Mrs. Emerald Boyd was recently named Hoggard’s teacher of the year for the 2024-2025 school year. Each year, the teacher of the year is nominated and selected by Hoggard teachers. Clearly, the Hoggard community sees something special in Mrs. Boyd and her contributions to our school. So without further ado, let’s get to know her.
Mrs. Boyd is a special education teacher. She went to UNCW for her undergraduate education and got her masters degree at Western Carolina University. When asked about how she decided to become a teacher, she said, “[it] was kind of an accident.” Mrs. Boyd started out as a biology major, but soon realized that the field of biology wasn’t for her. She had joined a club at UNCW that was similar to Hoggard’s own Unified club, and as she reflected on her experiences with the club she decided to switch her major to education. Since then, she has fallen in love with teaching special education and has never looked back!
As a special education teacher, Mrs. Boyd’s role is a little different than a typical high school teacher’s. Each student in her class has an IEP, which means every student has their own individual needs in the classroom. The parents of her students are also more involved, so Mrs. Boyd communicates regularly with them. Despite the challenges and unique problem-solving involved with being a special education teacher, Mrs. Boyd said that her favorite part of her job is witnessing the growth that her students experience. She described how “...seeing them jump from not having a skill to absolutely having the skill and having it down and being able to do it by themselves is just really, really rewarding.”
While the majority of Hoggard students may not see Mrs. Boyd in a classroom setting, many students know her through the Unified Club. Ms. Pruden, another of Hoggard’s special education teachers, describes the Unified Club on her website, stating that, “the Hoggard Unified Club seeks to build an inclusive school community by giving all students opportunities to develop friendships, participate in Hoggard activities, and play unified sports.” Mrs. Boyd has played a major role in facilitating the Unified Club, and her hard work has paid off. This year, Hoggard’s Unified club was named an ESPN Honor Roll High School for inclusion and was nationally recognized by the Special Olympics. Mrs. Boyd said watching the Hoggard community come to support the Unified Club at their pep rally this spring has become her favorite memory as a teacher. She described how afterwards she “watched back the news story and a lot of our kids were actually interviewed on the news and did a great job. I was crying in my car when I saw it.” It was certainly a special event for the Hoggard community.
Outside of the classroom, Mrs. Boyd loves to paddleboard and paint with watercolors. She also competed in track and field in high school as a high jumper, and has volunteered as a high jump coach for Hoggard’s track and field team in the past. It’s evident from her contributions to the Hoggard community that Mrs. Boyd is more than deserving of her title as Teacher of the Year. In fact, her favorite thing about Hoggard is the community. “It definitely feels like a family,” she remarked. “Everyone knows each other and it’s a big school, but there are lots of different friendships across everywhere and you get to see all the kids from different groups interact with each other which is really cool." Mrs. Boyd truly lives out the spirit of a Hoggard Viking, and I hope you will join me in congratulating her as our new Teacher of the Year!
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