Even The Teachers Win
Williams and Chamberlain Chosen for West Foundation Teaching Excellence Award
West Teaching Excellence Award winner Lisa Williams is teaching her students about different tenses in her 6th period Spanish 1 class.
History teacher Todd Chamberlain and Spanish teacher Lisa Williams earned West Foundation Teaching Excellence Awards this year.
20 award winners were picked by the West Foundation based on their ability to instruct their students. To receive this award teachers were first picked by the school they represent. After that the nominees sent statements about themselves and their teaching style to the West Foundation.
Williams, who has been teaching for 13 years, said she felt “excited and overwhelmed,” after finding out she had won, especially when this is “a reward for hard work.”
“I just can’t believe I get a paycheck for doing something I love,” Williams said.
Williams believes what sets her apart is that she really enjoys building relationships with her kids.
“I get to see them grow up,” Williams said. “They come to Spanish as freshmen, and I’m also a National Honor Society sponsor as well as senior sponsor, so I get to see them get older.”
Among those Williams has gotten to know over the years is senior Jackie Zeizinger who said she had Williams her freshman year and still sees her.
“I see her in National Honor Society and in Class Officers,” Zeizinger said. “She’s a very sweet teacher. You can always come up to her for anything. If you’re having a bad day you can go up to her and you can tell her about it. She won’t judge you, no matter who you are, no matter what.”
Zeizinger said she is really glad she had Williams for Spanish because it has always been an intimidating class, and she said it felt nice to know Williams was always encouraging her. Zeizinger said that if anything has changed in their relationship, it is that she feels Mrs. Williams entrusts her more now because of how they have gotten to know each other better.
Chamberlain, who has taught for 18 years, said winning really astonished him.
“I was shocked, because there are a ton of great teachers who also deserve to win,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain said he doesn’t really consider himself to be “a good teacher.”
Although the award did made him feel like he was improving.
“You just build yourself every year and get better,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain said his form of teaching is to make class as fun as possible while still covering material and trying to keep everyone engaged in it.
“World History is such a broad, interesting subject that you can skip around instead of staying on one particular country,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain teaches both regular and pre-AP World History.
Even though they both said they were surprised to win the award, their students agree they’re well-deserving.
“Mr. Chamberlain is a very good teacher because he actually demonstrates,” junior Cintia Vickery said. “He shows what needs to be done, and he relates the subject to present events. He makes the class fun in a way the students are still learning but not getting bored.”
Vickery said Chamberlain’s class was her favorite last year.
“He really likes to get all the students interacting with each other,” she said. “He’s someone who you can joke with and be friends with, and he’s not going to be judgmental or anything.”
And “Mrs. Williams is the nicest person in the world,” Vickery said. “She takes lessons step by step and goes slow so every student can stay together.”
Principal Judy McDonald said she was very proud for both teachers. She was excited when she found out that not one but two teachers from Rider were picked for the West Foundation award.
“It really excites the teachers and the ones that are around them,” McDonald said. “It gives them motivation to continue to do the best that they can do.”
McDonald said she strongly believes that the fact that both teachers branch out by doing outside activities sets them apart from other teachers.
In the end these two teachers say they’re happy to have won these awards.
“We’re good friends and we teach kind of in the same way,” Chamberlain said. “I’m just so glad that we both won Mr. and Mrs. Raider [Honorary Raider] together, and now we won this award this year.”
