Kourtney Rabinowitz: Teacher of the Year

Kourtney Rabinowitz accepts her award in her classroom. From left to right: Kimberly Coleman, Daniel Machon, Ashley Winkler, Kourtney Rabinowitz, Scott Strickler, Dante Binotto, and Coleman Bailey. Photo Credit: Watauga Yearbook.

Aspen Hickman, Staff Writer for The Powderhorn

With primary election season in full swing, Watauga teachers are also casting a different ballot. Every year, teachers vote on a Teacher of the Year. This year, that teacher is Mrs. Kourtney Rabinowitz. 

“It's an overwhelming honor,” said Rabinowitz. “You don't ever know everything in teaching. I feel like even after all these years of experience, I'm not really an expert. There are a ton of things I don't know. There's this constant feeling like you've never quite reached the top, so to speak. So to be honored this way, it's like somebody thinks that I'm doing something right, because there a lot of days it doesn't feel like I'm doing things right.”

First nominated by a vote of the English department, Rabinowitz will go on to contend against other school’s Teachers of the Year at the countywide level. If chosen, she will advance to the state and then national levels. It was family that started Rabinowitz on the journey that has carried her to Teacher of the Year.

“I actually come from a family of teachers. My grandfather taught in a one-room schoolhouse. My aunt has a bell that he would call the kids in for lunch and dismiss them with. I felt like I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. It was just finding what subject matter I wanted to teach,” said Rabinowitz.

Though she had always been a reader, Rabinowitz initially considered math as her teaching subject. But in college, she discovered that her true passion was in English. Once Rabinowitz found her subject, she was thrown straight into the deep end. 

“I got hired two weeks before school started. At my very first school I had six prep days, and my whole classroom was in lockers outside the room,” said Rabinowitz. “The teacher that I replaced had been killed in a house fire. It was definitely a few difficult years.”

After 27 years of teaching, Rabinowitz’s style has certainly changed from her original approach. In the beginning, she described herself as a very by-the-book teacher. Now, she’s adapted to prioritize understanding.

“I've tried to become more intentional, not just making sure that you are reading, but, I'm making sure I'm checking that you are picking up on the skill I want you to get from this text,” said Rabinowitz, “You might not be an English professor, but you will need to know how to decode a text.”