Franklin Elementary Educator Named Teacher Of The Year For 2022: BCPS

REISTERSTOWN, MD — A teacher at Franklin Elementary School has been named Baltimore County Public Schools Teacher of the Year, officials announced Thursday.

Alicia Amaral Freeman of Franklin Elementary School teaches English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and works at Reisterstown Elementary and the Chatsworth School as well, officials say.

After starting out teaching Spanish and ESOL in Baltimore City, Freeman worked as an admissions director and principal at Archbishop Borders School, a dual-language school near Highlandtown.

She joined Baltimore County Public Schools in 2019 and Franklin Elementary School in 2021, according to officials, who said she has a master's degree in teaching ESOL from Notre Dame of Maryland and bachelor's degrees in visual art and women's studies from Barnard College of Columbia University.

Freeman was selected as Teacher of the Year by a committee of Baltimore County Public Schools administrators, staff and students as well as members of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County (TABCO).

“I am proud to work with immigrant students and families,” Freeman said in a statement. “In them I see my grandmother, ashamed of her lack of access to education, and my grandfather, a janitor in a public school. I am proud to be their granddaughter, helping to cultivate this next diverse generation of new Americans.”

Now that she is BCPS Teacher of the Year, Freeman will go on to represent the school system and its more than 9,000 professional educators in the Maryland Teacher of the Year program, which considers the top educators across the state.

The winner of the state's Teacher of the Year program is usually announced in the fall.

Helping to select the Teacher of the Year for 2022 in Baltimore County Public Schools was its last Teacher of the Year — Brianna Ross, of Deer Park Middle — who went on to win Maryland Teacher of the Year.

Related: Franklin Elementary Educator Among Finalists For Teacher Of The Year