We are delighted to announce our March 2024 Teacher of the Month! Ms. Heather Wallace is a twelfth grade English teacher at San Francisco International High School. She is being recognized for her passion, work ethic, and commitment to her students, school, and community.
Ms. Heather is an amazing teacher! She knows how to create a fun and welcoming atmosphere in her classroom. Her lessons are always spot-on, covering topics that are truly relevant to her students and their community. What’s more, she’s always willing to chat with her students and listen to what they have to say. Ms. Heather is a true gem—her students are lucky to have her!
She treats her students with the same respect she would give adults, and her class feels like a natural transition from high school to college. Students can earn points by working hard and displaying leadership skills, which can be used to organize a pizza party, motivating them to study harder.
Ms. Heather was so dedicated to her student’s success that she held individual conferences with each one of them during an essay writing unit! That means she got to go over their work with them, answer any questions they had, and give them feedback on how to improve. By doing this, Ms. Heather made sure that every student had a chance to shine and be heard. Plus, this approach is anti-racist because it gives everyone the same tools and expectations for success.
One student says, “Ms. Heather is a very patient teacher. There are a lot of immigrants who are English learners in our school. Sometimes, some of the students cannot understand the lesson completely immediately. She will explain step by step to them to make sure they grasp knowledge.”
Ms. Heather is amazing at breaking down complicated topics into smaller parts, which makes it much easier for her students to learn challenging writing. Ms. Heather devised a fun idea to help her students understand how to structure a paragraph; giving them pieces of paper that had a paragraph written on it, but all cut up! The students were then tasked to put the pieces together like a puzzle to form the paragraph. This was an engaging and hands-on way to teach paragraph structure, which shows Ms. Heather’s unique talent for reaching her students.
Ms. Heather has an awesome way of beginning each class. She has a student kick things off by sharing the date, learning objectives, and calling on their classmates to review the “Do Now” activity. This exercise is really helpful for building public speaking and leadership skills, and it happens every day!
Another student says, “I am grateful for Ms. Heather stimulating my study skills and helping me improve my English. Her passion and dedication to teaching bring us constant motivation to learn.”
Ms. Heather, thank you for all your hard work and dedication to your students and community!