BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — It's teacher appreciation week and the County of Kern is recognizing its educators by selecting the "Teacher of the Year" finalists.
Out of 56 teachers in Kern County only three were picked to be finalists for Teacher of the Year. All of them said the choice was something they didn't expect.
“And it was a complete shock," said Almond Tree Middle School teacher Yazmin Herrera. "I was totally surprised, and I felt so honored and humbled by the recognition.”
“Of all the stream of emotion, and all the adjectives I could use I think the biggest one is validated,” added Veronica Karr, a teacher at Rosamond High Early College.
“Sitting and they’re listening to all the bios and all the great things people are doing in education then you get that imposter syndrome sometimes listening to all the great things other people are doing," said Stockdale High School teacher Brian Devitt. "So I was definitely humbled by the opportunity."
Shocked, validated, and humbled. Those were the emotions running through Yazmin Herrera, Veronica Karr, and Brian Devitt's minds as they were selected to be a kern county Teacher of the Year finalist with their schools and students being just as excited as them.
“Well you can’t see it on camera and you can see the new confetti stuck in the ceiling so when my virtual enterprise kids found out about it on a Tuesday night Wednesday we came in and they had confetti cannons stuck in their backpacks and just out of nowhere, pop confetti cannon‘s for us and so that’s kind of a cool feeling that if they were as excited as i was and as my family was so it meant a lot to me,” continued Devitt.
It's no question why these teachers stood out to Kern County for when asked what their favorite part of teaching is it's all about student growth and happiness.
“You see the doubt in their eyes in August. That they’re not sure they’re actually gonna be able to do this and then you grow with them and see them in November and January and March and April when we went to New York and see how far they’ve come, there’s no better feeling,” said Devitt.
“Watching students just go from 'wait what are you talking about' and then take on the challenge of learning is pretty amazing,” added Karr.
“And so essentially at the end of the day, that’s what our kids want to feel, they want to feel seen, to want to feel safe and so I am at that is my goal every single day,” said Herrera.
The next step for these teachers is the California Teacher of the Year program, The Kern County Teacher of the Year selection committee will choose the two most competitive applications and submit them to the California Department of Education to be considered.
But no matter if chosen or not these teachers just want to use their platform to support education.
“There’s no greater thing that we can do for kids and make sure that they understand the importance of education,” said Devitt.
