An Appoquinimink High School French teacher is Delaware’s “Teacher of the Year”.
Lea Wainwright says she was “completely amazed” to top finalists from the state’s 18 other school districts for the award.
Wainwright has been a teacher for 20 years, including 12 in the Appoquinimink School District. She says being a language teacher offers unique ways to connect classroom lessons to the larger world.
"I have incredible opportunities set before me to work with our international sister school in France, to take students on trips, to Skype with students from our classroom and to have e-pals," Wainwight told WDDE Tuesday night. "So, when I’m preaching that you need to think big ideas and all the little things you do have a ripple effect across the globe, I can show them that in a real world situation.”
Wainwright will spend the next year representing First State teachers in conversations about Delaware schools. She says she’s excited to speak about key issues such as the new state law raising the minimum requirements to teach in Delaware.
“[It] is going to have a huge impact, not only on the quality of new teachers going to our programs, but that will obviously trickle down to the quality of education our students get and how prepared they are for career and college,” said Wainwright.
As Teacher of the Year, Wainwright receives a $5,000 grant to use for the educational benefit of her students, two personal grants of $5,000, and an educational technology package worth about $18,000 from SMART technologies.
Wainwight says she's not sure exactly what she'll use the money for just yet, but says technology is near the top of the list.
"My classroom is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) classroom, we just started that this year and I would love to have a little more technology in my classroom. So, I've already got my eyes on that prize."
Wainwright also becomes the First State’s entrant in the National Teacher of the Year contest by winning state Teacher of the Year.