Monday, October 22, 2012

Sedge Garden Teacher Receives 2012 Teacher of Excellence Award




Carolyn Woods, a speech-language pathologist at Sedge Garden Elementary School, has received the 2012 Teacher of Excellence Award, given by the Exceptional Children (EC)
Division of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Woods has been a speech pathologist for 38 years and has taught at Sedge Garden since 1977.

“I feel very humbled to receive such an honor,” Woods said. “I feel that I have a true passion for my job as I can truthfully say ‘I love my job.’ Although many of my students learn at different rates and have a variety of speech/language issues I hope that I can make a difference in their lives as I work to make them successful and confident communicators.”

In the letter nominating Woods, Susan Battigelli, the school system’s program specialist for speech-language pathology, hearing-impaired and assistive technology, wrote, “Over her career, Mrs. Woods has provided an exceptional level of service to these students, who exhibit a range of impairments including those with severe and multiple disabilities. Moving beyond the basic expectation of providing services to these high-needs students, she has served as a motivator, model, and advocate, and has extended a quality of instruction and support that has made it possible for her students to advance to the next level of development and independence.

“Mrs. Woods has served literally thousands of students through her school-based services, on top of several thousand more through the Sertoma Summer Speech Program. It would not be an exaggeration to state that her professional accomplishments have left a lasting impact on generations of children within the community. She serves as the finest example of an educational speech-language pathologist, and Winston Salem/Forsyth County is proud to call her one of our own.”

In addition to her full-time job at Sedge Garden, Woods, who is a member of the Old Salem Sertoma Club, has coordinated the Sertoma Summer Speech Program for the past 23 years. Funded by Sertoma, the five-week summer program at Bolton Elementary School provides services for approximately 100 speech/language delayed children.

“I am most appreciative of the members of local Sertoma clubs for their funding so that this is an affordable program for parents and for the support that the school system gives in providing a space to hold the program,” Woods said.

Woods earned both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in speech pathology at Appalachian State University. She has been married to Jeff Woods for 38 years. They have two adult children and one grandchild and are members of Mount Tabor United Methodist Church.

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