Irons, Hughes named Spirits Teachers of the Year
PUNXSUTAWNEY — The Punxsutawney Spirit’s Teacher of the Year awards were handed out at Punxsutawney Area High School and Punxsutawney Area Elementary School on Thursday.
The recipients were Kevin Hughes of PAHS and Ciara Irons, a fifthgrade teacher at PAES.
Hughes teaches a lot of different classes, one of which is Multi-Media 8.
“It’s more an introduction to technology,” Hughes said. “Twenty years ago, we taught a lot more than we do now; I don’t know how we covered all that
material in that short period of time.”
Hughes started his teaching career in metal shop as he took over for Bob Anderson in 1989.
“I graduated from PAHS in 1982, and went to college at Cal U; I went to IUP for two years in pre-med, and then I quit for two years until I figured out what I want to do,” Hughes said. “I worked for a shoe store, Dunkel Roofing, and then I went to Cal U.”
Hughes said his degree reads Industrial Arts/Tech Ed.
He teaches electronics, parametric design, robotics class and competitive robotics.
“We’ve won the Sportsmanship Award every year since I first started taking the kids,” Hughes said, referring to the robotics competition.
“It’s voted on by the teams, and it’s based on the fact that if you can’t compete, that’s no good for us, so we go around and help other teams put their ‘bot back together so they can get in the arena with us.”
Hughes said when they go to competitions, they go to prelims, which is one day in March, and then two days of finals in April, followed by the nationals the next week.
He said it takes the entire year to build a robot.
“From the design and research all the way up to the manufacturing, which we do here, a lot of schools don’t manufacture on-site,” he said. “We start with after-school meetings in October and then increase the number of days until prelims.”
Hughes said that it’s amazing how the subject matter he’s taught over the years is constantly changing, as technology changing almost daily.
He said that he was grateful to be chosen by his students and members of the community as the Teacher of the Year at PAHS.
Meanwhile, up the road at PAES, Irons was chosen as the Elementary Teacher of the Year.
Irons said she grew up in New Bethlehem, and she would often come to Punxsy.
“Since I was hired, I taught, math, science and social studies,” she said.
She said this is her fourth year teaching in the district; she subbed a long time before that.
Irons said that being named Teacher of the Year was unexpected and fun. She always wanted to be a teacher.
“I played teacher in my room, and I made my sister, Amber Danielson, be my student; we did take turns being the teacher and the student,” she said. “I would practice handwriting over and over because I dislike sloppy handwriting.”
Irons said she spent a couple of years at Head Start after she graduated from college.
“Working at Head Start, we had a rope the kids had to hold onto while walking to the bus,” Irons said. “The one time I couldn’t find the rope in the winter, everyone was around at the bus except for one student, who stuck his tongue onto a pole, and it froze onto it just like in ‘A Christmas Story.’”
Irons said that he had watched the movie over the weekend and wanted to see if it was possible.
“Teaching pre-school children and fifth grade there’s a huge difference,” she said.
Irons thanked the kids and parents for voting for her as Teacher of the Year.