Four local teachers have been named Master Teachers by the Professional Standards Commission, an honor that recognizes them as demonstrating excellence in the classroom and earns them a special seal on their renewable teaching certificate.

“Not only are our Master Teachers leaders in our school and they do serve on advisory committees at our system level as well as the state level, but also they serve as mentors and coaches for their peers,” said Annette Murphy, director of personnel and government programs for Carrollton City Schools. “We feel they’re very well deserving of this award and recognition and we’re extremely proud to have them working with our students.”

Two teachers from Carroll County, Philip Burgess and Michelle Nowlin, and two teachers from Carrollton, kindergarten teacher Kelly Hudson and high school language-arts teacher Betsy Brown, were named this year. Carroll County had teacher Susan Caffrey named in 2006.

Burgess and Nowlin both work at Bay Springs Middle School; Burgess teaching eighth-grade science and Nowlin eighth-grade math.

“He is actually on my team and has been on my team for the past three years, teaches right next door to me,” Nowlin said. “We have two entirely different teaching styles. Neither one of us are traditional teachers. Neither one of us are stand up in front of the classroom, ‘you listen to me, you write these notes down and study them and here take a test.’ ”

While Nowlin is plugged into technology in the classroom and uses interactive technology to keep her students motivated, Burgess prefers more low-tech methods to get his lessons across. The difference is evident in their classrooms – Burgess’s contains a pool table, while Nowlin’s uses wireless and hand-held devices for the students to respond to information on the computer-connected smart board at the front of the class.

Nowlin doesn’t just teach a subject and move on. On her tests, anything that has been taught during the year might show up in the questions. Burgess uses drills to keep information fresh in his students’ minds.

It’s gratifying to know that their unorthodox teaching methods get results and to be recognized for their students’ gains, they said.

“I’m a different type of teacher,” Burgess said. “I don’t use books. I don’t believe much in homework.”

He uses the pool table to teach some of the concepts of physics — for instance, when one ball hits another its momentum is transferred to the stationary ball. He uses hands-on activities and humor to keep the kids interested. His methods work. Two years ago, his students scored an average of 16 points above the state average in the science section of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test that the state uses to gauge adequate yearly progress. This year, the average was 15 points above the state average, he said.

The teachers aren’t judged just on their students’ test scores, though. They also have to show leadership and that they fulfill all their professional duties, Murphy said. The Master Teacher program has been in existence since 2005, the first teachers were recogniz ed in 2006. In 2009, 112 teachers were named Master Teachers, a designation that recognizes their success in the classroom as well as their leadership in their school and system.

The teachers must have been teaching for at least three years and be able to document all their successes. The teachers had to include information such as the professional learning they participated in, communication with parents, letters from administrators and colleagues, notes from observers in their classroom and copies of lesson plans. It took the teachers several weeks to pull all the information together for their applications.

Now that they’ve been named Master Teachers, they will be able to take a more active role in mentoring and supporting teachers throughout the state, Murphy said. They will be representing their schools and their school systems in state committees, to give guidance to the state.

“Both Betsy (Brown) has served as an academic coach at the high school and Kelly (Hudson) has served as a coaching peer at her school as well,” Murphy said.

Now those leadership roles will be extended to the entire state as they represent the voice of educators to the agencies that serve them, she said.

There is no monetary benefit to having the designation – no hike in pay or reward from the state, but that is not what the teachers find most valuable about the designation.

“I like the idea that they’re finally beginning to try to recognize teachers in Georgia,” Nowlin said. “It was just nice to finally see that there was a way they were recognizing teachers who were having positive CRCT results with their students.”