Broughton High School educator named Wake County’s 2022-23 Teacher of the Year
A Broughton High School special education teacher has been named Wake County’s top teacher just six years after she was named one of its best new educators.
Caroline Olson, an Extended Content Standards Teacher at Broughton High, was named the Wake County school system’s 2022-23 Teacher of the Year at a ceremony on Wednesday at the Raleigh Convention Center. In 2016, Olson won Wake’s Diane Kent-Parker First Year Teacher Award for special education.
Olson, 29, has been a special education teacher at the Raleigh magnet school since 2015. She wrote in her Teacher of the Year portfolio about how she uses a variety of strategies and learns her students’ interests to increase engagement and motivate them to meet academic goals.
“The students who are in my classroom are capable of so much,” Olson said in her Teacher of he Year finalist video. “They have dreams and they have goals that they are certainly capable of reaching.
“I’m just here to help guide them and help to give them the tools that they need to be able to be who they want to be.”
Olson sets aside 30 minutes per day for students to do activities that ‘”fill them up.” These activities include reading, doing puzzles, talking with classmates or their teachers, drawing and playing board games.
She thanked her students in her acceptance speech, calling them her “why” for being a teacher.
“Thank you for loving me and growing with me throughout the years,” Olson said. “Thank you for inspiring me to approach challenges with a humble confidence, positive spirit and resilient determination.
“I am so honored to be a part of your journey and to have you as a part of mine.”
Broughton held a celebration on Thursday for Olson, who is also a women’s soccer coach at the school.
A teacher leader
In addition to her work at Broughton, Olson is already taking on a leadership role in the state.
Olson serves on State Superintendent Catherine Truitt’s Teacher Leadership Council. She also has served as a curriculum writer for the N.C. Department of Instruction.
Olson was a Kenan Fellow for Teacher Leadership in 2019-2020.
During her speech Wednesday, Olson told her fellow teachers not to be too hard on themselves. She encouraged them to celebrate their wins no matter how small they are, to take care of themselves and to show their students daily that they love them.
“What I have found through this process is that being an exceptional educator does not mean having it all together or closing in on what we view as perfection,” Olson said. “Rather, an exceptional educator means that when you make mistakes — the ones that we will all make at some point — you don’t just learn from them personally.
“But you use the information that you gain from that experience to support those around you who could benefit from your insights.”
This is the second time in recent years that a Broughton educator has been named Wake’s Teacher of the Year. Betsy Graves, Broughton’s dance director, was named the district’s 2017-18 Teacher of the Year.
Olson was chosen among the Teacher of the Year winners for each individual school. The list was whittled to 10 finalists announced in April.
Olson will receive a prize package that includes a $1,000 check. She will represent Wake County in the North Carolina Teacher of the Year program.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 8:42 PM.
