Group names Evans High instructor teacher of year

Evans High School has an award-winning teacher on its staff.

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Martha McGough has been named the Georgia Family and Consumer Science Teacher of the Year.

"I was nominated by a teacher from another part of the state," she said. "I didn't even know that I was nominated."

With her award, McGough is eligible for the national Family and Consumer Science Teacher of the Year honor.

"She got the award for the job that she does day in and day out. She's just an incredible teacher. She has taken our early childhood education program to a different level," Assistant Principal Chris Segraves said.

He commended her for the "level of professionalism and commitment that she brings to work every day."

Segraves also praised McGough for her abilities in the classroom and with the Family Career and Community Leaders of America. The FCCLA is a nonprofit career and technical student organization that focuses on the family and promotes personal growth and leadership development through family and consumer science education.

McGough has produced many state and two FCCLA national champions in her nine years at Evans, Segraves said.

Sixteen 3-year-olds enrolled each year in a "live preschool lab" at Evans High keep her students busy, McGough said. As part of their studies, the students make lesson plans to teach the class for a week.

"All of my students need to have the opportunity to learn that educating children can be fun," McGough said. "It's hard not to have fun when you have so many little children who are so eager to absorb anything you put out there."

She said 12 of her former students are majoring in early childhood or elementary-school education at Augusta State University or the University of Georgia. In addition, McGough said, a couple of her former students are working in elementary education.

"Even if this is something they don't choose as a career path, it's always something they can use to provide a positive home environment," she said.