Ashley Lockwood, a fifth-grade teacher at Lulu Ross Elementary in Milford School District, has been named the 2023 Delaware Teacher of the Year.
“Teaching children has been one of the greatest blessings and gifts that God has ever given me, and for that, I will be forever grateful,” Lockwood said during the award ceremony Tuesday night.
“Thank you to my students who deserve nothing less than my best every single day,” she said. “I hope that they know that they teach me just as much as I teach them.”
In addition to winning $5,000 to use for her students, Lockwood was personally awarded $5,000.
The other 19 finalists all earn a $2,000 grant from the state.
Last year’s winner, Jahsha Tabron, a special education teacher at Brandywine High School, had a clear message for this year’s winner.
“Don’t doubt your ability to do the work that it takes to provide comprehensive, rigorous and culturally competent educational experiences for all of our students,” Tabron said. “Don’t doubt the power and conversations, connections and building community. My work is not done. Your work is not done either.”
Lockwood joined her district’s newly formed equity action committee and chairs her local Union’s Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee.
Her administrators say she creates a great sense of community within the classroom and with their families while being available at all times to share needed support and resources.
Lockwood said she became a teacher because “after parents and families, teachers have the greatest impact on the lives of children.”
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
