12 Oklahoma Teacher Of The Year Finalists Announced

Finalists for the 2014 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year have been introduced by state Superintendent of Schools Janet Barresi.

The 12 finalists were introduced on Wednesday at the general session of the State Department of Education's Vision 2020 Conference in Oklahoma City. School superintendents from the finalists' districts, former Teachers of the Year and former finalists for the award also attended.

Six state regional committees comprised of teachers and parents each selected two of the 12 finalists.

• Barbara Bayless was a 3rd-grade teacher at James Griffith Intermediate School in the Choctaw-Nicoma Park School District for the past five years. She will be a reading specialist in the coming school year. She has nine years of teaching experience.

• Frank V. Cooper is a 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade world history and comparative religions teacher at Charles Page High School in the Sand Springs School District with 20 years of experience.

• Jentri Guinn is a 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade English teacher at Porter High School in the Porter Consolidated School District with eight years of experience.

• Betina Jones-Parra is a 10th- through 12th-grade Advanced Placement calculus, pre-Advanced Placement calculus and Algebra II teacher at Noble High School in the Noble School District with 21 years of experience.

• Tera Landrum is a 5th-grade teacher Oak Crest Elementary School in the Broken Arrow School District with three years of experience.

• Peter L. Markes is an 8th- through 12th-grade string orchestra and Advanced Placement music theory teacher at Edmond North High School in the Edmond School District with 12 years of experience.

• Dana Moore is a kindergarten teacher at Woodland Hills Elementary School in the Lawton School District with 19 years of experience.

• Therese D. Rawlinson is a fifth-grade teacher at Jane Phillips Elementary School in the Bartlesville School District with nine years of experience.

• Mara Richards is an 8th-grade science and pre-Advanced Placement physical science teacher at Durant Middle School in the Durant School District with 15 years of experience.

• Susan Rindal is a prekindergarten teacher at Vanoss Elementary School in the Vanoss School District with 15 years of experience.

• Chelsea Roberts is an 8th-grade American history teacher at Woodward Middle School in the Woodward School District with two years of experience.

• Eddie Lou Strimple is a pre-kindergarten through 5th-grade music teacher at McKinley Elementary School in the Enid School District with 42 years of experience.

Math teacher Elaine Hutchison in the Fairview School District in northwestern Oklahoma, is the state's Teacher of the Year for 2013. She teaches at Fairview High School and Chamberlain Middle School and is a National Board Certified Teacher with 19 years of classroom experience.