Aaron Deal, a computer science teacher at Salisbury Middle School in Wicomico County, has been named the 2003-2004 Maryland Teacher of the Year.

Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, Nancy S. Grasmick made the surprise announcement Friday evening at Martin's West before a crowd that included Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Senator Paul Sarbanes, the Maryland State Board of Education, and hundreds of educators, parents and teachers.

Deal has been teaching in Wicomico County for the past nine years. He graduated from Salisbury University in 1993, then began his teaching career. Since becoming a teacher at Salisbury Middle and eventually teaching classes in Advanced Computer Science, he has played a critical leadership role in a number of activities. They include the Salisbury Middle School Improvement Team, serving as a mentor teacher and multimedia presenter with the National Teacher Technology Institute and Maryland Public Television, and as a cooperating teacher for Salisbury University student interns.

"Each year we select two dozen local teachers, one from each Maryland school system, and then that list is painstakingly reviewed and narrowed to eight semi-finalists," said Dr. Grasmick. "You can imagine the difficulty of the decision-making process. This year, Aaron Deal stood out for his leadership qualities, his role as a teacher and mentor, and his willingness to volunteer his talents to help young people achieve their potential," she said.

"An effective teacher takes time to ease the stresses that children bring to school with them," Deal said. "When we relate to those issues that are important to our students, they are given a reason to speak, listen and trust. Students truly don't care what you know about a subject until they know how much you care about them as individuals," he said.

As the new Maryland Teacher of the Year, Deal will enjoy a brand-new $24,000 Chevy Malibu, $7500 dollars in computer software, an iBook Apple laptop computer, $5,000 in cash from the Maryland State Department of Education, a one-week trip to the National Space Camp, a $1,000 award from Northrop Gumman Electronic Systems to attend a professional conference of his choice, and more.

The prizes are contributed each year by corporate sponsors of the Maryland Teacher of the Year event. The presenting sponsors this year are the Maryland New Car & Truck Dealers Assocation and McDonald's Family of Greater Baltimore. Platinum sponsors include the Bank of America, Comcast, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Lockheed Martin, and The Sallie Mae Fund. Gold sponsors include the Baltimore Sun, M&T Bank, State Farm Insurance Companies, Verizon - Maryland, and VPC, Inc. Silver sponsors are the Maryland State Teachers Association and SunTrust Bank.

A streaming video of the Maryland Teacher of the Year awards ceremony and selection, live as it happened, will soon be available for viewing on MSDE TV at the MSDE Website marylandpublicschools.org.