Allison Kerner

news@breezenewspapers.com

A Harns Marsh Middle School eighth grade teacher was surprised Friday morning with the Lee County Teacher of the Year Award.

“It was a huge surprise. They blew me away,” said Allison Kerner, an English Language Arts teacher and Peer Collaborative Teacher, Friday afternoon.

Friday morning, at 10 a.m., Superintendent Dr. Ken Savage, district administrators, school board members and Harns Marsh staff surprised Kerner with the award.

As the county’s teacher of the year, she will now be nominated for Florida Teacher of the Year with the Florida Department of Education announcing the winner this spring.

As the Teacher of the Year Kerner received a prize package valued at more than $2,000, which includes tickets to a concert at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, a dinner show at Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, a gift card to Dunkin Donuts, museum tickets and a book at Edison & Ford Winter Estates; a custom name tag by Fred’s Award World; a travel package from Hertz; a custom item from Mark Loren Design; floral bouquet from Ruth Messmer Florist; gift certificate to Snyderman Shoes and a gift card from Suncoast Credit Union Foundation.

She said she was asked to do an elementary school presentation to fifth grade classes, and as she was walking, getting ready to go, she was pulled out to the courtyard where district coaches, coordinators and her whole team was there to surprise her.

“It was so awesome,” Kerner said.

She said her Marsh family is second to none as they offer encouragement, collaboration and open arms and doors.

“It’s a huge benefit,” Kerner said.

Harns Marsh Middle School Principal Alex Dworzanski said that Kerner is an “absolute rock star” in the classroom.

“For one shy, soft-spoken 12-year-old this meant finding the courage to stand in front of a room full of people and deliver a 5-minute speech without any notes,” Dworzanksi wrote in his nomination letter. “For an academically challenged student who had already been held back three times, this meant finding the motivation to keep picking himself up until he earned all As, Bs and Cs on his report card.”

Five years ago she became a teacher at Harns Marsh Middle School. The calling to become a teacher occurred when she was a fourth grader attending Mirror Lakes Elementary School. When her sister passed away in 2003, her teacher, and other teachers, rallied around her, supported her and cared for her.

In a June interview, for receiving the district’s second APPLES Mentor of the Year award, Kerner said “my world view collapsed. I wasn’t aware of loss, tragedy.” A teacher took her in after school while her mother was working and did homework with her, becoming her second family.

This year she began teaching eighth grade English Language Arts, which she said is fun and new for her.

“I have the best kids, their personality is fun. I think our school has the best kids,” Kerner said. “It’s cool this year coming off of COVID and having a new grade level.”

She teaches half of the day, and then is available for coaching and mentoring with teachers for the rest of the day. She mentors 12 teachers in the Language Arts Department.

Just after two years of teaching, Kerner was appointed English Language Arts department chair. Under her leadership, increases in proficiency improved Harns Marsh Middle School’s grade from a C to a B. Seven percent more growth was shown in the first quarter for the ELA department.

Kerner works alongside two other coaches at her school where they debrief daily, which many times leads to wanting to step up her game, or take the ideas back to her classroom.

She said over the summer they had chats through Zoom where they diligently collaborated to set up the school year.

Kerner’s former principal challenged her to get out of the comfort of her classroom and take on the new role. She said it makes a huge impact on teachers.

“Probably the No. 1 is encouragement. Being supportive . . . battle together, which is awesome,” Kerner said of coaching and mentoring.

Another area is student engagement and looking at how they can get students to become more collaborative.

She said having the students back this year has been a huge help. When she stepped into the role of a peer collaborative teacher they were doing virtual learning.

“I don’t think I am doing what I love. It doesn’t feel right,” she thought. “Having the kids back makes a world of a difference. We are making a new normal.”