Two First-Year Mississippi Teacher Corps Teachers were named "Teacher of the Year" by their respective school districts. Sarah Alford, originally from Greenville, Mississippi, was named "Teacher of the Year" at Humphrey County High School in Belzoni. Clint Blacker, from Burns, Oregon, was named "Teacher of the Year" at North Delta Alternative School in Sumner. Both teachers were first-year teachers in the Mississippi Teacher Corps.

"We are very proud of Sarah and Clint," said Ben Guest, Program Manager for the Mississippi Teacher Corps. "We've had lots of second-years named teacher of the year, but, to my knowledge, never a first-year."'

"I was extremely flattered and touched," said Sarah, an Ole Miss graduate who teaches 12th grade English.

Clint, a graduate of Oregon State, taught math to several grades at the alternative school. "I was a little surprised," said Clint. "It is a good feeling."

Many of Sarah's students had started using the phrase "That's what I'm talkin' bout" anytime something good happened. "I finally had to ban the phrase because the kids said it so much," said Sarah. "When they handed me the award at the assembly I looked at my students, pointed at the award, and said, 'That's what I'm talkin' bout.' As you can imagine the kids were very excited."

The Mississippi Teacher Corps is a two-year program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in critical-shortage areas in the Mississippi Delta, in exchange for a full scholarship for a masters' degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi. The program was founded in 1989 and has provided more than 300 teachers, reaching an estimated 90,000 students, to critical-shortage districts.

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