by Elena P. and Brooke W.

Alamo Heights Junior School’s principal, Dr. Guthrie, has created a new tradition called Teacher Recognition Awards. This focuses on recognizing the teachers that have been working extra hard all year, which surrounds the Iron Will, Heart of Gold, and the Light Bulb Award. These teachers will be celebrated and congratulated at the 8th grade completion ceremony at Alamo Heights High School.

“I’ve done it before at my previous schools, but this is the first year we’ve done it at Alamo Heights. And yes, I want to continue it going forward.” Dr. Guthrie has already experimented with this tradition at his former school, and it was so successful he decided to carry it on to Alamo Heights. Dr. Guthrie does give some credit to the PTO. “I will say though, I had our PTO asking how they could recognize teachers. They already do so much for us during Teacher Appreciation Week. They bring tacos and donuts, and they give us gifts and buy us school supplies.”

As all types of teachers have different teaching styles, Dr. Guthrie has decided to make three different types of awards. “Heart of Gold, which is for character; Iron Will, which is for rigor, which means it’s a deeply academic class—to the teacher who challenges students academically to push beyond their limits; and Light Bulb Award, which is for creativity or innovation, and that’s recognizing that teacher that makes learning fun and exciting.” Because of Dr. Guthrie’s will to go beyond to recognize different types of teaching, more teachers will be appreciated for their work.

Dr. Guthrie makes it clear that instead of encouraging teachers to do their best with the awards, he focuses on rewarding the teachers that already do their best without any type of acknowledgement. “I don’t really know if an award after the fact would encourage teachers to do their best. I think it works the opposite way. Those teachers that do their best every day get rewarded. And I think the kids have a pretty good idea, and it’s not going to be easy. It’s a pretty close race, so to speak. There are lots of very qualified teachers that could be good candidates for this, but the reality is it’s not going to encourage better teaching. It just rewards those teachers that put in their best every day.” Dr. Guthrie has his heart set on making sure that the very best teachers get recognized for working hard every day and helping every young student learn more.

In conclusion, the rewards are given to the teachers who push their students to be their best. They are a moment for teachers to be noticed and appreciated by the entire Alamo Heights community. Although we don’t know what the specific surprise teachers will get from the reward is, we do know that they will be posted online throughout the district for their hard work. We are hoping to have this tradition continue on at Alamo Heights and hope to encourage other school districts throughout the state to take action in appreciating our teachers.