When Principal Gordon Butler bombarded her room wearing a huge drum with a bouquet of balloons in his hands, Humanities I, II and AP English III teacher Carol Winters thought she had missed out on a pep rally.

Instead, she had been awarded 2016 Teacher of the Year.

“I kind of panicked,” Mrs. Winters said. “I thought I had missed out on an email about a pep rally. It never dawned on me. And then someone started kicking my door, and I looked up and just screamed. I was truly shocked.”

While this is her 13th year teaching, Mrs. Winters didn’t want to be a teacher right away.

“When I graduated from college, teaching was the last thing on my mind,” Mrs. Winters said. “I did not want to teach. I had this idea that I didn’t know enough to teach. I had majored in English so everyone assumed I was going to teach. No…. There’s this adage that says: those who can, teach; those who can, do. I wanted to do.”

She first worked for Baylor Alumni Association and then moved to Dallas as a writer/editor for a technical service company based in Plano.

“The great part of that job was I started out doing the technical writing and editing and met my husband, but then moved into marketing and public relations,” Mrs. Winters said. “I was able to hone the craft. I wrote press releases; I wrote speeches for corporate executives; I wrote brochure copy; I wrote advertising copy. I learned about the thing I eventually ended up teaching.”

Her love for teaching first blossomed in the classroom.

“My daughter was in kindergarten, and I was still in the corporate world,” Mrs. Winters said. “When I volunteered in the classroom, these little kids would write books and illustrate pictures. There was this passion and magic in the classroom. I wanted to be a part of it. So, I climbed off that corporate ladder, I quit my job, and about a year later I went back and became certified to teach. Here I am!”

Co-worker and AP English III teacher Amy Smith has known Mrs. Winters ever since she started teaching.

“When I first met Carol, I was the language arts director for the school district,” Mrs. Smith said. “She came into training I was doing, and oh my gosh, I knew she was going to be amazing. We kind of clicked.”

Mrs. Smith was actually the one who nominated Mrs. Winters in the initial voting.

“I look up to her,” Mrs. Smith said. “She’s creative and dedicated. She’s relentless. She really pushes kids. She spends an enormous amount of time making sure she has lessons that are relevant and interesting to kids, but also challenging. I get her humanities kids as juniors, and she’s instilled in them this love for reading and writing. Her students love her.”

Therese Camaligan was one of these students.

“It’s hard to see her as just a teacher, because she’s been there for everything, and she will be there through everything,” Therese said. “She’s one of the most caring people I’ve ever met. You never know what’s going on behind the scenes because she always makes it about you.”

Junior Huntley McSwain had Mrs. Winters as a freshman, and now has her again.

“When I found out she was teaching AP English III, I was so excited,” Huntley said. “I know her a lot better. I know what kind of work she expects. She cares about her children and the education of her children, and you can really see that in her teaching.”

Awarded Teacher of the Year at Scott Johnson in 2006, Mrs. Winters’ dedication to teaching has never stopped.

“I am absolutely overwhelmed that people see me that way, and that people voted for me,” Mrs. Winters said. “It’s humbling too, because there are so many great teachers in this building- in this district. I look at the list of people who were ‘Teacher of the Year’ from some of the other campuses, and I know many of them. And to be in that company is an honor.”