To honor teaching in the El Dorado School District, winners and awardees were recognized in the El Dorado Education Foundation (EDEF) 24rd Teacher Excellence Awards program, sponsored by Murphy USA. Selected by a judging committee from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston were three winners: Emily Tripple, Yocum Elementary 3rd grade; Alexis Simmons-King, Barton 8th grade Advanced Math 8 and Pre-AP Algebra; and Aprile Richardson, 10th-grade Advanced English. The ceremony was held at the El Dorado High School (EHS) Performing Arts Center, at 10:00 AM, on Thursday, June 8.
“Murphy USA is happy to have the opportunity to sponsor the EDEF Teacher Excellence Awards again this year to highlight the wonderful teachers of the El Dorado School District and show appreciation for the time, energy, and care they pour into our students,” stated Courtney Kelley, Supervisor of Philanthropy and Community Relations, Murphy USA.
“We remain committed to supporting and empowering our teachers as they continue to provide an excellent educational experience for all children,” she added. “This school year continued to present unprecedented challenges, and these teachers once again rose to the challenges and tackled them head-on. Congratulations to all of our teachers, our semifinalists, finalists, and our winners. Murphy USA is proud to support each of you!”
Miss Tripple, the Outstanding Educator elementary level recipient, was observed in the classroom by the judging panel and said, “This teacher models amazing listening skills as she takes time to carefully listen to individual students while engaging them in deep academic dialogue.” A parent shared, “She takes the time out to keep me informed and updated on my child’s school work and behavior and lets me know that I’m doing a wonderful job as a parent.”
According to her principal, “she really pours herself into the work of planning meaningful and engaging lessons with her team and challenges herself and her team members to be the best
they can be.” Miss Tripple said, “My goal is not just to show up every day, but rather encourage the students to want to show up every day and engage in the lessons. It’s about wanting to learn and wanting to engage in the activities every day.”
This year’s middle/junior high school Outstanding Educator, Mrs. King, says, “Sometimes the students will ask when are we ever going to use this? I know enough about Math to explain where the rules come from or how people figured out the shortcuts we call formulas”. Her principal said, “Mrs. King is an amazing teacher. She is such a leader in the 8th-grade math department. Mrs. King is one of those teachers that you are proud to have on your campus.” One of her students said, “Mrs. King is really nice and patient with us. How she teaches makes sense to us. Overall she’s just an amazing teacher.” The judging panel observed in her class “the expectation in this class is that EVERYONE will be engaged in rich mathematical discussions throughout the lesson, and that is exactly what we saw happening in her classroom."
Mrs. Richardson, the high school Outstanding Educator, has been in education for 27 years. A student said, “Mrs. Richardson is very kind and cares about all of her students. She is very hardworking and she makes students feel good about themselves”. Mrs. Richardson said “Because of the many different learning styles, flexibility is a must. I’ve had to monitor and adjust many times because it was apparent my delivery was not transferring to all of my audience. Teaching is my passion. It is an incredible feeling when a student says, “I learned more in your class than I’ve ever learned in an English class,” or “Oh I finally get it,” but it is an even better feeling when a former student runs up to you in Wal-mart, hugs your neck, and says “You made such a difference in my life. We always knew you cared about us.” That’s what it’s all about! The Judges said “This teacher believes the common thread is that students just want to know you care about them, as people. She strives to help students connect to literature in a way that is relevant to their own lives or to the world around them.”
The EDEF Teacher Excellence Awards program recognizes outstanding teachers in the El Dorado School District. It accepted nominees for outstanding teaching from parents, grandparents, guardians, students, former students, the public, and other teachers. At each school, certified staff voted for 16 semifinalists - one from each elementary and primary school, three each from the middle school and junior high, and six from EHS. Semifinalists proceeded to written applications, critiqued by a judging panel from La Tech University, narrowing the field to nine finalists. Judges visited semifinalists in classrooms to observe teaching and interactions with students. Three winners – Outstanding Elementary/Primary School, Outstanding Middle/Junior High School, and Outstanding High School teachers – were chosen by the panel. All semifinalists, finalists, and winners received recognition, plus monetary awards.
The 16 semifinalists were:
- Elementary: Lisa Lewis of Hugh Goodwin, Aime Johnson of Northwest, Emily Tripple of Yocum Elementary, and Kim Ibert of Yocum Primary.
- Middle/Junior High: Timothy Franks, Anna Norris, and Dorinda Stephens of Washington; and Karen Silmon, Alexis Simmons-King, and Bailey Camacho of Barton.
- High School: Aprile Richardson, DeAnthony Curtis, LaPorsha Carter, Elcy Easter, Kevia Gill, and Morgan Clark, of EHS.
The nine finalists were:
- Elementary School: Lisa Lewis of Hugh Goodwin; Kim Ibert of Yocum Primary, and Emily Tripple of Yocum Elementary.
- Middle/Junior High School: Karen Silmon, Alexis Simmons-King, and Bailey Camacho of Barton.
- High School: Aprile Richardson, LaPorsha Carter, and Kevia Gill of EHS.
The nominees were:
- Hugh Goodwin: Billy Blackburn, Margaret Cupp, Olivia Fitzgerald, Brigitte Haney, Melissa Inman, Lisa Lewis, Allison Lockwood, Angela Margis, Brooklyn Nesbitt, Alex Jordan Peterson, Lara Robbins, and Claudia Stevenson.
- Northwest: Christy Cranford, Jessica Dumas, Stacey Fairris, Sky Hogan, Aime Johnson, Mandy Kingery, Courtney Martin, Holly Morgan, and Cindy Walton.
- Yocum Primary: Kim Ibert, Melissa Laird, Robyn Merrill, Shemekia Morgan, Galyle Norman, Casey Orr, Alie Shepherd, Doniella Staes, and Timmy Williams.
- Yocum Elementary: Dontoria Aplin, Leanne Barnett, Autumn Blakenship, Chrystal Gilkey, Leia Hickmott, Felicie Lamoreux, Megan Moorewood, Daniela Rivas, Caylin Strong, and Emily Tripple
- Washington: Brinkley Ashcraft, Evelyn Escamilla, Timothy Franks, Amanda Griffin, Deborah Guevara, Elizabeth Ashley Johnson, Sarika Mohandas, Haley Moore, Breanna Murphy, Anna Norris, Chris Rynders, Dorinda Stephens, Katie Taylor, Christina Turner, Willow Waggoner, and Lori Wilcox.
- Barton: Jeremy Atwell, Victoria Bennett, Scott Bounds, Bailey Camacho, Kalee Cook, Jonathan Hetrick, Sarah Huddleston, Jill Humphreys, Carson Keith, Alexis Simmons-King, Adrian Knapper, Tori Lasker, Eli Lester, Melanie Long, Billy Major, Tammy McCloy, Breanna McKnight, Jennifer Michaels, Lacey Nutt, Emily Owens, Jarma Perkins, Emily Poff, Olivia Reeves, Danielle Scott, Summer Sewell, Karen Silmon, Hannah Traylor, Amber Welch, Elanena White, Heather Willis, and Allye Wright.
- EHS: Wesley Ables, Holly Barnhill, Alyssa Bean, LaPorsha Carter, Courtney Caver, Shelly Childers, Morgan Clark, Lauren Cross, DeAnthony Curtis, Hannah Davis, Elcy Easter, Amber Emery, Shelly Forbess, Kevia Gill, Isael Gonzalez, Mary Thomas Hodnett, Candy Jennings, Bryan Jones, Anthony Farris King, Robert Kloap, Jamie Lowe, Jennifer Michaels, Gregory Oden, Morgan Pope, Neely Purifoy, Ruben Quiles, Tim Ray, Tiffany Roberson, Aprile Richardson, Savannah Rogers, Mariah Saulsbury, Lauren Taylor, Brandon Trostle, Grace Wolfe, and Lauren Yaksic.