January Teachers of the Month Awarded

Congratulations to our January Teachers of the Month: Kristin Hessenauer, Jeffrey Holmes and Lisa Guseman! Thank you to everyone who nominated teachers this month. We had an impressive pool of nominations and it was so satisfying to read from students, parents, and teachers about the difference teachers are making in students’ lives this year. Take a look at some of the wonderful things their nominators shared about these outstanding educators in Westerville City Schools and be sure to nominate the amazing teachers in your school! https://www.westervilleeducationfoundation.com/teacher-nomination

We're accepting nominations for Hawthorne, Huber Ridge and Wilder until February 15 for our next round!

Special thank you to Education First Credit Union, who sponsors our special Teacher of the Month program each month. Winners get $100 to use in their classroom fund, they are featured on our website with past winners, and they get the fame and glory this month.

Congratulations to these teachers and thank you to ALL our Westerville City School teachers for all that you do to support our students!

Kristen Hessenauer - Heritage Middle School

“Ms. Hessenauer has been incredibly helpful in helping us (that is our son and us parents) to be successful in our son attending the WVA in 6th grade. Her recorded instructional videos how to use APEX and Schoology helped us to familiarize ourselves with the program and her email reminders helped us to keep up with deadlines. Most importantly, Ms. Hessenauer has designed her virtual classroom to be extremely user friendly. Per her virtual classroom we can access not only her office hours, but the office hours of the other WVA teachers as well. Ms. Hessenauer has also recorded a variety of video lessons to help students understand Math better while learning remotely.” - Family member of Student

"One time I was in one of Ms. Hessenauer's office hours to discuss technical difficulties on a quiz. But afterwards Ms. Hessenauer also showed an interest in me as a person and we talked about what our hobbies are. It made me feel like she really appreciates her students. This connection made me feel less isolated with learning remotely. I know that if I have a problem with virtual learning I can always talk to Ms. Hessenauer." - student

Jeffrey Holmes - Walnut Springs

“Mr. Holmes was kind and made you want to learn the assignment and he would have a video about the assignment and the video, would sing about what we were learning. He would always say in the morning ‘Good morning’ or say ‘how was your day?’ or ‘how was the holidays?’ and would always say if you had late assignments, ‘don't worry you can turn it in tomorrow’ or say ‘don't worry you can turn it on Tuesday’. When you went to his class he would have a video that made you want to learn and he would do this thing where he would give a target worksheet and you would do one daily and if you had a good answer or you drew the answer or you answered all right he would get up early in the morning and get doughnuts to give to the kids who did the things of what i said. If you had an allergy he would say ‘don't worry i'll get you something else’ and he actually make you want to learn. When kids from a bigger grade would deliver him things and say hi and they would have a small conversation and kids that never seen him would have a conversation that lasted at least 2 min and he was funny and had two goldfish i think.” - student

Robert Frost Elementary - Lisa Guseman

“Mrs. Guseman has been strong and ready for everything this year has thrown at her! She manages to always be in a cheerful mood and connect with each individual child despite the lack of personal time together. She communicates well with parents on top of it all! Never before have I heard my daughter genuinely laugh so much about what a teacher has said or done. We hear multiple stories about all the funny things Mrs Guseman does! One time, she and a friend were doing virtual schooling together and they were in hysterics. The other mom thought they were off track, but it was just their wonderful teacher making an impact and cultivating a love of learning!” - Family member of student