Wicomico names 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year. Get to know the Wicomico Middle educator.
Debbie Reynolds, a seventh grade world history teacher at Wicomico Middle School, was named the 2024-2025 Wicomico Teacher of the Year on Thursday night in an announcement at the Teacher of the Year Spring Celebration held at Venue 54 in Delmar.
Get to know the 2024 Wicomico County Teacher of the Year
Reynolds, 31, has taught history at Wicomico Middle for seven years, during which she was the first recipient of the McCain Foundation’s Rising Star Award for outstanding second-year teachers (2019). Wicomico County Public Schools is proud of this excellent educator who got her start as a student in Wicomico County Public Schools, attending Pittsville Elementary and Middle, Prince Street Elementary, Bennett Middle and James M. Bennett High, graduating in 2010.
“This sounds cliché, but I have been working toward becoming Wicomico Teacher of the Year since 2010, when I was a senior at James M. Bennett High School. Ever since then, I have thought endlessly about how I could successfully represent the very county which educated me,” Ms. Reynolds said in her written prompt packet. “As teachers, we have the duty to represent and advocate for our students when they want to be seen, heard and valued. That is exactly what I plan to do” as Wicomico Teacher of the Year.
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Reynolds attended Salisbury University, receiving her bachelor’s degree in history (2015) and Master of Arts in Teaching (2017). She began teaching with Wicomico County Public Schools in August 2017, and has spent all seven years at Wicomico Middle. She is a member of Kappa Delta Phi, the prestigious national educational honor society.
She was featured in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt podcast Teachers in America, which highlights the stories of educators from around the country. She is currently working toward National Board Certification.
Following the announcement of her name on Thursday evening, the Board of Education presented her with the traditional engraved golden apple award that it gives only to the Wicomico Teacher of the Year.
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Celebration at the new Teacher of the Year’s school Friday morning
Reynolds will be celebrated at Wicomico Middle starting at 10 a.m. Friday, April 12, when she will arrive in a classic 1949 Buick Super driven by Wicomico band teacher and auto enthusiast Buck Burton. Plans are in the works for a law enforcement motorcycle escort, because Reynolds loves to ride her motorcycle.
The entire seventh grade of Wicomico Middle, as well as some of the eighth grade students and guests, will be out front to meet her, along with Wicomico Middle’s renowned drumline. There will be a parade through the school to the auditorium, followed by an assembly.
“We are thrilled that Debbie Reynolds of Wicomico Middle School now represents all of Wicomico’s 1,400 teachers as the 2024-2025 Wicomico Teacher of the Year,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Micah Stauffer said. “We’re proud that she is not only an excellent teacher, but one of our outstanding graduates. She will represent her school, Wicomico County Public Schools, and its students and teachers very well in the Maryland Teacher of the Year Recognition Program.”
Wicomico is proud to have had three former Maryland Teachers of the Year working in the school system on behalf of students: Aaron Deal, April Todd and Bonnie Walston (now retired). The past four Wicomico Teachers of the Year, Tara Martens (2023-2024), Rebecca Mathews (2022-2023), Dustin Thomas (2021-2022) and Hemalatha Bhaskaran (2020-2021), were state finalists for Maryland Teacher of the Year.
This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Wicomico Middle educator is county Teacher of Year. Get to know her.
