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Counts is Teacher of Year |
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Friday, 15 August 2008 |
Benton School District employees honored one of their own Tuesday at the annual back-to-school luncheon held before the official opening date of school.
April Counts, who retired in the spring, was named Teacher of the Year for the 2007-08 term.
Counts, who taught advanced placement English courses at Benton High School, first affiliated with the district in 1972 after previously teaching in the Wynne district.
She said she never expected to receive such an honor as Benton Teacher of the Year.
“It is gratifying to be chosen by your peers and recognized for the work you love to do,” she said.
Teachers throughout the district vote for the Teacher of the year, Barbara Nix, president of the Benton Education Association, said.
“We alternate every other year choosing a teacher from the secondary level and the next year from the elementary level,” Nix explained.
Counts “has always taught higher-level English courses,” Nix noted.
She explained how teachers are nominated for the top teacher honor.
“The building where the person teaches nominates the individuals,” she said. “Then the ballots are sent out to everyone for a vote.”
Nix said Counts is deserving of the honor.
“I’ve taught with April for over 30 years and found her to always be a professional and a good teacher,” she said.
“She was a strong member of BEA and worked hard in the association,” she said.
Since she is now retired and did not spend the summer months attending inservice sessions or preparing her classroom and lesson plans as she normally would, Counts said she has “had more time to reflect on my experience” as a teacher.
“I think all of us would agree that the teacher is central in the learning process — his or her knowledge, experience, classroom management skills, high expectations and rapport with the students are vitally important.”
However, she said, “no senior walked into my classroom in August as a blank slate,” she said. “Other teachers before me had already written themselves into the educational history of those students. My students came to me with knowledge and skills and, for the most part, with an eagerness to learn.
“Any success I have had over the years is not the product of my efforts alone, but the outcome of the leadership, hard work and gifts of many others,” she said.
She said she realizes that “success in the classroom begins early with parents who provide love, encouragement and support” to their children.
Also contributing to classroom success are school board members and administrators who care about the education of children by establishing a guiding philosophy and creating a safe and welcoming environment, she said.
Counts expressed appreciation to the district’s administrators and faculty for their encouragement and support as she pursued her passion of teaching literature and language to teenagers.
Also important are “support staff who meet the varied needs of students and see that the business of school gets done,” she said.
“None of us appreciated her as much as she deserved,” Allinson said. “Once we got to college, we realized how much she had prepared us to get there.”
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