TISD announces Teachers of the Year
During the recent end-ofyear celebration, Texarkana Independent School District named Cindy Gore as Elementary Teacher of the Year and Chuck Zach as Secondary Teacher of the Year. Both now move forward for consideration as Region VIII Teacher of the Year.
Gore, who has 30 years in education, serves as a fourth-grade teacher at Wake Village Elementary School. She earned a bachelor of science degree and a master of education degree in elementary education from Texas A&M University-Texarkana.
She has taught at almost every grade level–from kindergarten to adult.
When Gore began with TISD in 2007, she was inspired by Muriel Summers from A.B. Combs Elementary to be part of the Leader in Me program and work with students and families to grow leaders on the same campus she attended as a student in the 1970s. She said encouraging individuals to be proactive and understand others builds a positive school culture and fosters lifelong skills that will enhance relationships and employment. She explicitly teaches kindness and reminds students that the things they repeatedly do and say become part of who they are.
Gore works with her students to not only establish a culture of reading to grow lifelong readers but also a culture of kindness , respect and empathy to foster good behavior and skills for the future.
Zach is a history teacher at Texas High School who has been in the field of education for 24 years. He holds a bachelor of science degree in history from Texas A&M University-Texarkana.
Zach’s academic priority is making history relevant and relatable. He aims to create a desire in students to want to learn more outside the confines of the classroom and to not let history just be names and dates but the stories that have made our past experiences memorable and important.
He said it is important to see diversity in advanced placement classes and to become part of the change. To this approach, he was instrumental in the development of the AP Ambassador program at Texas High. Zach strives to involve parents and family members of students into the investigation of their own personal histories in order to engage living family members more intimately with the education of their children. He wants students to be able to investigate for themselves where they came from and how they got here.
He said he believes education is the front line of the battleground for our future and that schools have the ability to bring diverse young people together, provide them with an opportunity to listen to each other, collaborate and solve problems together. As a teacher, Zach said it is his challenge and responsibility to help students discover the impact that they can have by simply listening, collaborating and problem solving.