I remember at 28

I remember at 28 feeling honored beyond belief. I wrote about it briefly on the blog back when it happened, but here’s the full story from my journal. (And I’m wearing the same sweater from yesterday’s memories in today’s photo! Must be a lucky sweater.)

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Every month we have an assembly on the first Monday of the month at school to recognize the students of the month. Each month a different grade does a presentation of a value and a few other things are taken care of as well. because they are on Mondays, I am only there for them if I happen to be substituting for someone that day.

On Tuesday, May 1st, Scot Westover came into my room in the afternoon and asked me if I was substituting for anyone on the 7th. I said I wasn’t but asked if he needed me to. He didn’t, but asked if I could be there for the assembly. I could. The assemblies start at 9:30, so I wasn’t too worried about getting there too early. While I was driving there that morning though, the school called me to make sure I was coming. Something was definitely fishy about the whole thing.

When I got to school, I walked through the office so they would see me and know I was there. There was a man in a suit sitting there. I figured he must be there for a job interview or something. Mr. Westover told me that maybe the kindergarten needed me to help with their program. But when I went into the gym, they didn’t say anything. Something was definitely weird.

The school came in for the assembly, and the guy in the suit was sitting there too. And I thought that was really weird to ask someone who was there for an interview to come to an assembly, not to mention scheduling an interview during an assembly.

The kindergarten did their songs and Mr. Westover said they needed to do one thing before moving on to everything else. He then introduced the man in the suit as being from KSL and Zion’s Bank. And I suddenly knew why he was there, and why I was there.

Every Tuesday morning, KSL radio features a different Utah teacher that was nominated by parents or other teachers. Back in February, Mr. Me wrote them a letter nominating me. He let me have a copy of the letter so that I would know what he thought of me in case they never picked his letter. (letter below)

When they announced where the man in the suit was from, I knew that meant they had picked Mr. Me’s letter. They called me up to the front and he read a lot of the letter and gave me a plaque and a folder with some real good gift certificates in it. I felt so honored. The teachers stood to clap for me and I felt so small because so many of them are amazing teachers that I look up to and so many of them deserve to be honored too.

On May 15th they announced it and read part of the letter on the radio. It was a very surreal start to my day.

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Mr. Me’s Letter

I would like to nominate Lisa Giles as an outstanding teacher.

Miss Giles came to Mount Mahogany nearly five years ago. She took on the daunting task of teaching computer and keyboarding skills to all of the children in the school. Not only does she teach 800 students, she knows each child individually.

Miss Giles has made learning fun for her students. That may not seem like a difficult task for a “fun” subject like computers, but teaching things like keyboarding skills to kids whose fingers still trip over each other can be a particularly difficult task. In order to help her kids get excited about keyboarding, she wrote, produced at her own expense, directed, and starred in an educational video called “Home Row” that she shows to her keyboarding classes each year.

Miss Giles continually comes up with new projects to keep her students excited about learning. Her 6th grade students use digital cameras to take pictures and create slide shows complete with sound effects and music. This year, her 4th grade classes are going to create short stop-motion movies. She’s always looking for something new to keep her students engaged and involved in the learning process.

In addition to teaching everyone in the school, she is always volunteering to help out with other teachers’ projects. For example, every year the 5th grade puts together a big production that they call the “Traveling Show.” Miss Giles usually spends a good amount of time putting together the slide show of video clips and photos that correspond with the theme of the “Traveling Show”.

Before school, Miss Giles meets with students that are struggling with their math skills. On her days off (computer classes are only taught on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at Mount Mahogany), she’s usually substituting for another teacher. She even invests a lot of her “free time” in the education of her students.

Miss Giles is always increasing her own knowledge. She is currently finishing up a Masters Degree in Educational Technology at the University of Utah. She has plans to continue her own education and get a PhD.

Miss Giles’ impact on her students can best be summed up in the words of my son. A couple of years after Miss Giles started teaching at Mount Mahogany, he told her “I didn’t like you at first. You made us do stuff instead of play games. But I think I’ve learned a lot more than I would have with the other teacher.”

Mr. Me
Father of two of Miss Giles’ students

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The son he quoted in the last paragraph was in third grade when I started teaching. He’s applying for college now.