Photography by Elizabeth Jochum
Janine Lillard of Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary School
Of all the professions out there, teaching has the most pronounced ripple effect. Over years, the work of one individual impacts multitudes of others. Teachers who passionately love their work often have students who passionately love to learn. In our inaugural St. Louis Family Excellence in Education Awards, we salute seven outstanding educators. We thank them for their hard work, determination, and dedication. They change children’s and teenagers’ lives.
*****
Administration
First Place (Tie)
Christopher McGee
Webster Groves School District
Planning course curricula may sound like a snooze. Just don’t tell Chris McGee. His enthusiasm for his dream job is downright infectious. He sets up the science and social studies curricula for the kindergarten through eighth-grade classes in the Webster Groves School District.
“In the last couple of years, we have spent a lot of time writing curriculum, revising what we want kids to know and what we want them to do,” McGee says. “The biggest change for us, which has been kind of the most uncomfortable, is making a shift away from content. We look at relationships and patterns and changes. How do we best get kids to interact in any topic with some essential skills that we see that are through-lines in any science course?”
An example is how eighth-graders learn the intricacies of electricity. They are assigned the task of creating an arcade game. They have to wire it to make a light turn on or a sound go off to let the players know they have won or lost the game. Once created, the games are packed up—and taken to elementary schools. “There is nothing more validating of a learning experience than to see kids who are excited and want a bunch of kids to play their game,” McGee says. “It was real. It was better than any work sheet or lab that could ever have been…
“One of my mantras is: Who’s the audience? If we are just turning papers in to the teacher, we are missing an opportunity to share the learning, the aha moments, the celebrations with a larger community.”
Five Tips for Parents
1. Love hard.
2. Embrace failure.
3. Say “Yes and…”
4. Embrace technology.
5. Get a network of people who are as like you and as unlike you as possible.
Administration
First Place (Tie)
Rodney Lewis
Ballwin Elementary School and formerly with Griffith Elementary, Ferguson-Florissant School District
When he was principal at Griffith Elementary, Rodney Lewis “tried very hard to create an environment that was loose enough for creativity and structured enough for students to learn,” he says. One of the programs he implemented was called Daily 5/Café.
“Students in class were doing five tasks: reading to themselves, reading to a partner, listening to reading, working on words, and working on writing,” Lewis says, adding that while they did that, teachers worked with small groups, tutoring them on whatever they needed. “Students were self-monitoring and self-regulating. That is a balanced literacy model. We had so many kids reading at Griffith, and they had books in their hand. Most importantly, they had books in their hands that they were able to read, that they could read at their level.”
He left two years later, when an opportunity opened up in his alma mater district, Rockwood. Lewis graduated from Lafayette High School. “Sometimes those opportunities come, and you can’t pass them up,” he says.
It’s the interaction with the kids and the teachers that makes Lewis’ day.
“When you walk into a classroom and you watch a good teacher, it doesn’t matter if you have been in the field 15 years or 15 months,” he says. “The way a teacher delivers a lesson is like watching Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James shoot a basketball. The ball still goes through the hoop, but the way they put it in the hoop is an art.”
He also has a daily routine of walking the halls for 90 minutes or so, visiting every single classroom.
“The students want you there,” Lewis says. “They want to see you. They want you to like them. And in all honesty, I want them to like me. I want them to understand that I am here for them. I want them to understand if they knock on my door, I will drop everything for them.”
Five Tips for Parents
1. Being involved matters.
2. Tell your child you love them and they are great every day.
3. Read with your child every day,and ask questions. We have to create thinkers. Our society and our world rest on innovation.
4. Don’t work so much that you miss your child growing up.
5. Be excited about school, teachers, principals. It all matters because all kids are listening to the conversation.
Second Place
Aisha Grace
Gateway Middle School, St. Louis Public Schools
Third Place
Myra Pendleton
Lexington Elementary, St. Louis Public Schools
*****
Preschool/Kindergarten
Winner
Teresa Darr
Lindbergh Early Childhood Education, Lindbergh Schools
Teresa Darr always loved school, but her shyness prevented her from pursuing teaching—at least at first. She honed her secretarial and word-processing skills until she recognized it wasn’t what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
“I ran into somebody I went to high school with, and she said, ‘You should come work where I work,’” Darr says. “That was 27 years ago. I went back to school and got my master’s.”
Now she teaches 4- and 5-year-olds at Lindbergh Early Childhood Education. “They are really just the right fit for me,” she says. “They are so eager to learn, and when they do accomplish something, their level of excitement is so great. They are so proud of themselves. Because I lacked confidence, I think 4 is a good age to work with them to be confident, to ask for help, and to speak in front of others.”
She still remembers a little boy who moved here from Brazil and couldn’t speak a word of English. “At the time, I had a multi-age class, and I had him when he was 3, 4, and 5,” she says. “That was so rewarding. He blossomed so much. He was so confident. He was able to play with other kids, to take responsibility. He knew exactly what to do.
“Our philosophy is we are not going to change the child,” she says. “We are going to change the environment and our lessons to fit the children.”
Darr’s Three Favorite Children’s Books
* Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
* Winnie the Witch by Valerie Thomas
* Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
Five Tips for Parents
1. Let your children do what they can for themselves.
2. Make sure they experience some kind of disappointment in their day—so they know how to deal with it.
3. Read to them every day.
4. Sit down on the floor and play with them.
5. Teach them to try first before asking for help.
Second Place
Kimberly Davis
Mann Elementary School, St. Louis Public Schools
Third Place
Mary Meadows
Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill School
******
Elementary School
Winner
Janine Lillard
Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary School
When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, Janine Lillard’s second-graders took note.
“We talk about empathy and what it really means to show and feel empathy,” she says. “The kids were really worried about the kids in New York.”
Lillard found P.S. 015 Patrick F. Daly, an elementary school in Brooklyn, N.Y., that had been hit. The class started a penny drive to raise money for the school. Then they expanded it throughout the district. “I believe in doing social justice and that social-action projects develop a youngster into a person who cares about others,” Lillard says. The class created a collage of doves, the Brooklyn school’s logo, which now hangs in the rebuilt P.S. 15. They collected coins and supplies. Then came a field trip to Lillard’s neighborhood bank.
“We watched the money go through the little coin machine, and then we got the final check,” she says. “Just to see their faces! They couldn’t believe that all this change had accumulated to $1,796. We took something with empathy and included all of the core subjects, including art, math, writing, and reading.”
Lillard did her student teaching in the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District—and she never left.
“The district is so unique,” she says. “They welcome everyone, and they go to every distance to make learning incredible. Not just fun, not just new. They go to the ends of the Earth for every family.”
Five Tips for Parents
1. Always smile.
2. Before you speak,take a deep breath.
3. If you are real with your child,your child will feel that he or she can be real with you.
4. If you go the distance,they will go the distance with you.
5. For every one frustration,try to find four or five specific compliments for your child.
Second Place
Doug Russell
Pond Elementary School, Rockwood School District
Third Place (Tie)
Darrin Grogan
Adams Elementary School, St. Louis Public Schools
Katie Komos
Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill School
*****
Middle School/Junior High School
Winner
Jan Jacobi
The St. Michael School of Clayton
The adolescent angst of middle-school students might cause some to run. Not Jan Jacobi.
“I think people get into teaching because of their own experiences,” he says, adding that after his parents divorced, he was sent to a New England boarding school. “The teachers were just the most wonderful mentors,” he says. “I felt that they really loved me.” Not long ago, a friend noted that “[middle school] was the time in your own life you were the most miserable. Because of that, you have a mission to help those children as those teachers helped you.” Jacobi adds, “With middle-school kids, I can be open and honest and relaxed and goofy. But my curriculum is very challenging.”
After decades of teaching at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School, Jacobi joined St. Michael School of Clayton, lured by the chance to set his own curriculum. Now he teaches seventh- and eighth-graders a humanities course that combines American history with literature. The lessons are taught through the perspective of someone who lived in Missouri at that time, starting with the Clovis people in Cahokia and the Osage Indians and proceeding all the way up to the Cold War. The accompanying literature includes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Watership Down, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Animal Farm.
“At MICDS, we had a very established curriculum, but at St. Michael’s we are kind of a PT boat,” Jacobi says. “It is small enough so it can be experimental, and it is very student-centered.”
This fall, Jacobi turned 70. “I can’t stop teaching, and I never will,” he says. “I love being with those kids each day. Teaching is what I love.”
Five Tips for Parents
1. Trust the teacher,and know the teacher loves your child.
3. Be in close communication with teachers.
4. Share family issues with teachers.
5. Don’t white-knuckle it.Enjoy being with your child during his or her schooling.It goes by so quickly.
Second Place
Matthew Troutman
Thomas Jefferson School
Third Place
Veronica Simms (now retired)
McKinley Classical Leadership Academy, St. Louis Public Schools
*****
High School
Winner
Kevin Martin
Hazelwood East High School, Hazelwood School District
Kevin Martin doesn’t refer to his Hazelwood East math students as students. He calls them scholars. He begins every year by handing out T-shirts emblazoned with M3, for Martin’s Math Masters on one side, and with Martin’s Scholarly Pledge on the other. Every day, without exception, begins with those ninth- through 12th-graders reciting that creed:
“I pledge to treasure my scholarly role
To create a place to learn and grow
By being fair and honest to all I know.
To show respect and be kind to all I meet,
To be responsible and work hard each day of the week,
To strive to be the best I can be,
So all can succeed in our Martin Math Mastery family.”
“As corny as it may be, it is an important part of the classroom culture,” Martin says. “You use terms that reflect high expectations, and then you cannot step away from your highest expectations.” He also makes a point of attending his students’ sporting events, plays, and band concerts, as well as building relationships with their families. “I make it 24/7,” he says.
Two years ago, Martin started the Saturday Academy, opening the school once or twice a month from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for students who want extra time with teachers, tutoring, time in the library or to catch up on study hall, or time to just hang out.
“We have made tremendous gains as a school as a whole,” Martin says. “Three years ago, we were identified as one of the lowest five percent unaccredited schools, and now we are fully accredited. We’ve had double-digit gains in math scores in the last two years.”
Like a proud parent, Martin brags on his students. “There is nothing that makes me prouder than to see my kids in college, to see them in a place they never imagined they could be,” he says. “And to know that I helped align their stars.”
Five Tips for Parents
1. Help your child understand the importance of developing a schedule that allows time at night to study, read, and do homework.
2. Get involved. Let the teachers know they have your support. If you need resources, ask for them.
3. Continually tell your child that he or she can achieve what he or she wants.
4. Know what your rights are as a parent and what your child’s rights are as a student.
5. In the summer, keep your children involved in something that involves their brains.
Second Place
Dianna Sumner
Carnahan High School of the Future, St. Louis Public Schools
Third Place (Tie)
Merita Haxhia
Gateway STEM High School, St. Louis Public Schools
Sandy Leibrecht
Bishop DuBourg High School
*****
Special Education
Winner
Nancy Wamble
Churchill Center & School
When Nancy Wamble was getting her degree in education in the ’70s, the world of education was just intensifying its focus on learning disabilities. “It was fascinating, interesting, and new,” Wamble says. “The field was up and coming—and that has been where I have been my whole career, teaching students with learning disabilities.”
On staff at Churchill Center & School, Wamble specializes in working with students who have dyslexia. When children start there in second grade, they are already well-versed in failing. “I know how to teach them,” she says. “I teach them strategies. Then they are happy because they are successful.”
The school employs the Orton-Gillingham method, a multisensory strategy to strengthen the neural pathways students need to read efficiently. “So the students say it, they hear it, they touch it, they move it—they use all their senses for learning,” Wamble says. Every year, each student in tutorial class presents a “demystification project” to their parents. “They talk about their strengths, their challenges, and the strategies they use,” she says. “For my particular student, it was using her perseverance, her effort, and her excitement about learning,” as well as the reading and spelling tactics she’s learned.
“At the end of the day, it is a gift to me knowing that I have made a difference in even one student’s life, just to play a part in changing our students’ educational experience, because they come here as a result of failure and frustration,” Wamble says. “We can help give them the tools to be self-confident and successful, and that is just priceless.”
Five Tips for Parents
1. Read with your child every day, no matter how old he or she is.
2. Communicate; converse with them. Be interested in what they are doing at school.
3. Communicate with the teachers at school.
4. Be involved with every aspect of the child’s life that you can.
5. Love them.
Second Place
Roy Monti
Nottingham Community Access and Job Training (CAJT) High School, St. Louis Public Schools
Third Place (Tie)
Kewana Smith-Bell
Northwest Academy of Law, St. Louis Public Schools
Michelle Staples
Orchard Farm Middle School, Orchard Farm School District
