North Carolina's top charter school teacher this year teaches at Forsyth Academy in Winston-Salem, according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Third-grade teacher Jenni Clayton won the award late last year, though it wasn't formally announced until last week.
"I love my job," Clayton said. "I have the best job there is. I love … that we get to watch kids grow here."
Clayton, 31, said she tries to build "life-long learners" in her classroom by "making learning an adventure."
Lori Hill, the principal at Forsyth Academy, said Clayton's brain "is really wired differently" than most people's.
"She gets kids to think," Hill said. "Making connections with the child's world and how it relates to the subject matter. And it just takes their thinking to a much deeper understanding of the content."
Teacher of the year awards are given out at most schools around the state, with the schools themselves making the decisions. Those winners compete for regional awards, which the Department of Public Instruction gives out after reviewing submissions and making classroom visits.
Traditional public schools are divided into regions based on geography for the contests. But charter schools — which are publicly funded schools freed from some state mandates in an attempt to spur innovation — are lumped together statewide in their own group.
Clayton won in the charter school group, and now she's in the running for the state's overall teacher of the year award against eight teachers at traditional public schools. If she wins that, it means a $5,000 bonus and a year's sabbatical touring the state, talking about teaching.
Clayton said she has been a teacher for nine years. She's from Michigan and has a master's degree in early-education curriculum and development. She's working on another post-grad degree from UNC Greensboro in educational leadership, which she hopes to finish next winter.
Clayton said she taught in Michigan at another charter school run by National Heritage Academies, the parent company that operates Forsyth Academy and other schools around the country. She and her husband moved to Kernersville about five years ago when he got a job in Greensboro.
Clayton said she became a teacher because "there was a need. There's a need for adults to really connect with kids," she said. "I struggled through part of my early elementary years. ... I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to teach kids how to read."
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