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Local Educator Wins Honor Of 2011 Vermont Teacher Of The Year

photo provided VUHS Co-Principal Peter Reynolds congratulates VUHS teacher Jennifer Lawson for her award as Vermont’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year for 2011. The presentation was made at VUHS on September 21st with the whole school and the Vermont Board of Education present.

Tuesday September 28, 2010

By Cookie Steponaitis

    There was not an open seat in the house. In fact, it was standing room only on September 21st when the Vermont Board of Education and over 600 members of the VUHS school community honored VUHS teacher Jennifer Lawson. Selected from a strong field of talented and effective teachers from across the state, Jennifer was bestowed with the title of 2011 Vermont Teacher of the Year that was presented by the outgoing Teacher of the Year Craig Divis and a calendar to keep track of the events yet to come.     

    With a posted mission of, “The mission of the Vermont Teacher of the Year Program is to promote the profession and recognize the best teaching professionals who are implementing ‘best practices’ within classrooms. Vermont’s recipient represents the many excellent teachers in our state.” Ms. Lawson joins a distinguished group of Vermont educators with a passion for children and for raising the bar of excellence in the classroom. 2010 recipient Craig Divis, Bellows Falls Union High School, encouraged Lawson to embrace all of the events to come and to “…engage in open conversation with all of the people she will meet who value education and the future of our children.” He listed an impressive year of engagements including Space Camp and meeting the Vice-president and President of the United States and all present realized that the VUHS community will have to share Ms. Lawson with the country this year as she steps forward to represent all teachers in Vermont.

    In addition to speaking engagements around the state and a busy schedule, Ms. Lawson will still be on the job at VUHS and will be continuing the practices of excellence that have earned her the accolades of her peers and the respect of the state. Lawson, a Vermont native, began teaching thirteen years ago and spent her first five years in New London, Connecticut in a charter school. The school, ISSAC, worked to promote cultural diversity through the performing and visual arts. She taught on a team of forty sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who mostly came from the projects and for whom English was a second language. Returning to Vermont, she joined the staff of VUES and taught fifth grade for one year. Her position was cut due to low enrollment and a timely opening at VUMS came up, joining forces of Lawson and the evolving middle school structure.

    Honored beyond words with the standing ovation she received from the VUHS community, Lawson was quick to share that for her it is always about her students and credits her own early educational experiences with her desire to be in the classroom. “School was a great place for me as a child I grew up in Shelburne and went to Shelburne Village School and then Shelburne Middle School. I fondly remember many of my teachers and the community they built for us to feel safe and cared for and supported. I loved playing school and library at home; loved when we were given our old workbooks to take home at the end of the year that still had blank worksheets in them that I could then use with my dolls and stuffed animals to teach them about math and spelling. My entire family is/was educators and learning was highly valued in our family. I knew that I wanted to be a teacher by the time I finished high school at CVU as so many teachers and experiences at school had broadened my experiences and challenged my mind set and encouraged me to be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things.”

    With a personal motto of “teaching students how to learn and not so much what to learn,” Lawson humbly drew attention to those around her as deserving of recognition and merit. “I am very honored to receive this award and yet humbled because there are many teachers including counselors and special educators that I believe deserve the honor of this type of recognition. I see it as an opportunity to share with adults who work with young people (particularly in the school setting) practices and approaches that I, over time have seen to be effective with helping and teaching students of all different walks of life. This award is totally a result of the students’ impact on my life and the courage to teach comes from them, their parents, and my colleagues.”

    While her year will take Ms. Lawson around the state and nation, as well as putting her in contact with others like herself who are passionate about excellence in the classroom and providing challenge to all students, it is clear from meeting her and talking about her students that her measuring stick is the students in her charge and the interactions she has with them as an educator and mentor. Quick to point out that learning is a two way street and that she has learned as much from her students as she has shared with them, she draws from the students an energy and a sense of worth that far exceeds any accolades and honors. “I love the excitement and joy the students bring to my life as they are learning and experiencing new things and trying themselves out as young adults in this very important world of theirs (the world of their peers). I am invigorated, motivated, and empowered by their presence and their experiences.”

    The Valley Voice salutes Ms. Lawson and all who work with the youth of America and know that in their hands lies the future of the nation. As journalist and cartoonist Sydney J Harris reminds us all, “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”

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