2022 New Mexico Teacher of the Year is Lorynn Guerrero. a teacher at New America School, who was herself a non-traditional student.
Many state and community leaders in education attended the award ceremony for Lorynn, including New Mexico Public Education Department secretary-designate Kurt Steinhaus, who introduced Guerrero.
New Mexico has around 21K teachers; so being singled out as “best in state” is not too shabby.
As Teacher of the Year, Guerrero will represent New Mexico in Washington, D.C., for the National Teacher of the Year competition. After being named Teacher of the Year, an educator is offered a year of rigorous learning experiences, with opportunities to explore educator advocacy, education policy and leadership.
New America School in downtown Las Cruces has focused on students whose life contingencies got in the way of high school. They also work to address ESL students, and those who perhaps lost faith in their own ability to learn successfully after “failure” at Public Schools. They’ve had success with those goals for students who otherwise were not going to find their way back to education.
New America School teacher named New Mexico Teacher of the Year