Win or lose, Shaun Owen just wants to know if she is Georgia's next Teacher of the Year.

The Greenbrier Middle School sixth-grade social studies teacher will find out tonight at a banquet in Atlanta.

"I'm just ready to find something out," Ms. Owen said. "It's been a year. It's been a very long year."

Named Columbia County's Teacher of the Year in September, Ms. Owen was listed in January among the 10 finalists for the state honor. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at the World Congress Center.

If she wins, the 34-year-old will spend a year traveling across the state giving speeches to civic and business groups, consulting with state education officials on policies and conducting seminars with other teachers.

Regardless of the outcome, Ms. Owen said she still plans to instruct educators on how to be more effective teachers. She has already given seminars at Augusta State University and has been invited to speak to DeKalb County social-studies teachers.

"What I really want to get a hold of are the really young teachers," she said. "I think they're still impressionable and eager. They're not set in their teaching methods and are still malleable. That's my target audience."

Ms. Owen said she spends hours each night preparing lesson plans that include pictures, video clips, music and games all designed to keep her sixth-graders' attention.

"You can require a child to sit in your classroom by law, but you cannot mandate you have their attention," she said. "You have got to get their attention and you have to maintain it."

The outcome of her unorthodox teaching method is students who come to her class wanting to learn, she said.

"I know some teachers that say, 'I'm not getting up there and just entertaining the kids,'" Ms. Owen said. "What they don't understand is that it's not entertaining for entertaining's sake. It's entertaining for engaging's sake."

To make the finalist list, she endured judges' interviews and observations of the class.

"I would really love to go around and teach teachers how to make learning enjoyable," she said. "I just don't think it has to be arduous."

Reach Donnie Fetter at 868-1222, ext. 113, or donnie.fetter@augustachronicle.com.