I.C. Norcom High School Math Teacher Alphonso Woods was named the 2024 Citywide Teacher of the
Year at the Portsmouth Public Schools Teacher of the Year celebration, held Tuesday, Dec. 6.
Woods has been with Portsmouth Public Schools for more than a decade, and in that time, he has
served in a number of capacities, including working on division-level committees, taking part in
collegiate teacher workshops, and being an active member of school improvement as well as school
leadership teams.
In the classroom, Woods places an emphasis on modeling content and then inspecting for student
mastery while also implementing techniques such as kinesthetic learning, where students practice by
doing exercises that support a specific learning objective.
In the application submitted to the selection committee, Woods wrote:
“I envision a challenging, yet nurturing academic learning environment that would ultimately prepare
our diverse learners for succeeding socially and academically, while aiding them in becoming productive
citizens...we make a difference if we are willing to make the monumental commitment to our diverse
learners. We must universally commit to setting our content standards high and then hold our students
to those standards. It is my belief if we show our students that we believe they can, students will try to
perform to those standards.”
Woods will now go on to compete in the regional Teacher of the Year competition.