Henry Daily Herald

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) recently announced a McDonough resident, Debra Peabody, as the Region II winner of ACTE’s Teacher of the Year Award.

Peabody is now one of five finalists competing for the 2012 national title of Teacher of the Year, which recognizes educators who have made significant contributions toward innovative, unique and novel programs that improve and promote career, technical and agriscience education (CTAE).

“I was just shocked,” said Peabody, the CTAE department chairperson at Union Grove High School, in McDonough. She said she has taught a combined 28 years, all in Henry County.

She opened the CTAE Program at Stockbridge High School, where she taught her first 17 years. She also opened the career-tech program at Union Grove, where she has taught for the past 11 years.

“It’s quite an honor to be selected,” Peabody said. “I know how much work all teachers do. It was quite an honor to be selected to represent teachers in the region.”

Peabody serves as an adviser to both the SkillsUSA Team, and the National Technical Honor Society, at Union Grove. And as a proponent of bringing the real world into her classroom, she hosts events, such as “Lunch with an Engineer,” and organizes an annual job-interview fair for the school’s CTAE students.

She estimates that more than 12,000 students have been interviewed by hundreds of local and state businesses, industry and education professionals over the past decade, through the job-interview fairs.

“She’s providing students with an opportunity to apply what they’re learning in their academic courses to real life,” said John Uesseler, Henry County Schools’ coordinator of career technical and agricultural education.

Uesseler said Peabody is in rare company for educators in Henry County. “This is actually a first for Henry County,” he said. “I’m just excited for Ms. Peabody. It’s a big deal to be at the level that she is at, and we’re being represented really well here in Henry County.

“The value that she’s bringing, when students get involved in a career-tech program — it’s really setting them up and giving them the tools to be successful once they graduate and move into their professional lives,” Uesseler said. “She expects a lot out of her students, and gives high-caliber instruction in return.”

Peabody attributes her success to her students’ accomplishments and their determination to succeed both, in and out, of the classroom.

“Deborah has made significant contributions to both the field and her students’ lives through her commitment to real-world learning experiences in the classroom,” said ACTE Executive Director Jan Bray.

“ACTE is honored to celebrate outstanding career and technical educators like Debra Peabody with the regional Teacher of the Year awards,” Bray said. “We are delighted that she will join the other exemplary regional Teacher of the Year awardees in competition for the national Teacher of the Year award.”

The winner of the national award is scheduled to be announced at the ACTE’s Annual Convention in St. Louis, Mo., on Nov. 18.