Latest news with #PennwestUniversity
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Golden Apple Award: Shannon Holly, West Lake Middle School
The final week of April marks the final week for honoring a local school teacher with the JET 24 Pennwest University Golden Apple Award. This week, the winning teacher is at West Lake Middle School in Millcreek. Shannon Holly is the music teacher at Westlake. Her mom worked in school and that's what made her choose a career as a teacher. 'I knew I wanted to be in the school in some way,' she said. 'I thought maybe a math teacher. and then that quickly dropped off when I got to high school.' But she added, 'Then I realized music and chorus was my thing, so I just wanted to continue with that, and I'm very glad I have. This has always been my dream job to be a middle school chorus teacher,' she explained. Ms. Holly likens being a music teacher to being a coach. 'Yes, we do music things in here, but we all have to come together as a team on stage to make sure we're singing together as a group,' she said. 'So really it's just about bringing all these different personalities and different uniquenesses together to go toward a common goal.' To reach those goals, it's taken a few years to find the right pitch in the classroom. Holly suggested, 'I really make sure that I get to know the students, what they're doing on the weekend, things that they like. Talking to a student yesterday and found out she's Italian, and they do Sunday dinners. So just small things with students because you have to know your people if you want to work with them and really lead them to success,' Holly said. PennWest University professor Mary Jo Melvin, PhD, said, 'Ms Holly shows her students through music the importance of teamwork, self-discipline and collaboration. And for some students, I think music may be the only voice that they have when there are no words.' This week's student nominator, Andrew Pianta, recently played a lead role in the school musical with encouragement from He said, 'Ms. Holly is a really special teacher to me because I like known her since 4th grade.' He continued, 'She would always say 'bye kiddos' all the time when she would leave, and I thought that was really special. I was originally going to be in orchestra, but I found out was going to be in chorus, so I made that switch to be in class with her,' Pianta said. Like all Golden Apple teachers, Ms Holly received $250 from Big Ideas Learning, an Erie-based math textbook company. 'She found an opportunity to help a student feel like they belong. It opened up a whole world of performance outside a comfort zone, that a student now became a star,' said Damon Finazzo, of Big Ideas Learning. Watch JET 24 on May 14 at 7 p.m. for our annual Golden Apple Awards special presentation. That night, a Teacher of the Year will be selected from among this school year's 27 Golden Apple Award recipients, hosted by JET 24's Lou Baxter. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Golden Apple Award: Angela Griffith
Angela Griffith has been teaching at Blessed Sacrament School for the past three years, but she has 20 years in education. She decided this would be her career, in the 4th grade. 'I had a teacher Mr. Perotto who used to play his guitar every morning and taught us old-time rock and roll songs. I just really appreciated the way he taught us, so I wanted to be a teacher too,' said Griffith. Two decades in, and there's still joy and passion for those special moments in class 'I know its really cliche to say but those light bulb moments going on. Aha moments. I like making learning fun, engaging and hands-on. And treating my students the way I would want my own children to be treated by their teachers,' said Griffith. This week's student nominator said his teacher gave him the confidence to not give up on himself or his school work. Mrs Griffith said education isn't one size fits all. 'She helps me with my work. Like when I'm struggling and having a bad day she like comes to me and calms me down. She does things like that,' said Enrique Maldonado, student nominator. 'When I think I can't do something she'll come up to me and she'll like boost me up and she'll say I can do it.' 'When I assign work it's not always the same exact work for each student. It will be the same content, the same topic. But I'll adjust it to where they're at. Because one size does not fit all and theyre not all at the same level. So meeting them where they're at and slowly building up on it,' said Griffith. 'I hope that we all believe that in life we meet that someone that will always enable us to be that someone we were meant to be. And for Enrique, that's this week's Golden Apple teacher, Mrs. Griffith,' said Mary Jo Melivn PhD, Pennwest University. Each week our partners at Big Ideas Learning financially reward the Golden Apple winner 'Teachers like Mrs. Griffith that make an impact and understand the students and meet them where they are, are so impactful and meaningful. And we're so happy to donate $250 to this week's Golden Apple teacher, Mrs. Griffith,' said Carissa Snarski, with Big Ideas Learning. Congratulations Angela Griffith this week's JET 24 PennWest University Golden Apple award winner. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
