ELEANOR MATHEWS, Contributing Writer for the Echoes-Sentinel reports:
WARREN TWP. – Joan Thomson, a 26-year veteran art teacher at Wathung Hills Regional High School, has been named the school’s “Teacher of the Year.”
Thomson is very definite in her belief in the importance and benefits of art education.
“Art helps young people define who they are,” she says. “It encourages them to take pride and satisfaction in their individuality.”
Read More about Art Teacher of the Year on the Echoes-Sentinel Web Site
NJ.com also covered the story about this teacher
Photo Compliments of Eleanor Mathews.
New Jersey’s “Teacher of the Year” program was just too good an idea to pass by. So, when the State’s Department of Education this year reined in the two decade-long program that honors educators of excellence throughout the state, most of the school districts continued it on their own.
Each district modified the program to meet their own criteria. Honorees will continue to receive Certificates of Recognition from the Commissioner of Education and the Governor. However, each district will devise its own method of celebrating the “Teacher of the Year.”
Thomson was smock-clad, and in the midst of converting students’ Advanced Placement portfolios into digital format, when she was confronted in her classroom with the good news by a committee consisting of Superintendent Frances Stromsland, Principal Tom DiGanci, Board of Education member Sondra Fechtner and Arts Department supervisor Judith Mulder.
“I never expected this!” she said, as she received the news along with a plant, a token of the Teacher of the Year nominating committee. Read More
