Kathleen Chambers, Lincoln Elementary School
By: Kevin Doran
Updated: January 29, 2013
Tonight we give a Golden Apple Award to a woman who is a great teacher of future teachers. Kathleen Chambers teaches first grade at Lincoln Elementary in Newark.
The last thing St. John Fisher College Senior Tiffany LaPrade had to do before graduation was a student teaching assignment with Kathleen Chambers at Lincoln Elementary in Newark. She's glad she did. "She's just a great teacher. I've been in a lot of classrooms over the last few semesters doing various things in different elementary classrooms and I've just never seen a teacher that puts as much heart and soul into teaching as she does."
Mrs. Chambers is a great mentor. Tiffany wanted to say thank you for the experience by giving her a Golden Apple Award.
Kathy Chambers is a shy and understated woman. But as a teacher she's a Principal's dream. Lincoln Principal Jeff Hamelinck says "I mean Miss Chambers is definitely a gift to any Principal. Willing to work with colleagues, very collaborative, very child centered. So when you have a gift of a teacher like that, what else can you ask for as a Principal?"
What's the most important thing Kathy hopes she's taught Tiffany? "Just noticing, noticing what kids need, what they're showing you that you can help them with. And finding ways it can work for each person in here. To make them the best that they can be."
Kathleen Chambers is a News 8 Golden Apple Award winner. You can read the wonderful letter we got from Tiffany nominated her below.
Dear News 8,
My name is Tiffany LaPrade, and I am a senior at St. John Fisher College studying Education. Seeing this is my last semester I am in the process of completing my required student teaching at Lincoln Elementary School in Newark, NY. The teacher that has been gracious enough to mentor me during my student teaching placement is Kathleen Chambers, a first grade teacher. On behalf of all her students, and I as one of her students as well, would like to nominate her for the Golden Apple Award.
I have been in countless elementary classrooms all over Monroe and Wayne Counties over my past few semesters in college, and I have yet to meet one teacher that has HALF the heart and passion in regards to teaching as she does. She constantly brings the ordinary to extraordinary. She supports her first graders in all their endeavors, helping each and everyone one of them reach their fullest potential while simultaneously being supportive and encouraging. She comes in early and leaves late on a daily basis assembling an eclectic curriculum to meet the varying needs of her students. I could not have asked for a better mentor to teach me how to be a teacher.
I would be overjoyed to see her presented with the Golden Apple Award before I left her and her amazing first graders. Please consider my nomination as I can tell you from being with her on a daily basis for the past six weeks, no one is more deserving of this award. She is a phenomenal teacher. Each and every one of her students is truly auspicious to have such an outstanding and dedicated teaching. I can only aspire to one day be a teacher like that of Mrs. Kathleen Chambers.
Thank you for your time and your consideration,
Tiffany LaPrade, St. John Fisher College
