Excellent Educators is a WAVY-TV 10 initiative to celebrate local teachers who have gone above and beyond for their students and communities during the last academic year. These Excellent Educators were nominated by their school divisions. Congratulations to these educators for all of their hard work and accomplishments!
Name: Courtney Bailey
Division: Perquimans County Schools
Position: Computer science teacher at Perquimans County Middle School
What the school division said about this Excellent Educator: Courtney Bailey is a rare commodity. Her creativity and out-of-the-box thinking surpass most “accomplished” teacher. As a career and technical education computer science teacher, Bailey does not just plan lessons, she analyzes, investigates, designs, and creates engaging hands-on learning experiences. Students in her class compete in things like the Hamilton Challenge, where they repurpose common equipment into useful inventions, and the Ozobot Challenge where they design robots. Students in her class have multiple opportunities to apply ideas, code computers, visit universities, and compete among other schools.
Bailey builds relationships with staff and students on a daily basis. She leads programs like Girls Who Code, Future City, and Qualcomm camp. She targets involvement from underperforming students, disadvantaged, and at-risk students. Students that struggle with anger management, mental health, and other high-risk behaviors excel in her class because she spends time cultivating a relationship and allowing them to self-discover. Last school year, she led Project GUTS, where eighth-grade students mentored fifth-grade students in science.
Bailey’s impact on education is evident throughout our building, community, and at the regional level. She is the exploratory department chair, CTE chair, Women that Code advisor, and grant writer. As a leader in multiple capacities, she helps create school budgets, policies, and handbooks. Additionally, she stays abreast of legislative developments, curriculum revisions, and their effect on educational practices.
In the past five years, she has been awarded 14 Donors Choose grants, yearly field trips to ECU and N.C. State, the Walmart grant, Unity grant, Bright Ideas, Finch Robotics, Target grant, and a big Verizon grant. All of these opportunities impact students and open opportunities.
Bailey is not only a “great” CTE teacher, she is the best middle school computer science teacher in the state. The proof is in the pudding. If you are wondering whether or not all of the above activities matter, just check out the competitions that her students participate in, the multiple awards we have won, and the grants she has been awarded. I urge you to visit her classroom and watch the students’ minds come alive through her leadership.
