Chloe Wooden, a junior at North Point High School, recently won first place national and state titles in the Educators Rising National Competition. Educators Rising is a national student-led movement that aims to inspire high school and college students to serve their communities by entering the field of education.
Wooden created her own children’s literature piece from start to finish and taught a lesson on it. To brainstorm the final product, she would sit and read the story aloud, and then her original illustrations came to life on the pages.
Wooden comes from generations of educators and found her passion at an early age watching the instructional example of her mother in the classroom. After close observation of her mother’s teaching style, Wooden knew she wanted to work toward becoming an educator herself.
Wooden is a rising second-year student in the Education Careers program at North Point and president of the Educators Rising Maryland chapter. Co-sponsor of Educators Rising, Melissa Palmer, said, “[Wooden] exudes enthusiasm and creates a warm and welcoming environment for all members. She brings creative ideas to the club yet encourages the input from other officers making her not only a leader but a collaborator.” Wooden wanted to increase her involvement in the program and decided to enter the competition. She did not enter thinking she would excel in the way she did, but she knew she had a passion for the field of education.
At first glance, Wooden thought her first place certificates were simply documents of recognition for her participation in the competition. “It did not register what it [her first-place certificate] was…,” Wooden said. Later, someone noticed her certificate, congratulated her on her success and at that moment she realized the exciting accomplishment she achieved.
After high school, Wooden plans to attend a university in the metropolitan area and study history or elementary education.