Veteran educator is top teacher

When the state superintendent announced her name as teacher of the year, Mary Jane Morris, wearing a bright red shirt, popped out of her seat like a ripe apple waiting to be picked.

Morris was immediately surrounded by news cameras and well-wishers at Northwest Middle School in Salt Lake City Tuesday afternoon.

"We have good secret keepers around here," she said. "I did not know about this."

After a standing ovation from other educators and approximately 800 students, Morris received a $10,000 check, along with two dozen pink, purple, peach and cream roses.

"Many years ago, I had a principal and her phrase was, 'When you do good things, good things happen to you,' " she told the crowd. "This is the best that's ever happened to me."

Morris' students and other teachers ran onto the stage to place various decorations around her neck, including gold-colored beads and Polynesian wooden beads with turtle and fish hook pendants.

"Teaching is not a one-person job. It's about all of us together," Morris said. "There is no greater joy I have than being in the classroom with you."

Morris, 58, teaches reading, as well as classes for the school's college encouragement program called Achievement Via Individual Determination (AVID). She also initiated a Journalism Academy for the school and partnered with the Diversity Times newspaper last year.

"Words really can't express the gratitude we feel here at Northwest to have one of the best teachers in the state in our ranks," said Northwest Middle School Principal Rod Goode.

This is the second year the Salt Lake City School District has had a Teacher of the Year. Morris succeeds Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh, a second-grade teacher at Dillworth Elementary School.

Morris will also receive a SMART Board interactive white board at a banquet Nov. 6 to honor Utah's district and charter school teacher nominees. Three runners-up will each receive a check for $3,000 at the banquet.

Morris will represent Utah in the national Teacher of the Year competition in Washington, D.C., next spring. She will also travel to Space Camp in Alabama next summer.

The teacher said her car just broke down, and her award money might go for repairs or a new car.

Morris' AVID students cheered and whistled as she returned to her classroom after the short assembly.

"My birthday is next week," one student hinted.

Her students are her biggest fans. Eighth-grader Evelyn Del Cid, 13, said she likes how Morris "is the role of a mother to us and really cares about us kids as people."

Eighth-grader Jeff Skinner, 14, said Morris is enthusiastic and pushes him to do better and get into rigorous work.

"I'm glad she got the award 'cause she really deserves it," he said.