Jamie Kim co-editor-in-chief
For the 2018 Apple Awards, which are given to faculty members from all four K-8 schools and the high school, math teacher Josh Glass and Intervention Counselor Ali Norman-Franks were named high school Apple Award winners. They were formally recognized at the Apple Awards ceremony at the EDC Courtyard at 5 p.m today.
Principal Mark Mead says that these two educators were chosen for exemplifying work that aligns with two school-wide goals, the first being “humane citizenship and active participation.”
“[Norman-Franks] has been supporting kids, making sure our kids’ social and emotional needs are met. I’m really proud of the work she’s done this year, and believe it or not, I think we can do even more next year. I think she really stands for an important goal that I support, a lot of our teachers support, which is the social emotional needs of our kids,” Mead said.
The second goal is improving student learning outcomes and higher order thinking, which Mead says that Glass constantly shows in his classroom.
“I’ve been watching Mr. Glass for the last couple of years. Largely I get to see him a little bit more than the average teacher because whenever we have a tour, we stop by his room. The way he instructs his students, the way he encourages student discourse, students are talking to one another, problem-solving, getting up, moving around, writing on desks, he has a really strong teaching pedagogy–understanding how to create clear expectation and give plenty of feedback,” Mead said. “He’s just doing the things that, based on research and based on best practices, that really we want all of our teachers emulating. So, to me, he represents, in the classroom, someone who is doing the things that we greatly support as administration, as the school, so it was just recognizing someone who is very much delivering best practices in the classroom.”
For Glass, who is in his 12th year of teaching at Beverly, giving students the freedom of choice and decision is crucial.
“That idea of students checking for understanding on their own and making good choices with what they need to work on is really my number one objective, even if they take nothing away from my class. This is a skill they can do wherever they are, whether it’s in other high school classes, university or life,” Glass said. “Knowing where your strengths and weaknesses lie and how to improve is a big thing for me.”
Check our Instagram @bhhighlights for a video about the two winners!