Get to know Escambia County Public Schools' Teacher of the Year: Angela McFarland

When Escambia County Teacher of the Year Angela McFarland teaches her students how to make a PowerPoint — it isn’t one of the many monotone step-by-step lectures that circulate YouTube.

Her students at West Florida High School open up a blank PowerPoint slide, and using their mouse, monitors and keyboards, design their future apartment from the roof looking down.

Yelps of frustration fill the classroom as McFarland gradually introduces each new feature that forces them to rethink their designs. The couch can be a different color? Texture? Angle or shape? This changes everything!

“The beauty about it is that project has been shared all over our county, and all over our state,” McFarland said. “It’s unbelievable what students can do.”

No drawing is too far-fetched, and it’s the only place where a television can stretch from one living room wall all the way to the other. Long-graduated students have since called her, blaming her for their falsely optimistic expectations of what apartments actually look like once they start living on their own.

But what the students fail to pick up on, while they are too busy being swept away in deep conversation with their peers over where each imaginary plant or painting should be hung, they are secretly learning to use a valuable presentation program that will stay with them forever.

“You really need to, as a teacher, put yourself in the student’s shoes and say, would they get this through a book? Or can we make this into a project that would be better and more relatable for them?” McFarland said. “Students still talk about it when I run into them.”

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McFarland has not only challenged herself to learn fresh, cutting-edge technology as it is unveiled year after year, but develops creative ways for her students to learn it in a fun way.

By the end of the year, she administers industry certification exams that help pay for college credits and even pay raises in their workplace.

“We have a little over 70% pass rate on the exam right now, which is absolutely wonderful considering adults take the same exam,” she said.

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Aside from the certifications, students accumulate a wide variety of projects over the years taking them through many avenues of multimedia that introduce them to a little bit of everything.

“We have students over the years that have saved their animations, saved their photography projects from ninth grade, saved their video files,” she said. “Our biggest thing that they walk away from us with are the industry certifications.”

Not only does she educate teenagers but she paves the way for other teachers by using her summer vacations to learn new programs herself before they are rolled out school-wide to train and answer questions once the school year begins.

Business department chair, Escambia Virtual Academy teacher, hiring committee member, Google Classroom trainer are only a handful of hats she wears every day without any expectation for recognition in return.

She has known her calling as a teacher since she was in fourth grade, but her 26-year-long career with Escambia County Public Schools is far from dull, as her students keep every day interesting.

“When I got Teacher of the Year, I received congratulations from several students. But several of my male students stopped by the door…and they would whisper, ‘congratulations’ and then they would go on because they didn’t want their classmates to know,” McFarland said. “They wanted to still look cool. It made me laugh.”

McFarland said that it is not only special to her to be nominated as a veteran teacher, who has spent decades mentoring fellow teachers and students, but as a teacher outside of the typical core subjects.

“Obviously I was very excited, very truly honored, especially to represent career and technical teachers. Career and technical teachers are what we used to call the workforce education teachers. ... I feel like I’m representing the entire career and technical department of Escambia County,” McFarland said.

District Superintendent Tim Smith said that McFarland has not only been able to keep up with the ever-changing times of technology and business but she excels in creating new curriculum and keeping students engaged.

“Mrs. McFarland has been right in the middle of moving curriculum from that more traditional to a more applied curriculum. When you think about our current learners, they’ve grown up with technology,” Smith said. “The kids see why I need to learn this. They see that it has value. They see, ‘I could have a job one day utilizing this content or this skill.’ She’s moved that curriculum, keeping kids on the cutting edge and interest high. … It’s huge."

“Our culture is changing — That can sometimes be hard for us in education. Angela has embraced that,” Smith said.

McFarland will now represent Escambia County Public Schools in a state Teacher of the Year competition.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia County Teacher of the Year is Angela McFarland