Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Loudoun County's Teacher of the Year 2013 - An Award WELL DESERVED!

So I've learned that posting "Exciting news, but I can't tell anyone yet" on Facebook, even when it's followed by the statement, "(this is *not* about me)," can incite a near-riot of pregnancy rumors.  Uh, folks, I'm nearly 45, and I am not pregnant.  One child is enough, thank you. 

However, I did have exciting news that I wasn't able to share until Monday.  One week ago, our county's in-house video production team came over to interview me about Samantha's amazing teacher, Lisa Roth. 

The teacher that my friend (a parent of another child in Sammi's class) and I nominated in the fall for the Washington Post's Agnes P. Meyer Outstanding Teacher of the Year award, an honor bestowed on only one teacher in each of the Washington metropolitan area's counties each year. 

The teacher who won. 

 
 
The nomination packet was a 54-page behemoth, consisting of testimonials, photos, and exhaustive nomination criteria compiled and written by Amy, the other mom.  We were restricted to a maximum of 12 testimonials, which was a shame, because we had parents, former students, teachers and administrators lining up to have their say in support of Lisa. 
 
Out of 30 nominees in the county, she was easily selected. 
 
I can think of no more deserving person for this award.  She's kind, gentle, selfless, and incredibly passionate about her job.  Correction...I wouldn't call it her job.  It's more of a calling.  And it shows in everything she does.  From making it her mission to learn more about how children with Down syndrome learn so she can better teach to Samantha's strengths, to calling Amy's daughter the night before her tonsillectomy to let her know things would be fine and that she was thinking about her, the environment Lisa creates both within her classroom and everywhere she goes, makes me feel so very, very lucky that we had this valuable opportunity to have Samantha in her class and to know her ourselves.  Samantha's growth and development have blossomed under her instruction.
 
The profile of Lisa on the Washington Post website can be found here.
 
Thank you, Mrs. Roth, for all that you do!

3 comments:

wendy said...

So happy for all of you!

Unknown said...

Truly awesome! I hope Owen has a wonderful teacher like that in his future. All kiddos deserve at least one!

JC said...

Awesome. She sounds like an amazing Teacher :)