Greystone teacher wins Air Force Association Teacher of the Year for Birmingham-Tuscaloosa area
The Air Force Association today honored Greystone Elementary School second-grade teacher Carol McLaughlin as the Teacher of the Year for the Birmingham-Tuscaloosa area.
Lt. Col. Bill Lussier, president of the Air Force Association Chapter 100, and Congressman Gary Palmer, who represents Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District, personally presented McLaughlin with the award at her school in front of her students, administrators and parents.
Lussier said the award is given out annually to a teacher who excels in teaching science, technology, engineering and math. McLaughlin was chosen because of the work she did with her students on a “Three Little Pigs” project in which the students were asked to design a wind-resistant house for less than $800.
The students teamed up to design the houses, build them and even test them with a leaf blower, McLaughlin said. Three of the houses withstood the leaf blower on a high setting, just a few inches away, she said.
Lussier said he was impressed how McLaughlin focused not only on how the houses would be designed, but also coming up with a design within a budget.
Next, McLaughlin will have a Realtor come into the classroom to talk with the students about how they would sell the houses that they designed to the three little pigs, and the students will follow up with sales presentations, she said.
Lussier told McLaughlin’s students that the Air Force wants to reward teachers who instill a love of science, technology, engineering and math in their students because the Air Force will need people in the future to design high-speed aircraft, the crafts that go to outer space and the computers that the Air Force uses.
Palmer, who serves on the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee, told the students that the United States will be sending a mission to Mars in the next 10 years or so. They could be involved in that effort or in flying some supersonic aircraft for the Air Force, Palmer said.
The Air Force Association also gave McLaughlin $500 for winning the award from Chapter 100. More than 60 teachers from the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa area were nominated for the award this year, Lussier said.
She also will receive a free one-year membership to the Air Force Association, which includes a one-year subscription to the Air Force’s Airman magazine that McLaughlin can share with her students.
This is McLaughlin’s 25th year in teaching and her 10th year at Greystone Elementary.
Greystone Principal Kathy Wheaton said she nominated McLaughlin for this award because she does such a fine job with project-based learning, integrating numerous subjects into the same project. “She builds learners,” Wheaton said.