Teachers of the Year from Alvarado ISD were among Fort Worth-area educators honored Thursday at a special awards banquet hosted by the Region 11 Education Service Center at The Bowden in Keller.

Lisa Sherrill, a third-grade teacher at Alvarado Elementary North was the district’s Elementary Teacher of the Year representative while the Secondary Teacher of the Year representative was Scott Svendsen, a social studies teacher and coach at Alvarado High School.

The banquet, hosted by the Education Service Center Region 11, recognizes all of the teachers of the year from school districts in the north central Texas region. The Teacher of the Year Program, sponsored by the Texas Association of School Administrators, allows districts to submit one elementary and one secondary candidate to compete at the regional and state levels. Seventy-one teachers, representing 39 school districts in Region 11, participated in this year’s competition.

­District winners who competed for the regional award were required to submit their resume describing their educational history and professional development. In addition, they were asked to write their own professional biography as well as five lengthy essays detailing: a defining lesson they have developed, a special project or initiative they have spearheaded, an example of how they connected students to their community, knowledge of educational issues, and their message/platform should they be selected as the state teacher of the year.

The regional selection panel, comprised of teachers (including a past regional winner), assistant (more) principals, and central office staff from school districts within Region 11, reviewed and scored all of the essays before selecting the regional winners. In addition to these two regional winners, 10 teachers (five elementary and five secondary) were recognized with a “best of category” essay award.