Excellence in Education Award

I've been wondering if I need to trim back on the extra work I do in education, then I was notified recently that I won the Excellence of Education Award from the Michigan Lottery.

The honor brought with it some interviews (one on camera, which is part of the video below) and some soul searching. It has been a great honor and a chance to sort out what I've done right over the past two decades. It's given me much to consider as I plan the rest of 2018.

Candidates for the award are nominated by students or staff members from their district. In my case Melinda Newcombe nominated me. Melinda is a high school English teacher I've worked with for a long time now. She will tell you I immediately questioned her judgment when I found out I won. I eventually decided it would be better to go with it than offend her!

I decided two things if I was going to accept the award. First, I have to give God credit if I have ever done anything right in education. Teaching has been an uphill struggle for me, especially those fourteen years trying to teach high school math. While some of it fit my personality, a lot of it certainly did not. I decided teaching is a calling and I stuck with it. I learned to pray about it and trust I was where I was supposed to be. 

My book for success would have two chapters--Trust God and Marry Well. I don't know much after that.

Second, I hoped this would bring some positive attention to our district. I work with many excellent educators, many better than I could hope to be and many who helped me be better. 

The only reason I would get recognized over them is because I work with so many more teachers and students. It increases my chance to be noticed. If I had to pick one of them to nominate, I honestly don't know how I could ever choose between them.

As anyone in education will tell you, good teachers make tremendous sacrifices for their students. I see many at LakeVille doing that every day and this has been a reminder to do better at highlighting their successes.

If you're interested in seeing the announcement for the award, it's here.

And here is the video as it aired from one station. (Note that they put the wrong name on the screen for the person who nominated me. I made sure it was corrected at other stations, but their videos weren't so easy to embed.)