CALL HER A HERO
Springfield educator receives ‘Teacher as Hero’ Award:
PHILADELPHIA » The National Liberty Museum announced the ten winners of the 14th annual Teacher as Hero Award, sponsored by State Farm. Jennifer Morris, a Springfield resident, is among this year’s winners.
The ten outstanding Delaware Valley educators, who come from four different states, will be honored at a virtual award ceremony at the National Liberty Museum, 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24. The Teacher as Hero Award recognizes outstanding educators who represent best practices in teaching and serve as role models to their colleagues and students.
Morris is an English as a Second Language teacher for students in grades K-8 at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in Kensington. Concerned that the Hispanic population lacked a specific cultural connection to the school, Morris decided to incorporate the Hispanic culture into the daily school activities by conducting part of the daily announcements in Spanish. She expanded this first step of inclusion into a monthlong Hispanic Heritage Month, incorporating cultural awareness with educationally relevant lessons and a Hispanic Heritage Career Expo and culminating in Carnival De Bethune, where students were immersed in the Hispanic culture with food, games, crafts and a student-made Heritage Museum.
“I am extremely honored to be receiving such an important award from an organization and museum that I have such a strong affection for,” commented Morris. “The inspiration for this project was the voices of my students. The great success of this project helps me to continue to focus on student identity, diversity and equity. Our students deserve an education that celebrates their cultural identities and experiences.”
Morris said that Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School is a K-8 grade elementary school with an enrollment of 535 students, of whom 22 percent are Latino and 45 students are English Language Learners.
“I am in charge of our English Language Development Program at Bethune,” Morris explained. “All but one of my students come from Spanish speaking households and many of them are new to the United States. Even though my Spanish is limited, I help to teach students the English language using English Language Learner strategies.”
Morris, who said that she always wanted to be a teacher, grew up in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, and attended Cheltenham public schools for 12 years. She went on to earn her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education at Michigan State University, followed by earning an ESL certification at Pennsylvania State University in Abington. Last December she earned a Master’s from Temple University in Urban Educational Leadership as well as a Principal Certification.
Morris spent her first year of teaching at 3e International Kindergarten in Beijing, China.
“This is where I gained my passion to work with English Language Learners,” Morris explained.
After returning from Beijing, she began teaching in Philadelphia. She started teaching at Mary Mcleod Bethune Elementary School in 2009 and has been there ever since.
“Mary McLeod Bethune has always been like a second family to me - the students, families, teachers and administrators,” she remarked. “I feel these strong relationships that I have built over the past 12 years help for me to be such a successful teacher in North Philadelphia.”
Morris currently lives in Springfield with her husband Bill Judge, who grew up there with his brothers Ryan and Matt, all attending Holy Cross Elementary School and Cardinal O’Hara High School. His parents, Bill and Kathy Judge, still live in Springfield.
“We knew that the strong support of my husband’s family would make Springfield a great place to start a family,” Morris stated when talking about her move to Delaware County in 2019. “We are expecting our first child, a baby girl in November.
The “Teacher as Hero” Award winners will become part of a dedicated museum exhibit for an entire year. Their achievements and inspiring stories will be shared with the tens of thousands of visitors who come to the Museum from across the region and from all over the world.
In addition to being celebrated in an exhibit, the winners will receive a family membership to the NLM, a guided tour of the museum for the teacher’s class, the teacher’s statement of excellence featured in the NLM’s 2020 Teacher as Hero exhibit, and a commemorative glass trophy. In addition, three winners, selected from the ten winners and announced at the ceremony, in the categories of Service Learning, Driver Education initiatives, and Overall Excellence in Teaching will each receive $500.
Each of the winning teachers was chosen from among 37 national applications. Fellow educators, school administrators, students and community members nominated the teachers and shared stories of how they each made a positive impact in the community. The winners will be displayed in the NLM’s Live Like a Hero Gallery for approximately one year.
“Our mission at the National Liberty Museum is to teach what it means to live in a democracy and to re
mind people that we each play a role in keeping our fragile democracy strong. The teachers we are honoring are heroes for the work they do every day to inspire their students to preserve liberty by breaking down the barriers of prejudice and violence. These heroes in turn create future heroes in their students,” said Gwen Borowsky, executive director of the National Liberty Museum. “What all these teachers share is not only a passion for teaching and an ability to imbue learning with creativity and a sense of compassion but also a commitment to their students as people outside the classroom walls.”
Other 2020 Teacher As Hero Award Recipients include Virginia Barbarin, who teaches Middle School African-American History at Chester County’s Seba Enrichment Academy; Andrew Coates, a fifth-grade teacher at Overlook Elementary School in Abington: Kelly Espinoza, a K indergar ten teacher at Montgomery County’s Musselman Learning Center; Sofia Gonzalez, an 11th grade English at Morton East High School in Cicero, Ill.; Paul Larrea, who teaches Science/STEM to grades six through eight at Our Lady of Mercy Regional Catholic School in Maple Glen; Sasha Singh, a 12-year veteran teacher of 10-12th grade Automotive Technology at Jules Mastbaum High School; Melissa Tracy, who teaches 10th12th grade History, Geography, African-American History, and Food Studies at Wilmington’s Odyssey Charter School; Katherine Villone, a fourthgrade teacher at Franklin Elementary School in Bergenfield, N.J.; and Elizabeth William, an African-American history teacher at Central High School.
Located in the heart of historic Philadelphia, the National Liberty Museum brings liberty to life through stories of people whose character and courage have expanded liberty for all. The museum’s exhibits, educational experiences and public programs inspire visitors to think about liberty as an ongoing human quest that we all share. For more information on the museum or the “Teacher as Hero” award winners, visit www. libertymuseum.org or follow the museum on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.