My RHS Person Of The Year: Mrs. Chapman
What constitutes someone as the ‘Person of the Year’? Time Magazine, which appoints a Person of the Year annually, picks someone who, “for better or for worse…has done the most to influence the events of the year.” On a much more local level, when choosing a Person of the Year here at Riley, I wanted to find someone who has impacted many students. After some careful consideration, I thought, who better than our very own Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Wendy Chapman!
Mrs. Chapman is in her third year here at Riley, teaching in the English department. Although I haven’t had the pleasure of having her class, I was with her group during the SATs last year, and even that short amount of time was pleasant. Mrs. Chapman is a wonderful teacher, and when you really get down to it, a wonderful person.
Pictured: Mrs. Chapman
I had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Chapman about getting Teacher of the Year. From our perspective, it might seem like she is a prime candidate for Teacher of the Year, but Mrs. Chapman didn’t expect it. “We have a lot of good teachers in this building, so just to be on the list with some of those people [was great],” she told me. She added, “I felt surprised when it was announced, but it’s really kind of people to acknowledge me.”
But what makes someone a good candidate for Teacher of the Year? From the perspective of a student, a good teacher is one who tries to put their students first and makes sure they have the skills that they need. That definitely describes Mrs. Chapman.
When I asked her about what goals she has with her students, she told me, “The majority of my students are juniors, so it really is about thinking about what’s next…[that way] even if they don’t sit down and read Arthur Miller ever again in their lives when they’re in the workplace, when they’re in college, or if they go into the military—whatever they go on to next, they can process and take in all the information, and then, you know, figure out what to do with it.” She later added, “Everything is so interconnected, and if we can show people how to make those connections while they’re here, then when they go out into the world it’s like, ‘oh yeah, ok, we see how all this works together.’”
A good teacher also tries to work with their students with respect, and without getting mad or overreacting. That’s something Mrs. Chapman says she’s been trying to work on. “Last year, I had almost all freshmen, so [I was] really spending the majority of the year kind of training them how to be in this space, and how to transition from 8th grade to high school. Then this year, I only have one group of freshmen [and] I have almost all 11th graders. When you have almost all freshmen, you see a bigger change a little more quickly, and so now with the juniors, it’s helping them stay motivated, helping them see the ‘next page’ for themselves, and trying to get myself to be patient when they’re not seeing it as quickly as I think they should.” I’m sure many of Mrs. Chapman’s students could tell her that she’s doing a great job of being patient with them.
But what about personally? What kind of goals does she have going forward as our current Teacher of the Year? When I asked her what hopes and goals she has for this year, she laughed and told me, “Oh gosh. To make it through the year.”
I think we can all resonate with that. Going more in-depth, Mrs. Chapman expressed, “I want all my students to pass their course work, but not just pass, find something they’re interested in…I’m very honest and I say, ‘You’re not going to love everything that we do, but try to find something that you like, something that gives you some sort of interest.’” She also added, “I’ve got lots of little mini-traveling in my future. My oldest son is graduating from college, and then my youngest is a swimmer, so we’ve got all of these competitions to go to, so it’ll be scheduling and making sure that we do what we need for them. Those are goals always.”
Mrs. Chapman, Riley’s Teacher of the Year, and my Person of the Year, truly deserves her title. She is an extremely kind and warm individual, and she’s shown just in our brief interview that she really cares about her students personally, not just their grades. So, the next time you see her standing outside her classroom, or when she’s in the halls, give her a smile. She’ll kindly return the favor.
