Gwinnett Daily Post

LAWRENCEVILLE - Gwinnett County Public Schools has named 20 semifinalists in this year's Teacher of the Year competition.

A committee will select six finalists later this month, and the winner of the annual competition will be announced Nov. 1 during a banquet.

Original teaching methods, the teacher's teaching philosophy and special class projects, along with the teacher's educational degrees and civic activities, will help determine who will be selected as the county's Teacher of the Year.

The semifinalists are as follows:

' Mary Beth Peterson, kindergarten teacher at Alcova Elementary

' Adrienne Thompson, fifth-grade teacher at Cedar Hill Elementary

' Rob Hutcheson, 11th-grade language arts teacher at Collins Hill High

' Katherine Zrolka Eisner, a special education resource teacher at Corley Elementary

' Carla Evans, a mathematics specialist at Duncan Creek Elementary

' Martha Brick, an eighth-grade science teacher at Five Forks Middle

' Greg Field, an AP Calculus teacher at Grayson High

' Susan Wadkins, a special education teacher at Gwin Oaks Elementary

' Doug Callahan, a seventh-grade gifted mathematics teacher at Glenn C. Jones Middle

' Lissette McRea, a sixth-grade language arts teacher at Lilburn Middle

' Mandy Collins, a gifted education teacher at McKendree Elementary

' Beth French, a first-grade reading teacher at Meadowcreek Elementary

' Daphne Carroll, a second-grade teacher at Rebecca Minor Elementary

' Christy Duke, a special education teacher at the Monarch School

' Casey Weeks, a language arts teacher at Norcross High

' Joey Nunn, an eighth-grade physical science teacher at Frank N. Osborne Middle

' Pasha Souvorin, a digital media production and design teacher at Phoenix High

' Judy Stephenson, a literacy coach at Riverside Elementary

' Tina Gay, a fifth-grade gifted education teacher at K.E. Taylor Elementary

' Mitzi Ethridge, a gifted language arts teacher at Margaret Winn Holt Elementary.