Joshua Perez, a teacher who lives in Mission Hills, will be recognized for his commitment to teaching and learning at this year’s “Cox Presents: A Salute to Teachers.” He is one of 44 nominees for County Teacher of the Year, each selected by their own school districts from across San Diego County.
“It is an honor to be nominated by my colleagues as San Pasqual Union’s Teacher of the Year,” Perez told San Diego Uptown News. “If chosen as San Diego County Teacher of the Year, I would consider it a privilege to represent all the educators who challenge, inspire, and motivate their students every day.”
The 25th anniversary show will be presented in an Oscars-style ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Balboa Theatre in Downtown.
The annual event will highlight the county’s 26,000 public schoolteachers and feature celebrity emcees and presenters, musical and dance performances, and the naming of the 2015-16 San Diego County Teachers of the Year, who will go on to represent the region at the California Teacher of the Year program.
Sherri Shepherd, formerly of ABC’s “The View” will host the show. Shepherd has won a Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Talk Show Host as a co-host of “The View.” She has appeared on the hit TV show “Dancing with the Stars” and guest-starred on the Emmy-winning TV show “30 Rock” as Tracy Morgan’s wife. Shepherd will be joined by co-hosts Kyra Phillips, a CNN correspondent and a San Diego native, and veteran San Diego broadcast journalist Dennis Morgigno.
Of the 44 nominees, five will be named County Teacher of the Year. The top five teachers are selected based on student achievement, professional development and community involvement, teaching philosophy and personal style, knowledge of educational issues and trends, promotion and development of the teaching profession, accountability and ability to serve as ambassadors of education.
Perez is a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at San Pasqual Union Elementary School in Escondido. He said he learned early on that teachers often play additional roles of nurse, counselor, social worker and more for their students. Perez conducts ongoing assessments and obtains feedback from his students in order to close the achievement gap. As he teaches, student responders, white boards and hand signals are used to make sure students are actively participating and learning.
“Cox Presents: A Salute to Teachers” has received national recognition, and the telecast has earned more than 20 local Emmy Awards for Channel 4 San Diego. The live gala event is brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union and produced by Cox Communications in cooperation with the San Diego County Office of Education. The show begins at 8 p.m. and will air live on Channel 4 San Diego. Tickets can be purchased online at bit.ly/1hb8IIM, by calling the box office at 570-1100 (all San Diego area codes), or at the box office located Downtown at 868 Fourth Ave.
Additional show sponsors include Sea World, Nothing Bundt Cakes, KUSI, Qualcomm, Procopio, CBRE, Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, USS Midway, SDG&E, INSP Network, San Diego Union-Tribune and Valley View Casino Center.
For more information about the show, visit sdcoe.net/salute.
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