The choir teacher, Reginal Wright, has been named teacher of the year for the 2017-2018 school year for his involvement, student relationships, and energy in and out of the classroom.

“The biggest thing I do is keep my students involved in the community so they are seen at a lot of events all over Mansfield,” Wright said. “We also try to have representation at most of the sporting events, so that requires me to work more and practice more than most people.

Wright is very involved in his work, and is passionate about young people. The students feel that he prioritizes students’ goals and passions, and inspires them.

“He has inspired me to work on my passion and really grow it into something that I can be comfortable with loving and using in my future,” senior Cade Puempel said. “He also inspires me to strive everyday to become better at everything I do and never give less than 110%.”

He believes that his success as a teacher and the reason he stood out from other candidates for the award is because of his energy and passion for his work and the care he has for all of his students.

“My favorite part of teaching is watching students’ eyes open up when they get it or taking young people who have felt worthless from outside sources and taking them in and giving them a purpose so they can actually go out and be something,” Wright said. “I have a lot of people with low self esteem, and I try to make everyone feel like they can be somebody. The biggest thing for a first year teacher is that you always have to go back to the day where you actually got inspired to do the job, if you have a string of bad days you have to continuously go back and remember why you did it. It has almost been 20 years and I still go back sometimes.”

The classroom environment Wright has created sets him a part from other classrooms in the school because of the positive, and creative atmosphere. Students describe that he treats them as fellow human beings rather than just students.

“He genuinely cares about the students and has amazing techniques, he does so much for his students and involves himself in so many things,” senior Jocelyn Tran said. “He doesn’t make winning a priority he only cares that we make music and ignite something in the audience.”

He not only inspires students in his high school class and school, but he also inspires incoming students interested in choir as well.

“I am going into high school next year and I hope to be in choir because of Mr. Wright,” eighth grader Madalyn Ross said. “He visited my school to help teach us and get us excited for next year. Not only was he a great teacher and made us sound better, but he also made it really fun.”

image: pexels.com