NAIS Teacher of the Future, 2014-2015
2010-11 William A. Parker, Sr. Mentoring/Nurturing Faculty Award
Through collaborative teaming, bright-spot searching, and student-strength identifying, this year’s eighth-grade teacher recipient of the Parker Mentoring/Nurturing Award provided much of the capstone encouragement that the student honoree needed to seal his Junior High improvement and growth before moving on to High School. Building on the student’s strengths, this teacher leveraged the student’s successes to galvanize his development in areas of relative weakness for the student. With great appreciation, one of the two Junior High William A. Parker, Sr. Mentoring/Nurturing Faculty Awards goes to Jill Gough.
(Student: Harrison)
2010-11 Rollins Teacher of Excellence
In the official citation for the Rollins Teachers of Excellence, the criteria read:
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- “Provide consistent, clear, and challenging expectations for students;
- Motivate, inspire, and empower students to pursue intellectual curiosity and solve problems in a collaborative learning atmosphere;
- Foster trusting, safe, and nurturing environments;
- Demonstrate a willingness to take risks and an openness to engaging new ideas;
- Stay current with evolving teaching strategies and methodologies;
- Model reflective practices, and seek opportunities to grow professionally;
- Show care and concern for every student.
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Within the context of these seven attributes, excellent teachers find a way to integrate the intangible qualities of creativity and inspiration into their work.”
While those words could not be more ideal descriptions of the Junior High recipient, there is one small issue – she prefers the term “learner” to “student.” That seemingly minor distinction becomes critical when you realize that her influence encircles both young people and adults. Through such work as her leadership in Texas Instruments’ “T-cubed” program, her facilitation of professional development in countless Center for Teaching moments, her co-directing of the school-wide PLC efforts, and her strong voice in our developing Faculty Assessment Plan, she has “motivated, inspired, and empowered” learners of all ages in “taking risks” and “engaging new ideas” through “evolving teaching strategies and methodologies.” She “models reflective practices” through such venues as her outstanding “Experiments in Learning by Doing” blog, and she is a pied piper for growing professionally. She shares willingly and evangelizes such ideas as Phases of the Moon, the 20 Minute Twitter Project, Mobile Technology in Schools, etc. Already, she has proved her worth as a creative inspiration in her new post as CTIS.
With great appreciation, we recognize one of four Rollins Teachers of Excellence, Jill Gough.
2008 William A. Parker, Sr. Mentoring/Nurturing Faculty Award
Eighth Grade – Jill Gough (Student: Emily)
When Bo Adams observed several of Jill Gough’s Algebra I classes, he was struck by and noted particularly the high level of confidence and positive contribution that Emily exhibited in math. While Emily might not readily and immediately describe herself with these terms, she clearly developed them as a student in Jill’s class. Thanks to Jill’s assessment style and practices, Emily had tremendous opportunity to learn genuinely from her mistakes – part of Jill’s class structure is to all but require students to correct their tests and journal about the nature of their mistakes and temporary setbacks. Moreover, Jill provides countless resources for her students, so that virtually everyone can have multiple means of understanding and processing the class material. With a mentality of trying numerous approaches until something works, Jill designs lessons with instructive technologies that capture students’ attention and enthusiasm for math…even if they didn’t enter her class with such trained attention and enthusiasm. Jill can lead the “math-o-phobes” into a heartfelt love for the discipline.
2006 Parker Mentoring – Jill Gough
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- Committed to making certain that her students learn and understand the complex mathematics that they are studying. Carefully thinks about such fine details as ideal arrangement of her room, how not to turn her back to the class while teaching, how to insure that students comprehend instead of regurgitate information.
- Creatively designs and implements learning activities that are utilized across the country. Her preferred style of delivery makes the students feel that they are intimately connected to the production of learning rather than a mere audience to something happening on a stage.
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- For numerous children who need additional assistance, she devises test-revising policies and extra instructional opportunities so that her students truly learn from their mistakes and grow to appreciate that learning is a process that often involves wrong answers along the way. She often serves as a “rescuer” for students at the margin.
2005 Alex P. Gaines Professorship from the Charles Loridans Foundation – Jill Gough
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- Kind, collaborative leadership for increased technology integration into the algebra program; a positive, effective “change agent”
- Collegial and professional; fulfills responsibilities with a can-do attitude and a desire to make the Junior High a positive, more energetic learning environment
- A master teacher in many classroom dimensions – connecting personally with students, bringing the curriculum to life, planning and delivering excellent lessons, maintaining an enthusiastic learning environment that supports risk taking and respects different styles of learners
2005 Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Middle School Mathematics Teaching
1998 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching
1991 Mississippi High School Math Teacher of the Year
Experiments in Learning by Doing 