Teacher of the Year (TOTY) is an award given school-wide and district-wide between several schools. For the 2018-2019 school year, the staff at NFHS has voted for Mrs. Amy Dykes to be the NFHS teacher of the year, and she has even been chosen to represent North as one of the seven finalists for District Teacher of the Year!

Mrs. Dykes began teaching in South Georgia in August 2000. She said that it was a struggle starting out. “College prepares you for lesson plans, creating tests and such,” she says, “but it is impossible for college to prepare you to manage a classroom.” She went on to say that every student had different social, emotional and physical needs and that to manage those needs and their behavior was something that she needed to learn as she went.

Over time, though, she says that she began learning something new every day, figuring out how to better handle situations and have great communication with students and parents. She feels that her presentation skills have become better and that she is “always looking for any and every way possible to improve,” while also having to keep up with changes in technology.

Mrs. Dykes also stated the fact that she would “really, really love to see every student succeed. [She tries] to find every way possible for [her] students to have an opportunity to show [her] that they have learned the content.” She knows that many of her students face mountains of obstacles along the way, and she wants to be their partner and help them out.

Out of all her struggles and triumphs in her years of teaching, the most important reason why she was voted NFHS Teacher of the Year is because of her mindset: “I really strive to make sure my students know that I care about them, that they are noticed, and they are important. I have found that most students do not care about what you know until they know you care.” She wants her students to know that she cares about their learning and that she cares about what they learn. She wants her students to know that she is not only their teacher but their partner in learning the content.