A leader for learning
BLACKLICK – Licking Heights West Elementary first-grade teacher Rhonda Daniels had no idea on April 7 that a big surprise awaited her.
Daniels, who has been a teacher at the school for three years, was working on a lesson plan with her students when Connie Hawk and Megan Evans, of the Licking County Foundation, walked into her room alongside Heights Superintendent Philip Wagner and her principal, Kim Henderson.
The foundation representatives quickly informed Daniels that she had won a 2014 Leaders for Learning Award, annually handed out to the top teachers in the county.
The subsequent reaction from her students spoke to why Henderson nominated Daniels for the award.
“She’s the best teacher in the world,” one boy yelled before all the students gave Daniels a supportive group hug.
The surprise and classroom reaction left Daniels near tears.
“I’m shaking, I’m so excited,” she said.
The foundation has been surprising teachers throughout the county with Leaders for Learning awards since 1993.
Principals or superintendents nominate teachers, with one from each district receiving the recognition.
Winners receive glass apples that symbolize the knowledge and inspiration they impress on their students, no matter their grade level.
“It’s an exciting thing,” said Evans, a program assistant with the foundation. “We walk into the classroom and the teachers are so surprised — and their students, too.”
All told, 14 teachers will be recognized this month.
At West, Henderson said she nominated Daniels because she is an exemplary teacher.
“Her teaching is focused on her individual students and is truly the definition in action of the word differentiation,” Henderson wrote in her nomination form. “Rhonda goes the extra mile for all students by individualizing every aspect of their curriculum. The students have individual reading, math, spelling, sight words and even their homework is individualized.”
Though Daniels has been at West for only three years, she has taught for 18 years overall.
During that time, she has developed the classroom strategy Henderson cited in her nomination form.
One example is visible on each locker in her classroom. Individualized goals for specific students are affixed to the lockers.
Aside from giving her students individualized goals, as opposed to her class as a whole, Daniels also challenges each student.
One recent project tasked students with researching, writing and editing a report, and afterward, students had to give PowerPoint presentations in front of their peers.
“If you have high expectations for them, they’ll rise to the expectations,” Daniels said.
Award recipients can apply annually for grants of up to $500 to purchase classroom materials or to fund professional development.