Excellent Educators is a WAVY-TV 10 initiative to celebrate local teachers who have gone above and beyond for their students and communities during the coronavirus pandemic. These Excellent Educators were nominated by their school divisions. Congratulations to these educators for all of their hard work and accomplishments!
Name: Tamara Simons
Division: Gates County Public Schools
Position: Media specialist at Gates County High School
What the school division said about this Excellent Educator: In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Tamara Simons worked hard to ensure that students could still check out books and read at home. She also made use of technology to help students access books through an online app. Follow her on Instagram at @redbaronsread to see how she has used social media to generate excitement about reading.
In addition to serving as our media specialist, Simons also worked one-on-one with our ESL students to ensure student success in their courses. As a former Spanish teacher, Simons used her skills to tutor her students and, when needed, attend their virtual classes with them. She worked with the students not only on their current course work, but also when they were struggling with foundational skills needed for success.
While hard at work providing services to help our ESL students, Simons also continues to provide resources and instruction by collaborating with our teachers. You can often find her providing lessons in global context in order to help reach all students and pique their interest in the subject at hand.
As our media specialist, Simons provided an opportunity for teachers, students, and staff to be a part of a book study, using the learning management system Canvas. Through the discussions of the book, teacher, staff, and students also learned a variety of ways to develop lessons for Canvas. Simons also held her first-ever virtual book fair, giving students, teachers, and families an inexpensive opportunity to purchase books and help out the school and individual teachers.
