Congratulations to Otwell Middle School’s Mike Sloop, the 2006 Forsyth County Teacher of the Year. Additionally, he is the 2006 Forsyth County Middle School Teacher of the Year.

Mr. Sloop has been an eighth grade earth science teacher at Otwell Middle School since 2002. He has a Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Masters of Science degree in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University and also holds a teaching certificate in middle grades math and science. Mr. Sloop is currently pursuing his endorsement in gifted education.

The Forsyth County Teacher of the Year program is sponsored by The Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce.

Below is a letter from Mr. Sloop’s principal, Dr. Jeff Zoul, that was read at the 2006 Partners in Education/Teacher of the Year Luncheon on May 3, 2006.

March 1, 2005

To Whom It May Concern:

It is without hyperbole that I unequivocally and confidently state that Mr. Mike Sloop is the greatest teacher in the universe. In my twenty-five years of public education service in the State of Georgia, I have never worked alongside a teacher so dedicated to his craft, to his students, and to his profession. Mike has a rare passion for both his subject matter and his students that separates him from all the other outstanding educators with whom I have been associated. His recent selection by his peers as Otwell Middle School’s Teacher of the Year is very well deserved and has been widely hailed by our entire school community.

As with any Teacher of the Year, Mike Sloop possesses an extremely high level of content knowledge. Prior to entering the field of education, Mike worked as an engineer and still incorporates much of his expertise from that arena into his classroom today. While Mr. Sloop’s education and expertise are superior to any other teacher I know, this is not his greatest strength. Instead, it is the manner in which he relates to young people and his uncanny ability to transmit his love of learning unto all learners at our school. The students who are fortunate enough to have Mr. Sloop as a teacher often make it a point to share with me both how much they learn about Earth Science in his class as well as how much they learn about life in general. I have never heard any parent, teacher, or student utter a single negative word about Mr. Sloop.

Mike Sloop is truly dedicated to our school mission of doing whatever it takes to ensure the success of all learners. Each year, Mr. Sloop shares with his students and their parents two of his core annual goals: that he will maintain perfect attendance and that no child will fail his class. The fact that all students are able to pass his class is definitely not due to the fact that his is an easy course. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Mike’s 8th grade science class is one which exudes academic rigor and standards based learning. When students do fail a test or an assignment, Mike is relentless in finding ways to re-teach and remediate instruction so that all learners can master the standard. Mike does something almost unheard of in teaching to ensure student success: free of charge, he holds a “Saturday Academy” session for students who have failed some component of his course. This requires that Mr. Sloop arrive at 8:00 each Saturday morning and remain until every child has been picked up by a parent, typically at around 12:30. During this time, Mr. Sloop re-teaches core skills and concepts and allows students to re-take tests to bring up failing grades. Mike does this quietly and without drawing a great deal of attention to his extra efforts, but it does not go unnoticed by our students and their parents. To date this year, no student has failed to attend any scheduled Saturday Academy session and each of the 130 or so students Mr. Sloop teaches passed his rigorous 8th grade Earth Science class for the first semester grading period.

Mike Sloop is a master teacher in the classroom, but he also serves our school in a number of ways beyond his own room. Mike is a veteran member of our school’s leadership team and is a vital advisor to our Parent Teacher Organization’s student volunteer club. He also serves as one of our coaches, working closely with our boys’ and girls’ track teams. He offers intramural running sessions (again, free of charge) intermittently throughout the school year and attends nearly every Otwell Middle School athletic contest throughout the year. Mr. Sloop has attended summer training sessions on a wide variety of educational topics and has been instrumental in returning to our school to train teachers in what he has learned. He has been a leader in Assessment for Learning practices, creating our outdoor classroom, and implementing our Professional Learning Communities, which we established this year. Mike organizes trips for students to receive hands on, practical experience relating to what is learned in his classroom. I have accompanied Mike and his students to nearby creeks to test water quality and inspect the living organisms in the area. Mike also chaperones our students each spring on our educational journey through Georgia historical sites, including Plains,Savannah, Jekyll Island, and the Okefenokee Swamp.

As much as I respect Mike Sloop, the educator, I may well be even more impressed with Mike Sloop, the human being. While his extensive knowledge, educational preparation, and experience make him ideally suited to serve as our Teacher of the Year, I am further compelled to endorse Mike because he is a caring, compassionate man whose values and personal characteristics are above reproach. Mr. Sloop is extremely active in church and civic organizations and gives back much more than he will ever receive. Each summer, Mike embarks upon a mission trip overseas, reaching out to those less fortunate and educating young people around the world. Simply stated, Mike Sloop is a role model for every student with whom he comes in contact as well as every educator in our school system. There is no teacher alive who works as many hours finding new and better ways to improve the lives of his students. Our school community is genuinely blessed to have Mike Sloop on our team; he richly deserves any honors and accolades he may receive.

Sincerely,

Jeff Zoul, Principal

Source: Forsyth County Schools