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September 27, 2021 0 Comments Schools in High Point Extraordinary Educators Allen Jay Preparatory Middle School Extraordinary Educators, GCS ..., Guilford County Schools, High Point Schools Partnership, HPSP,
Extraordinary Educator: Lauren Ackerman
Lauren Ackerman, Allen Jay Preparatory School, awarded High Point Extraordinary Educator by the High Point School Schools Partnership at High Point Country Club, High Point, N.C., Friday, August 20, 2021. (Lynn Hey photo)

2021 Extraordinary Educators: Lauren Ackerman


Great communities have great schools. High Point Schools Partnership creates impactful connections between our schools and the wider community to ensure students and their families are supported and can reach their full potential in High Point schools.

Part of High Point Schools Partnerships’ mission is to improve the image of our schools through storytelling. Who better to tell the stories of High Point’s schools than the people experiencing it first-hand? In this series of eight articles, we will highlight our 2021 High Point Extraordinary Educators as we dive deeper into what keeps them motivated in the face of constant challenges.


Lauren Ackerman

Lauren Ackerman will have been at Allen Jay Preparatory Middle School for 6 years at the end of this upcoming school year. She applauds the “phenomenal leadership” and “amazing teachers,” and cites her constant “learning and growing” as a result of her colleagues as some of the reasons she stays.

Allen Jay Preparatory Middle School’s principal, Kevin Wheat, says Mrs. Ackerman is someone who is “creative, passionate, and brings a high level of energy to the classroom.” According to Wheat, during remote learning, she “organized rotation schedules, developed robust online lessons, and communicated with students and families to ensure everyone’s success.  Her lessons were engaging, informative, and supported student learning under very challenging conditions.”

Mrs. Ackerman wants her students and families to know that she “gives 100% of myself every time I am in the classroom.” Although she may have high expectations, and there are times when scholars might want to give up, she will never give up on her scholars and “always has their best interest at heart.” She “will always be their biggest cheerleader in the classroom and will always be there to celebrate their successes and work through their challenges.”

Mrs. Ackerman wants to learn a foreign language “to be fun and exciting; not a burden or a bore.”

Q: What inspired you to become an educator?

A: My experiences in the Spanish classroom in middle school and high school inspired my love of the language and culture. I had some amazing teachers that challenged me in the foreign language classroom but also opened my eyes to a world beyond what I was familiar with. I was able to travel abroad in high school, and multiple times in college, which only solidified my interest in the Spanish language. I knew when I graduated I wanted to do something with the Spanish language and felt teaching was the path I should take, with the hope that I might instill the same type of passion and interest in another language and culture as my teachers instilled in me.

Q: What’s your teaching/leadership style?

A: I have very high expectations for my scholars because I know they can rise to the occasion and give every lesson their all and their absolute best. I want my scholars to be challenged, but I try to do it in a way to makes it less overwhelming. We sing! We dance! And we speak the language! I foster an environment where scholars can come to me with difficulties and can feel comfortable asking questions when they don’t understand.

Q: Do you have a classroom motto or philosophy you abide by? Why?

A: “Allow your students the opportunity to see mistakes and imperfections as part of the process.”

Learning a foreign language can be very challenging, and from time to time, a scholar will shut down and want to give up. I know how frustrating it can be to feel like you just… aren’t getting it. But, making mistakes and learning from them is part of life, and it’s expected whenever learning something new. When that same scholar that “just couldn’t get it” and wanted to give up finally grasps a concept, the confidence they gain and exude is magical.

Q: What’s your favorite part about every day?

A: The best part of my day is when I deliver a smooth, successful lesson that the scholars understand and enjoy. I love seeing the learning taking place and seeing the fabulous results. I love seeing scholars who may have been hesitant at first, or not very confident, start to develop the confidence to try speaking the language.

Q: What’s your most memorable moment as an educator?

A: There are many moments that have occurred throughout my 11 years of teaching that continue to remind me why I do what I do, but the most recent moment that resonates with me occurred about 3 years ago. It was the beginning of my third year at Allen Jay and I was on maternity leave with my second child. I received an email from a parent of a student I had during the previous 2 years. She simply wanted to say “thank you” for preparing her son so well in Spanish I during 7th and 8th grade. She went on to say he was doing great in Spanish II and that I had truly made a difference for him. This email had a huge effect on me because sometimes, as educators, we don’t know the impression we have on our scholars. I always hope I provide my scholars with the tools and skills needed to be successful. Receiving this email helped to validate what I do in the classroom and is a reminder that I am making an impact.

Ms. Lauren Ackerman “fully believes in Allen Jay’s program” and “loves to see the scholars thrive in an engaging and rigorous classroom environment” at Allen Jay Preparatory Middle School.


Thank you so much to Lauren Ackerman for your dedication to High Point’s students. Congratulations on being selected as your school’s 2021 Extraordinary Educator!

To find out more about High Point Schools Partnership and our work, please visit our Facebook page and check out our page on Guilford Education Alliance’s website.

Article written by High Point Schools Partnership Staff

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September 20, 2021 0 Comments Schools in High Point Extraordinary Educators Extraordinary Educators GCS, Guilford County Schools ..., High Point Schools Partnership, HPSP, The Kearns Academy,
Extraordinary Educator: Sandra Cordova
Sandra Cordova, The Kearns Academy, awarded High Point Extraordinary Educator by the High Point School Schools Partnership at High Point Country Club, High Point, N.C., Friday, August 20, 2021. (Lynn Hey photo)

2021 Extraordinary Educators: Sandra Cordova


Great communities have great schools. High Point Schools Partnership creates impactful connections between our schools and the wider community to ensure students and their families are supported and can reach their full potential in High Point schools.

Part of High Point Schools Partnerships’ mission is to improve the image of our schools through storytelling. Who better to tell the stories of High Point’s schools than the people experiencing it first-hand? In this series of eight articles, we will highlight our 2021 High Point Extraordinary Educators as we dive deeper into what keeps them motivated in the face of constant challenges.


Sandra Cordova

For the last 14 years, through “many different name changes and many different leadership changes,” Sandra Cordova has called The Kearns Academy her home. The “sense of family and camaraderie of embracing and adapting to change with grace has always been consistent,” Cordova says of her time at Kearns.

Kearns Academy principal Bryan Johnson describes Sandra Cordova as someone who “embraced virtual learning and initiated her own learning to provide her students a meaningful and useful virtual setting.” She “worked with other staff members to organize and visit unengaged students” and “serves as a translator and contact for a lot of our parents.” Ms. Cordova also “ensures students have lunches at school and that lunches do not go to waste” in addition to doing whatever it takes to help students be successful.

However, Ms. Cordova also wishes her students would remember that she “is also a human being” who will have “good days and bad days.” By remembering that, they would likely avoid most conflicts by “sharing that commonality and affording each other respect and patience.”

Q: What inspired you to become an educator?

A: I was blessed to have had an opportunity to stay home with my children when they were young.  I shared their joy and enthusiasm for learning so much that when they reached the age to attend school, I decided that I would like to continue being a mentor to children.  The most logical way to do that was to go into education.

Q: What’s your teaching/leadership style?

A: I started my career in education as a preschool teacher. However, I follow most of the same tenets that I used in my pre-school classes: speak with kindness, patience, and respect; model good manners and behavior; redirect rather than a reprimand and offer consequence choices, and teach and model personal responsibility and accountability.

Q: Do you have a classroom motto or philosophy you abide by? Why?

A: I have candy and gum that I sometimes give out for various reasons (mostly if a student has won a game). However, often I will have students ask if they can just have a piece of gum or candy. At the risk of being perceived as stingy, I let them know that they instead can EARN a piece of gum or candy. So, I may ask them to empty the trash can or collect and put away any books that have been left out or erase the whiteboard. My reason for doing this is to reinforce the value of work ethic and hopefully reduce the sense of entitlement that so many children seem to have adopted. 

Q: What’s your favorite part about every day?

A: The best part of every day is that moment when you can see the light bulb turn on for a student through the expression on their face.

Q: What’s your most memorable moment as an educator?

A: A few years ago, I had a student who seemed happy in school and always had a smile on her face. However, she started to struggle academically in all her classes and she reached the point of being at risk of not graduating. While touring the Wake Forest Museum of Anthropology, I noticed that she lingered around one of the ofrenda exhibits. An ofrenda is a display to commemorate the life of someone who has passed away, and this particular ofrenda looked to be one of a grandmother. Underneath the main photo of the grandmother were other pictures of people who presumably were her children and her grandchildren. I asked my student what she thought of the display when she suddenly teared up and told me the ofrenda made her sad. I asked her why it made her sad. She disclosed that her mom died of cervical cancer when she was very young, and recently, she herself had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. She said that she may never have a family tree like the one displayed in the exhibit and that she was scared. I gave her a hug and we found a corner to sit down and talk about things a bit more. 

After returning to school, I informed our counselor about her situation so that appropriate steps could be taken to reach out to her family. Our staff rallied around her by taking extra care to check on her well-being, offering any extra tutoring that she may have needed, and collecting money to help pay for some of her treatments. Eventually, her body responded to treatment and her mood and outlook improved. I am happy to say she graduated on time and went on to pursue a career as a firefighter. 

A couple of years later, I ran into her at the Dollar Tree looking at the decorations for Day of the Dead. We exchanged pleasantries and I asked her how she had been. She shared that she was doing well and that she was at the store to pick up supplies so she could create an ofrenda to honor her mom. She told me that the field trip we took all those years ago sparked something in her and now that her health crisis had passed, she could remember her mom with joy rather than sadness.

When we parted ways, a sense of pride and satisfaction welled up within me. I had just experienced one of those legendary moments that a teacher hears about but never thinks could happen to them. It was a moment that affirmed your profession, a moment that affirmed you made a difference in someone’s life. Evidence of student impact is more than statistics of academic growth; it is the result of a seed planted and later blossoming into a flower one at a time.


Thank you so much to Sandra Corvoda for your dedication to High Point’s students. Congratulations on being selected as your school’s 2021 Extraordinary Educator!

To find out more about High Point Schools Partnership and our work, please visit our Facebook page and check out our page on Guilford Education Alliance’s website.

Article written by High Point Schools Partnership Staff

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September 13, 2021 0 Comments Schools in High Point Extraordinary Educators Allen Jay Elementary School Extraordinary Educators, GCS ..., Guilford County Schools, High Point Schools Partnership, HPSP,
Extraordinary Educator: Florence Joyner
Florence Joyner, Allen Jay Elementary School, awarded High Point Extraordinary Educator by the High Point School Schools Partnership at High Point Country Club, High Point, N.C., Friday, August 20, 2021. (Lynn Hey photo)

2021 Extraordinary Educators: Florence Joyner


Great communities have great schools. High Point Schools Partnership creates impactful connections between our schools and the wider community to ensure students and their families are supported and can reach their full potential in High Point schools.

Part of High Point Schools Partnerships’ mission is to improve the image of our schools through storytelling. Who better to tell the stories of High Point’s schools than the people experiencing it first-hand? In this series of eight articles, we will highlight our 2021 High Point Extraordinary Educators as we dive deeper into what keeps them motivated in the face of constant challenges.


Florence Joyner

Florence Joyner has worked at Allen Jay Elementary School for the last 4 years.

Carla Flores-Ballesteros, Allen Jay Elementary School’s principal, nominated Ms. Florence Joyner as AJE’s 2021 Extraordinary Educator because Joyner “closely collaborates with the classroom teachers to provide systems of support for her students and to personalize learning for them.”

Ms. Joyner’s students “consistently meet or exceed expected growth from the beginning to the end of the school year” and she “communicates with parents effectively and provides resources to help them support their students.”

Ms. Joyner wants her students and families to know that this level of achievement is only possible when working together “as a team.” Ms. Joyner points out that as a team, there is “a shared goal and a shared commitment of giving seeds of knowledge, curiosity, encouragement, love, nurturement, and advocacy for our scholars,” which is truly what makes them thrive. It takes a whole village to raise our children, not just our educators.

Q: What inspired you to become an educator?

A: I was inspired to be an educator when I was reflecting on myself as a student. I wasn’t the brightest student, I was so afraid of asking questions and even speaking in class. So, as a student, I struggled. I wanted to become that voice for students who oftentimes (though unintentionally) get overlooked. I wanted to make sure students with disabilities knew that they too, can learn. I wanted to be that voice of encouragement and I wanted to be an advocate. 

Q: What’s your teaching/leadership style?

A: As an EC Teacher, I am flexible in my teaching style. I am also very reflective. I find that I must be a reflective teacher in order to figure out new ways to teach my students. My students learn on different levels and have different abilities. As their EC Teacher, it is my duty to develop ways to teach them where they are and present them with realistic challenges and goals to allow them to grow academically, mentally, and emotionally. I also assure them that I am with them every step of the way. 

Q: Do you have a classroom motto or philosophy you abide by? Why?

A: A quote that has stuck with me is “Every child deserves a champion–an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they be the best that they can possibly be.” This quote speaks volumes to an EC Teacher, as sometimes students with learning disabilities get discouraged and don’t realize their potential. Students need to know that even on their “not so good” days, their teacher is not going to give up on them. As an educator, I will continue to push and encourage my students to reach the next level. Having a true connection with students is important. With an established connection, they will begin to understand that when we insist on presenting them with challenges, it’s for them to grow and flourish.

Q: What’s your favorite part about every day?

A: I would have to say the best part of my day is when I get to witness student growth. Whether it’s academically, behaviorally, emotionally, or even when I get the pleasure of seeing my student ask questions about what they have read, or express curiosity about a topic discussed in class, it shows me that they are reflecting and wanting to learn more.

Q: What’s your most memorable moment as an educator?

A: I have many memorable moments as an educator, but one type of moment sticks out. It’s really several moments rolled into one. It would be the pride and excitement I see on my student’s faces when they earn an award with their non-disabled peers. Whether it’s A/B Honor Roll or Classroom Reading Awards, the look of achievement on their faces is simply priceless.  

Ms. Florence Joyner says Allen Jay Elementary School is “a very diverse school” that “feels like a family.” Everyone works together as a team to put the needs of their scholars first and ensure students thrive as lifelong learners. She finds her students and the community-focused atmosphere of Allen Jay Elementary is what truly makes her stay even in the face of challenges.


Thank you so much to Florence Joyner for your dedication to High Point’s students. Congratulations on being selected as your school’s 2021 Extraordinary Educator!

To find out more about High Point Schools Partnership and our work, please visit our Facebook page and check out our page on Guilford Education Alliance’s website.

Article written by High Point Schools Partnership Staff

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September 6, 2021 0 Comments Schools in High Point Extraordinary Educators Extraordinary Educators GCS, Guilford County Schools ..., High Point Schools Partnership, HPSP, Johnson Street Global Studies,
Extraordinary Educator: Valerie Bonde
Valerie Bonde, Johnson Street Global Studies School, awarded High Point Extraordinary Educator by the High Point School Schools Partnership at High Point Country Club, High Point, N.C., Friday, August 20, 2021. (Lynn Hey photo)

2021 Extraordinary Educators: Valerie Bonde


Great communities have great schools. High Point Schools Partnership creates impactful connections between our schools and the wider community to ensure students and their families are supported and can reach their full potential in High Point schools.

Part of High Point Schools Partnerships’ mission is to improve the image of our schools through storytelling. Who better to tell the stories of High Point’s schools than the people experiencing it first-hand? In this series of eight articles, we will highlight our 2021 High Point Extraordinary Educators as we dive deeper into what keeps them motivated in the face of constant challenges.


Valerie Bonde

A seasoned veteran, Valerie Bonde has called Johnson Street Global Studies her home for the last 13 years of her 22-year career.

According to principal Kristina Wheat, Ms. Bonde is “often referred to as the middle school student whisperer” because of her effective communication and relationship-building strategies both with students and parents. She’s also the first to “pitch in and offer solutions and ideas to teachers who are serving our most vulnerable students.”

Johnson Street Global Studies serves children from kindergarten through eighth grade. However, Ms. Bonde wishes her students and families knew that she still worries about them even after they move on to high school. She enjoys seeing those who come back and visit her, hoping that “in some way I made a difference in their lives.”

Q: What inspired you to become an educator?

A: My love of education came from my grandmother. She grew up during the Great Depression and was forced to leave school in the 8th grade to help support her family. Because of this, she pushed me to work hard and take advantage of the opportunities made possible with a good education. This work ethic made a difference in my life and I wanted to pass it on to others. I carry these values into my classroom by teaching students that education is the key to success and that their dreams can come true if they are willing to put the work into it.

Q: What’s your teaching/leadership style?

A: I am a firm believer that you need to establish a solid relationship with your students. This relationship must be built on trust and respect. A student needs to feel that you are invested in their education and that you respect them for all they have to offer in the classroom. I also make a strong effort to build a positive relationship with all my parents. I want my families to know that in order for their child to be successful, we all need to support each other.

Q: Do you have a classroom motto or philosophy you abide by? Why?

A: As an EC teacher, my philosophy has always been that every child needs to learn how to advocate for themselves. I want my students to fully understand their accommodations and how to use those accommodations to help them achieve success in the classroom. Most importantly, I want my students to feel confident and not embarrassed when put in a situation where they may have to ask for more time to complete a task or have something read aloud to them.

Q: What’s your favorite part about every day?

A: Lunchtime is my favorite part of the day because I will often have students in my room who earned the privilege to eat lunch with Ms. Bonde. During this time, we play games and discuss events that may have occurred during the day. We come up with strategies that will help improve the rest of their day. I also utilize this time with my students who need extra support with projects. My students know that my closet is always filled with extra supplies that they may not have at home. I feel that this is the best time of day to help my students who are struggling the most.

Q: What’s your most memorable moment as an educator?

A: This past school year will be the most memorable in my career. Trying to learn how to quickly teach remotely was very stressful and overwhelming. After several hours of learning how to use canvas and other online resources, I realized that I didn’t need to wow my students with technology. I just needed to be available to my students and their families during this crisis. My students and their families relied on me not just for academic support but to be there to provide resources and emotional support during these most trying times.

When it comes to talking about Johnson Street Global Studies as a whole, Ms. Bonde says “our administration and staff have made it a priority to treat everyone who walks into our building as if they are part of a family.” This family atmosphere has allowed students and the community to thrive because everyone is there to support each other during the best and worst of times. “Our little school has touched the lives of so many.”

Johnson Street’s motto has always been “Once a Jaguar, Always a Jaguar.” Ms. Bonde hopes to be a Jaguar for the rest of her career.

Thank you so much to Valerie Bonde for your dedication to High Point’s students. Congratulations on being selected as your school’s 2021 Extraordinary Educator!

To find out more about High Point Schools Partnership and our work, please visit our Facebook page and check out our page on Guilford Education Alliance’s website.

Article written by High Point Schools Partnership Staff

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High Point School News
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High Point School News
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