Q2, Western Security Bank, City Brew Coffee and Education Foundation for Billings Public Schools have teamed up for 'One Class at a Time'. The program recognizes teachers who go above and beyond to help their students.
Meet Amy Caldeira, an 8th-grade history teacher who is so committed to keeping her students interested in history she often hits the road to learn about new ways to teach from history experts.
"I've traveled to Philadelphia to Freedom Foundations, which is at Valley Forge, and also to the White House and to Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, and done teaching institutes there," said Mrs. Caldeira. "It's so cool because you get to see the real deal and speak with scholars from the East Coast that have their hands in history all the time, and I get to bring that stuff back and share it with my students and it's super. It gets me very riled up and pumped up for what I teach."
So strong is her love of history that she has been accepted as a master teacher at the White House.
"What that is, is basically you're a mentor to other teachers and you help introduce new ways of teaching primary documents and the White House in general, the history of the White House, so I'll go back and be one of the master teachers for a week."
And what does she hope her students will gain from her classes?
"The biggest thing I want the kids to leave my room with is curiosity about why we are who we are, and also what their civic duty is to our community and to our country. So if they don't know why we have a Constitution, how we got the Constitution, and the people that have died to uphold the Constitution, there's no power in the Constitution or being proud of being an American, so I just think they need to know all the people that came before us."
For being a teacher who has changed the whole culture, not only in her classes but the entire school, Mrs. Caldeira was presented with a $500 grant sponsored by Western Security Bank and a $150 gift card from City Brew Coffee. Congratulations!
If you would like to nominate a teacher, click here. We could be surprising a deserving teacher at your school next.
