Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools held their Annual Recognition Reception last week where several teachers in the schools were honored with awards, including the 2018 Teacher of the Year, Jasmine Johnson.

“It is quite the honor; it’s been an absolutely phenomenal school year,” Johnson said. Johnson has been at Mary Scroggs Elementary School for five years, where she teaches fifth grade. She says she knew she wanted to be a teacher from a young age.

“We have such a great support system within the building, in the district level, and our parents are absolutely phenomenal. We have students that are relatively well-rounded and so they bring such an excitement and such a knowledge base, which has been really awesome to work with,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Appalachian State and a minor in music, said as a teacher she is really trying to shape students to have a thirst to continue to thrive.

“We still have kids that are still energetic and excited, and they look forward to the crazy songs that we sing whether its about parts of speech or point of view; they are always excited to learn,” Johnson said. “They come in and say, ‘Mrs. Johnson, what are we going to do today?’ And that’s something, especially with fifth grade where we’re about to send them off into middle school, we want them to really grasp that love of learning and have that excitement throughout their careers.”

According to Johnson, working at Scroggs Elementary is always an adventure.

“We’ve launched a new project in the fifth grade at our school. Instead of being Scroggs Elementary we are Scroggwarts, inspired by Harry Potter houses, and it’s been a really great year,” Johnson said.

Johnson received a $1,000 check from Pinnacle Financial Partners, as well as gifts from area businesses. Honor Teachers and other teacher of the year awards were also given on Tuesday, as well as classified staff of the year awards and Exceptional Children Student Services Staff of the Year Awards.