Oklahomaâ€™s Teacher Of The Year Finalists Announced

Friday, July 7th 2006, 10:20 am

By: News On 6

Out of about 50,000 teachers in Oklahoma, they're the cream of the crop. The State School Superintendent announced the 12 finalists for teacher of the year Friday and several of them are from northeastern Oklahoma.

News on 6 education reporter Ashli Sims says Muskogee, McAlester, Sand Springs, and Broken Arrow are all represented in the top 12.

The News on 6 caught up with two of them to find out why they're called the best in the state. They're the best of the best, according to a committee of their peers. And many of them still can't believe it.

"To be named the top 12 is more than I ever would have dream." Broken Arrow Teacher Diana Beaulieu says she comes from a family of educators. She currently teaches third grade at Liberty Elementary, where her colleagues call her a teacher's teacher. She says she's been in the business of impacting lives for three decades and she still receives a Christmas card from one of her very first special education students. "Just seeing him become a successful adult and raise a happy family kind of every year reminds me that what I did do with him thirty-some years ago was very important and did have an impact on his life."

â€œI am having trouble not clapping after each and every one of these.â€ Sand Springs teacher Diane Brown's humility might come from her humble beginnings. She says she grew up sandwiched in between a brilliant older brother and a brilliant younger brother, but she struggled. "I became a teacher because I was one of those kids who needed the extra help and got it. And wanted to do that with my life, help kids who needed the extra help.â€

Brown's giving the fourth-graders of Angus Valley Elementary a little extra help and doling out some to her fellow teachers as well. "So its kind of like an infection. We're just getting better and better. So I'm there for the children, but I'm also in there to help other teachers to help children."

Muskogee middle school teacher Linda Hasler-Reid and McAlester's Connie Sloan are also in the running to be Oklahoma's teacher of the year.

The winner will be named in September.