Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools
Paul McEwan
Hoover High School biology teacher Paul McEwan
Hoover High School biology teacher Paul McEwan today was named among the “final four” candidates for the 2017-18 Alabama Teacher of the Year, the state Department of Education announced.
The other finalist at the secondary level is Emily Sassano, a biology teacher at Benjamin Russell High School in the Alexander City school system.
The two finalists at the elementary school level are: Chasity Collier, a science teacher at Dawes Intermediate School in Mobile County, and Charlotte Hartley, a teacher at Montana Street Magnet School in Dothan City Schools.
The four finalists now will go through an extensive interview with the state judging committee, and the winner will be revealed at a ceremony at the RSA Plaza in Montgomery on May 10.
Alabama’s Teacher of the Year spends most of the school year serving as a full-time ambassador for education and the teaching profession, as well as presenting workshops to various groups. The state Teacher of the Year also automatically becomes a candidate for National Teacher of the Year.
McEwan has been teaching for 32 years in high schools in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina. This is his 11th year at Hoover, where he teaches biology to ninth-graders and 11th-grade International Baccalaureate students.
He has a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry and a master's degree in instructional technology, both from Asbury University. He lives in Alabaster.
