Tulsa World: Teachers of the year

Husband and wife, Randy and Lorie McGee are both teachers of the year from their respective districts. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World

By Sara Plummer
World Staff Writer

TAHLEQUAH — Between them, Randy and Lorie McGee have taught for almost 50 years.

And this year, the couple, who have been married for 27 years, are both being honored as teachers of the year in their districts.

They are taking the accolades in humble fashion.

“We’re usually the quiet ones and let everyone else do the talking,” Lorie McGee said.

But Randy McGee doesn’t think a husband-and-wife duo could take teacher-of-the-year honors again.

“We’re both the type that give 110 percent. If we get something, great. If not, we’ll still give 110 percent,” he said.

Lorie McGee is Tahlequah Public School’s teacher of the year. Her husband, Randy, was selected for the same honor at Indian Capital Technology Center.
Now a literacy coach at Greenwood Elementary School, Lorie McGee was a first- and second-grade teacher for 17 years. She’s taught at the same school — the one she herself attended — for 24 years.

“I’ve been there most of my life,” she said.

Randy McGee has taught horticulture, landscape design and power products at the technology school’s Tahlequah campus for four years. Before that, he taught at Muskogee Public Schools.

Their respective bosses say the couple couldn’t be more deserving.
“They are people in the community that work to help children and help the community,” said Greenwood Principal Brenda Hathcoat. “It’s not surprising. It’s a high honor and deserving of these two people.”

Denver Spears, the technology school’s Tahlequah director, taught Lorie McGee when she was a student, and now knows Randy McGee as a good teacher and consummate professional, he said.

“She is cut from the same fabric,” he said of Lorie. “I count it as a blessing to have been a part of both of their lives.”
Both find teaching fulfilling.

“With the kids that I get, they’re in need of someone scooping them up from drowning in the classroom. I rescue them out and try to give them a strong foundation of reading,” Lorie McGee said.

Randy McGee loves watching a student go from being introverted to engaged in class and clubs.

“Sometimes you have to take it out of the classroom,” he said, so he occasionally cooks a meal for his classes at school so they can get to know each other.

“It opens up more doors for communication. We’re prepping students for going out into the working world.”

The couple see their jobs as more than just teaching students how to read or landscape a yard.

“A lot of kids have no direction,” Lorie McGee said. “If they don’t feel good about themselves, you’re sunk already.”

Sara Plummer 581-8465
sara.plummer@tulsaworld.com

Click on each picture to read a Q&A with the teacher.



Malissa Barker Jenks West Intermediate Sixth grade 17 years	Andrea Gaines Union Intermediate High School, Union Ninth- and 10th-grade biology 11 years	Laneta Going Stuart Roosa Elementary, Claremore Kindergarten through 4th-grade visual arts 19 years



Brian Grimm Will Rogers High School, Tulsa 10th- and 11th-grade English 13 years	Missy Inbody Central Elementary, Bixby Fourth grade 23 years	Johnnie Marshall Catoosa High School Mathematics 21 years



Edwina Roller Ator Heights Elementary, Owasso Fifth-grade science and writing 25 years (all at Ator)	Lisa Seay Clyde Boyd Middle School, Sand Springs Sixth-grade science, pre-AP science, and Think Tank (a gifted/talented elective) Six years	Lee Ann Smith Herald Elementary, Collinsville Third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade special education – mild/moderate disabilities 10 years



Angela M. Syverson Sperry High School Ninth-grade physical science, 11th- or 12-grade anatomy/physiology, yearbook 8 years	Kristen Tanner Woodlawn Elementary, Sapulpa First grade 3 years	Liliane Vannoy Haskell Middle School, Broken Arrow 7th- and 8th-grade Spanish 20 years

Each school district can select a teacher of the year who then participates in the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year program. Finalists for the state’s top educator are chosen over the summer and the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year is announced at the State Fair of Oklahoma in September.

The winner will be chosen by a committee of education, business and civic leaders and will receive tens of thousands of dollars in prizes, plus a yearlong paid sabbatical that will allow the teacher to speak about education at colleges, conferences and other events.