{"id":243770,"date":"2026-04-23T20:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243770\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:47:07","slug":"three-local-teachers-among-finalists-in-running-for-americas-favorite-teacher-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243770\/","title":{"rendered":"Three local teachers among finalists in running for America\u2019s Favorite Teacher award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Three local teachers are among the finalists hoping to be recognized as America\u2019s Favorite Teacher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Teachers recognized include Lauren House from Stewart Street Elementary in Quincy, along with Constance Cordero from Leon High and Rebecca Bertoch from Riley Elementary in Tallahassee. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">House is in second place in her group for the contest and hopes local support pushes her ahead in the final hours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI wanted the one to shed positive light on my school,\u201d the Pre-K teacher said. \u201cThis is my home school. Born and reared right here in Gadsden County. This is my alma mater, where I went as a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Meanwhile, Bertoch and Cordero are both in first place in their groups. Bertoch teaches students with diverse needs and Cordero is an ESE teacher at Leon after two decades teaching in Fort Myers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-center\">See more of WCTV\u2019s latest news here:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Cordero says its been really encouraging and motivating to remain in the race this long. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of support from my family and friends, but also the school,\u201d she said. \u201cI have hung up flyers at the school with my students and my students\u2019 family supporting me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Bertoch says she appreciates everyone who has voted and helped her get to where she is. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cTeaching is like my identity, honestly. Something I have always wanted to do and very proud to be able to do it, but to be recognized is even more important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">All three teachers hope to advance to the next round. They say prizes such as $25,000 and a visit from Bill Nye would go right back to the classroom. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">There are several rounds in the voting process and the next ends Thursday evening. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If you\u2019d like to vote for the teachers mentioned in this report, click below:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/04\/23\/three-local-teachers-among-finalists-running-americas-favorite-teacher-award\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Three local teachers are among the finalists hoping to be recognized as America\u2019s Favorite&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[107447,107450,1721,107448,8612,107446,28,107449,21453,5624,95531,49861,75054,232,234,233,107445,1549],"class_list":{"0":"post-243770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-americas-favorite-teacher","9":"tag-bill-nye","10":"tag-capital-city","11":"tag-constance-cordero","12":"tag-contest","13":"tag-finalists","14":"tag-florida","15":"tag-lauren-house","16":"tag-leon-high-school","17":"tag-quincy","18":"tag-rebecca-bertoch","19":"tag-riley-elementary","20":"tag-stewart-street-elementary","21":"tag-tallahassee","22":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","23":"tag-tallahassee-news","24":"tag-three-local-teachers","25":"tag-wctv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}