“I would like to nominate Bonnie Weed for the Parker Homes Help A Teacher Out! I am the math department chair at Canyon, and Bonnie is one of the hardest working teachers in our department. She puts in a lot of time, energy, dedication, and money to her classroom. She simply goes above and beyond for her students each day. Ms. Weed is always in contact with the high school parents to keep them updated, she rewards her students with prizes often, and she supplies extra pencils, paper, etc. for her students. Her lessons are always well prepared as she spends extra time to implement as much technology as possible. There is no way I can put into words all that Ms. Weed does for her students, classroom, and other teachers on our campus as she is also our social committee chair for the campus and a class sponsor. With all that being said, Ms. Weed goes above and beyond every day, using her own money for so many things. And she does all this as a single parent of a boy who is in elementary school. It amazes me how she is so dedicated to do so many things, and then even picks up extra work (like summer school). I know she would GREATLY appreciate any help you would be willing to offer her. Thank you for your time and consideration.”
We were lucky we had the help of Michelle to coordinate this reveal. They had just gotten out of a long meeting and Michelle convinced her to go to the office, which is where my wife was waiting to surprise her along with one of her former students, Devin. (Devin is at Texas State now getting her teaching certification which she claims is due to the inspiration Bonnie Weed gave her in class- keeping the cycle of great teachers going!)
Bonnie was moved to tears, which started a domino effect with the rest of the crowd! And then to top it off, we honored Michelle Koehl as well with a $100 gift card. We thought it was selfless and kind of her to nominate another teacher, being a great teacher herself!
“Christie is amazing. She works at a charter school that helps at risk children. She spends many hours and is always looking for ways to help her kids. She treats them like they are her own children. She encourages, befriends and loves these kids and for some of them she is the only one who is a constant cheerleader for them. She gives them stuff for holidays, she becomes a mentor, she pushes them to do more than they ever dreamed they could do. I even know that one of her students was sick with no insurance and she paid for him to go to the doctor. She also has her own child that she is very involved with. Her husband works away for many months so she is essentially a single mom who never says no. She hated recognition because she feels that she is doing nothing out of the ordinary. I would love for her to have this. She spends so much of her time and money I would love to see her recognized. I would also like to remain anonymous to the fact that I nominated her!”
I think we really shocked Christie! All the staff at this school helped us with the surprise. We all went into her classroom and presented it to her. It was fun to see her confusion as we all came into the room with this big basket. She quickly became very excited and honored, and we were all excited for her! The person who nominated her wanted to remain anonymous but we are curious to see if Christie ever figured out who it was. What a great person!
Pictured: (From Left to Right) Tiffany Parker, Christie Timmons, Ryan Parker
“I met Paige while we were both getting our teaching degrees down in
Freiheit actually had two teachers nominated and the school wanted to be sure we presented the awards in front of the entire staff as well. (I'm glad my wife was such a trooper when doing these presentations in front of everyone!) So here is the 2nd teacher nominated there:
Teacher #7: DAVID WAGNER (Freiheit Elementary)
Nominated By: Rachelle Wagner
“David is a dedicated science teacher and this is his second year teaching. He is also a dedicated father and husband. He could really use some supplies to jump start the school year! Thank you for your consideration and support of all teachers!!!”
These teachers have some great supporters in their lives! Rachelle is David's wife and she brought their two children to the big reveal as well. When my wife, Tiffany, was done presenting, David's oldest son ran up to David and presented him with a special necklace he made, telling him he was the best teacher/dad ever! I think that was even better than the basket he got!
Pictured: (From left to right) Paige Holden and David Wagner
“Mrs. Biddison is a warm and wonderful teacher. She just recently gave up her law license and became a teacher and then with all the budget cuts lost her position at County line Elementary. She was hired on at Klien, thank goodness but in the process her husband (also a teacher) lost his job and is still looking. She was a wonderful mentor to my son in the Destination Imagination club as well. I know that being a teacher is hard on the pocket book and then to have both parents at one time lose their job is just a very sad thing. I am so glad she was hired back but we are sad to see her leave CLE. I think she deserves it for all the sacrifices she and her family have made to be educators to our children.”
We loved this one because Terra was able to meet us at Klein with ALL 6 of her children, one of which was a student of Mrs. Biddison's and a couple others knew her as well. Before Amy even knew about the award, she was so excited to see the kids, as they ran up and hugged her. And they were all so excited to show her the basket full of goodies she received for the recognition. You could tell that Terra was a very thankful mother towards Mrs. Biddison. What a great way to show her thanks!
Pictured: (From left to right) Terra Marrou, 2 of her kiddos (sorry can not remember their names!), Amy Biddison, and 2 more kiddos. (2 kids were not pictured)
“Ms. Hahn has over 25 years experience teaching, of which, 11 have been in NBISD. She has always used much of her own money and resources to provide the best learning experience that first graders can have.”
Henry, which is Debbie's brother, met us at Carl Schurz and we walked to Debbie's classroom to surprise her. She was busy getting ready for "Meet the Teacher" which was happening that evening. She was blown away by the kindness of her brother, thinking of her and recognizing her hard work and dedication. It was a really sweet moment!
Debbie filled out our questionnaire as well:
Debbie Hahn has 26 years of teaching with 12 of those years at NBISD. She has two daughters, one lives in California with her family and one lives in Florida. She is known as "Gammy" to 3 grandchildren. Her brother and sister-in-law live just 9 houses away from her. New Braunfels has always been a favorite town of hers.
Debbie has always loved to be around children. When she was growing up, she always wanted to babysit the neighbors children. "Playing School" was her favorite past-time and the elementary education courses in college always interested her as well. So she sought out being the best teacher possible!
What's her favorite part of teaching? "There is never a dull moment! I love the challenge of teaching these little minds academically, as well as socially. I feel so fullfilled when I see how much they learn and grow."
How will she be able to use the items in the basket? "Oh my... EVERY item is needed and WILL be used. I feel like I won the classroom lottery! The choice of items is just perfect and I'm looking forward to using it all with my first graders."
Her reaction to the nomination? "Totally stunned! My adrenalin was sky high and I fell so thankful to have been chosen. It was an awesome moment."
She also includes... "This community service for teachers is a wonderful thing. I think I can generalize and say... most teachers do not feel appreciated. This generosity shows that there still are people out there that understand the hard job we have each day."
These contributors are some of the generous and caring people she is referring to!
Pictured: (From left to right) Henry Hahn and Debbie Hahn
“I was very thankful that our son Zach was blessed with such a great kindergarten teacher. She really is a very sweet and loving teacher who taught our son so much his first year of school. And the reason why he enjoys it. After the year was over she made the decision to move to third grade and i am hoping we will be blessed with Zach having her as a teacher again. Zach says she is nice and funny and he had an awesome time in kindergarten.”
Another appreciative mom! Its always a comfort to know your children are in good hands as they journey through life! We surprised Tonya Heffington in her classroom. I think she was in complete shock and overcome with emotion! She was having a meeting with her team members and I am sure it was hard to concentrate after that!
Pictured: Tonya Heffington
“Mrs. Sherrerd is the teacher all kids LOVE! Every child is fully engaged in her class and are eager to hear what she has to say. She makes science come to life in the classroom. She absolutely loves her job and science and it shows everyday in the classroom. In the words of my 11-year-old son, she is the BEST teacher in the world!”
We also surprised Rachel as she was in a team meeting. Once again shocked and overwhelmed like so many of the teachers. Its great to see someone's hard work and dedication get recognized. For that moment she got to celebrate her talent as a teacher before she quickly went back to work! :) Kathy, who nominated her, wanted to be there as well with her son but had to move her two daughters to college that day.
Pictured: Rachel Sherrerd
“Angela was a first year teacher at our school this year--she actually got her job after school started when our enrollment swelled. She did a fantastic job and always had a positive outlook even during the possibility of job cuts with the state budget difficulties. She is dedicated to her job and her students and would use a grant wisely to help her classroom be even better this year. We are so glad her job has remained intact and I think she is worthy of some help.”
Another great teacher at Garden Ridge Elementary! By the time we arrived at Angela's classroom, we had a big crowd of teachers following us, ready to cheer on their co-worker. Laura Cannon, who nominated Angela, was also there and we got to surprise her with a $100 gift card as well, for being such a selfless, giving teacher by nominating a co-worker. There were lots of cheers and lots of tears of happiness. These teachers are amazing!
Pictured: (From left to right) Angela Jensen and Laura Cannon
“Mrs. Culpepper is always ready to help kids learn about everything that goes on in our world. From what makes the Earth turn to what we are made of. She is passionate about science, and I think she could use some more cool science gadgets to help get her kids just as passoinate about it as she is!”
Our last stop was at Goodwin Frazier where we surprised Kimbra in the copy room. Devin is her daughter and was there helping her mom put together her room for the school year. Kimbra was very excited and honored to receive such a great gift not only from us but from her sweet daughter as well. You know you must be doing something right if you can raise your own kids to appreciate what you do for a living!
Pictured: (From left to right) Kimbra Culpepper and Devin Culpepper
