Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com
While Madison County District School Board Chair Bart Alford is not serving the Madison County community in his capacity on the school board, he still continues to serve young people as a speech and language pathologist with the Taylor County School District, in Perry, Fla. Alford's work and dedication was recently recognized when he was named “Teacher of the Year” for Taylor County Elementary School.
“It really is a tremendous honor,” said Alford, who makes his way to 21 third through fifth-grade English-language arts classes on a daily basis to assist with reading, language and vocabulary instruction. Alford helps to supplement the instruction students are receiving in the classroom with activities related to the content the classroom teacher is teaching at the time. “This began as a way of helping students that may have been behind in terms of reading,” said Alford. “After a while, we discovered that all the kids were benefitting from the program. We've seen gains [in reading] across the board.” The students aren't the only ones who are benefitting from Alford's instruction. “I get a lot of physical exercise going from class to class,” said Alford with a chuckle. “I often walk from a class on one side of the school to another on the other side. I certainly get my steps in every day.”
Alford has been serving the Taylor County School Board for nine years, but has served both Madison and Jefferson County Schools over his 25-year career. Alford received both his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in speech and language pathology from Florida State University. He holds professional licensure in Speech – Language Pathology and Certification of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.
Alford is also in the running to be named the district Teacher of the Year for the Taylor County district. From there each district's Teacher of the Year will be in competition for the State of Florida's Teacher of the Year.