Two teachers from Rowan County Senior High School were honored with the Kentucky Department of Education’s 2024 Kentucky Teacher Achievement Awards. The KDE gave 22 awards last week, each educator who received this award is eligible to compete for Teacher of the Year in 2024.
Officials said the award honors exceptional educators who go above and beyond, including Rowan County’s Sara Peyton and Sam Whitehead. Whitehead was a Math Teacher at RCSHS, he said encouraging students to care is core to his philosophy.
“Not a lot of people get excited about math class. The only way you can make students excited is when you get excited about it and you care about them. That, to me, that’s what ultimately this award comes from: how much I care about my students,” said Whitehead.
This year was the second year in a row that at least one educator from each of the commonwealth’s 171 school districts was nominated for the Kentucky Teacher Achievement Award.
Whitehead said his passion about teaching led him toward receiving this award.
“It all starts with caring. You have to care about your content, you have to care about the school, you have to care about the students. If I had to go back and do everything over I would have done it the same way.”
All 22 teachers will be celebrated at an award ceremony in Frankfort on September 13th. After the best teachers in Elementary, Middle, and High School are chosen the 2024 Kentucky Teacher of the Year will be announced.