Jeffrey A. Wright
Kentucky Teacher of the Year
Louisville Male Traditional High School, Louisville
Grade 9-12, Physics, Biology and Chemistry

My teaching philosophy
You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Even though this is a trite cliché, I believe that our job as teachers is not to pour knowledge into the heads of students, but rather to make them thirsty to learn more.

My philosophy in action
To make my students thirsty to learn, I try to empower them by hands-on projects that they take ownership for. For example, having my students design and build hovercrafts based on Pascal’s principle and floating them down the hall. Or designing and building a wetlands on the school campus. We can then see succession occur throughout the year and study native species.

My greatest teaching accomplishment
Although I am tempted to look at certain teaching awards I have been granted, my greatest accomplishments come in helping individuals. For example, I have been helping 3 "at risk" minority individuals, one of whom is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. Even though one student’s grade can only be raised to a D, the other two have improved from 53% to 82% and 62% to 87%. Seeing not only improvement in grades, but also self confidence is my greatest accomplishment because if children believe they can succeed, they will learn.

Critical issues facing educators today
The learning gap often caused by cultural opportunities and expectations, decreases accountability on all levels.

Ways to resolve this issue
To close the learning gap, a solution must be applied one child at a time. When I think of my greatest teachers, they are the ones that took an individual interest in me. I would like to have every student have a mentor teacher they have to meet with, along with their parents, and administrator. Even if each teacher picks one student per class, per grading period to mentor, over 36 students could be affected. During these conferences, particular responsibilities would be assigned to the student, teacher, parent and administrator to ensure success. Follow-up conferences with proof implementation could track the success.

One thought to inspire teachers to succeed
To be a lifelong teacher, one must be a lifelong learner. Once we stop learning, we stop growing and improving as teachers, and so do our students.

One lesson every student should learn
Keep trying to do harder things until you fail, then try again. That way you know you have reached your best.

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