Watkins first grade instructor named state ‘Super Teacher’

Courtney Lewis, a first grade teacher at George W. Watkins Elementary School, holds a check for $2,000, the Virginia Lottery part of the Super Teacher presentation Wednesday at the school. At right and making the presentation is Virginia Lottery executive director Paula Otto. For more photos of the event, click on photo gallery.

Alan Chamberlain photo

George W. Watkins Elementary School first grade teacher Courtney Lewis is in a class by herself — almost. She is one of only eight teachers statewide to receive a 2016 Virginia Lottery Super Teacher Award.

Recipients, however, come close to winning the lottery. All receive $2,000 in classroom supplies, compliments of The Supply Room Companies, along with a $2,000 cash award from the Virginia Lottery.

A surprise presentation in the guise of a storytelling assembly for first graders took place Wednesday afternoon in Watkins’ auditorium. Students in her class along with other first graders broke into raucous cheers at the announcement of the winner.

“Wow!” Lewis said in reaction her good fortune. “I want to start by thanking my students. They’re the reason why I wake up every morning and I’m excited to come in.”

She also heaped praise on parents, including her own, and the first grade teaching team at the school. Her parents, she said, provided the guiding force behind her realization that teaching would be her calling.

“I feel so honored,” she said. “There are so many teachers I work with that are so special.”

Her students’ parents, and one in particular, provided impetus for Lewis emerging as a winner. Earlier this year and spurred by an ad she discovered on Facebook, Krystle Walker hopped aboard the Virginia Lottery website to place Lewis’ name in nomination. Her daughter, Kayleigh, is a student under Lewis.

“She’s just an amazing teacher,” Walker said as she sat out of sight in the principal’s office before the surprise presentation began.

“Her approach, not only with students but with parents, is outstanding,” she said. “She goes above and beyond in whatever she does. I could give you a 15-page book on how amazing she is.”

Shannon McLaughlin, another parent sitting in the office and whose son, Aiden, is in Lewis’ class, recounted a recent occurrence when the family’s new puppy died early one school day morning after being struck by a car. The event devastated her son, she said.

She contacted Lewis concerning the situation, asking the teacher to keep an eye on her son. During the school day, Lewis e-mailed photos of Aiden to McLaughlin, noting there were “some tears” but all seemed to be proceeding well. At the end of the school day when McLaughlin picked up her son, he told his mother to open his backpack. Inside, Lewis had placed a plush toy puppy.

In her letter nominating Lewis, Walker told of other means in which Lewis reaches beyond the norm to serve students. Lewis had been first at Watkins to open a “GoFundMe” account so her students could take advantage of iPads, she wrote. Hands-on activities and a variety of instructional and assessment activities are hallmarks of her classroom, she added.

“From the minute you walk in her classroom, it is evident that Courtney Lewis loves teaching. Her classroom is warm and inviting to parents and students. She has a smile on her face when students arrive, making sure they know she is glad they are there,” Watkins said, reading from her nomination letter during the presentation ceremony.

“Being on a personal level, there will never be a child that leaves her classroom without a hug and love,” she said.

“Courtney works extremely well with students who think creatively and need challenges beyond the basic curriculum,” she concluded.

Based on Walker’s letter, a team of five educators and community leaders selected Lewis from a pool of close to 800 nominations. The Virginia Lottery operates eight regions in the state. Lewis is the winner from the Richmond region, and is the first New Kent teacher to be honored in the Super Teacher awards program’s nine-year history.

“She is a phenomenal teacher,” said New Kent school superintendent Dave Myers, who attended the ceremony. “She is very deserving, and we’re thankful she answered that calling to be a teacher.”