ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – It was ‘Pajama Day’ at Northside Middle School, when we decided to drop in.
We confirmed pretty quickly that nobody is sleeping when our October recipient of the Education Impact award is teaching.
[Click HERE to nominate your favorite educator for the Education Impact Award]
While English class in middle school may sound more like a punishment than progress, that’s not the case at Northside Middle School. Lauren Burgess has turned the ‘colorless and the cumbersome’ into cool.
“She is really bringing real-world experience to kids, letting them apply what they’re learning. It’s meaningful to them, and I think that’s her strength. And Lauren is a creative teacher who engages students and makes her subject come to life. She makes it relevant to her students, and I think that benefits learning and helps our students,” Northside Middle School principal Paul Lineburg said.
Burgess has been breaking down symbolism in Roanoke County schools for 9 years of her 13-year teaching career, but it’s creative projects like partnering with a local animal shelter to craft “Pet Poetry” that sets her apart.
“So my kids, they don’t like poetry. It’s just something that they don’t like to do. When I give them this purpose, and we hook up with the shelter and they each get to pick a dog, and they get to write a poem from the dog’s perspective, and it goes to the new family that adopts them. It’s meaningful to the kids and it’s something that they want to do well on, and it gives them a reason to do it,” Burgess explained.
She works tirelessly, not for recognition but for her kids. Helping them tackle the emotional and social development that comes at this crucial time.
“One of my favorite quotes is something to the fact that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and that comes through here. You’ve heard that relationship matters, and so having that relationship, creating that atmosphere of fun, that just speaks volumes,” Blue Eagle Credit Union Senior brand specialist Laurissa Thompson said.
“My students will tell you they might roll their eyes when they tell you, but my students will tell you that I tell them you’re gonna leave here a better person than when you came in, and that’s my number one goal and the relationship I build with them is first and foremost the most important thing we do because I want to help them be successful in whatever they wanna be successful in and so I like to foster that first before we do even do any of the learning stuff,” Burgess said.
Burgess and Northside Middle receive $250 each as a reward. Next week, Burgess teams up with a previous Education Impact Award honoree, Amanda Waldron, as the dynamic Northside duo. The two are headed to Indianapolis for the AMLE25 conference to present their day-to-day techniques to teachers around the country, which is a great honor for Roanoke County schools.