Sally Meyer, a teacher at Crabapple Lane, has been selected as the elementary school level Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year for 2015 by the Georgia Council on Economic Education.
Meyer, a math and social studies teacher, will be presented with a commemorative award and a $1,000 check at the council’s annual luncheon on May 8 at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta.
The Fayette County school system has had eight winners of the award since 1998, and has produced 14 percent of the winners since the creation of the award in 1986.
Meyer has spent her entire 17-year teaching career in the Fayette County Public School System. She started at Peeples Elementary and has worked at Cleveland, Tyrone, and Robert J. Burch elementary schools before moving to Crabapple Lane. She was selected as Crabapple Lane’s teacher of the year in 2010, and chosen as a finalist for the Fayette County Teacher of the Year award that year.
Teaching is a second career for Meyer. Prior to becoming a teacher, she was a successful banker. She applies what she learned in banking to help students make real life connections to both math and social studies. Meyer creates her own teaching units, which integrates subjects and links real life to school.
“I enthusiastically share my sense of wonder and love of leaning through original units that require critical thinking, are based on my own learning adventures, and make specific connections to real life outside of school,” Meyer said.
Nominees for Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year must be teachers in ether public or independent schools in Georgia who are either teaching a course in economics or integrating economics into other courses at any grade level. Teachers must demonstrate knowledge of economics appropriate to the grade level or courses being taught, an ability and willingness to use a variety of appropriate teaching methods and resources, and enthusiasm and creativity in teaching economics.
A panel of judges selects up to three finalists at each school level (elementary, middle and high). The finalists are interviewed and observed in their classroom to determine winners of the award.
