During their recent end-of-year celebration,Texarkana Independent School District named two Teachers of the Year.

The district announced 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 4th Grade Teacher at Wake Village Elementary School.  She holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Education in Elementary Education from Texas A&M University-Texarkana.

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Gore has taught at almost every grade level – from kindergarten to adults.  She excels in recognizing the hidden potential in reluctant and uncooperative students, gets to know them, encourages them, inspires them and empowers them to find their own voice.  She finds joy in creating a reading culture and inspiring readers to think, wonder and read to learn.

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 70s.  For her, 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.

Chuck Zach, TISD Secondary Teacher of the Year, 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 in History from Texas A&M University-Texarkana.

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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.

It is Important to Zach 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 and is guiding them to show that students in accelerated and challenging academic programs is and can be diverse.

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 desires for students to be able to investigate for themselves where they came from and how they got here.

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 feels it is his challenge and responsibility to help students discover the impact that they can have by simply listening, collaborating and problem solving.

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