Live Oak Elementary special education teacher Rothell Lewis Jr. was named Teacher of the Year for Newton County at a ceremony Thursday evening.

From his reaction, he seemed to be the most surprised of anyone.
"You won't convince me I deserve this more than them," Lewis said at the event, referring to the other teachers at Live Oak.

The other candidates were art teacher Karen Greene from East Newton Elementary and economics teacher Aaron Robinson from Newton High School. They are all fine teachers who definitely earned their place in the top three.

Lewis has been teaching since he became a mentor in New Orleans at age 12. If you want to read more about his accomplishments, you can see them on www.covnews.com.

Once again, we'd like to congratulate Lewis and the other finalists. We have a great group of teachers in Newton County, and we're happy to see a few of them get the recognition they all deserve. Our teachers help shape our youths and in doing so help shape the future. Thank you teachers for all that you do.