognize a Teacher of the Week on WITN News at Sunrise. The winner receives a plaque and $100 gift card for school supplies.
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