University City High School social studies teacher Margaret Williams got the surprise of her career last Thursday at a special assembly. The 37-year veteran educator was named the 2008-09 Missouri Teacher of the Year, making her the first teacher in the U. City school district to receive such an award.
A teary-eyed Williams said she was elated and humbled to receive the honor.
“I am just one seed of teachers in our building and in the state who are doing everything they can to take our children to another level,” Williams told the assembly.
The U. City High School band and a video were played in her honor, and her family joined in on the surprise.
District officials had to tell a little lie to get Williams, other teachers and students into the auditorium. Williams said she was suspicious when she saw television cameras.
“This is a new school year, and it’s highly unlikely that we take any academic time out for a school assembly,” she said. “I thought that this could be either really good or really bad.”
She was interviewed by a statewide panel and selected among five other finalists in this year’s competition. The only other candidate from the St. Louis area was Mariah Spanglet, a special education teacher from the Special School District of St. Louis County assigned to Flynn Park Elementary, also in the U. City school district.
Williams will represent the “Show Me State” at the national Teacher of the Year competition in the fall.
‘Epitome of a teacher’
Williams has spent 18 of her 37 years in education teaching honors U.S. government, history and the African American Experience at U. City High School.
A graduate of Beaumont High School, she said it was her senior year psychology teacher, Mr. Brown, who convinced her to go into education. He allowed her to teach a class, and she loved it.
At the University of Missouri, she began her studies in political science looking to improve the treatment of minorities. But she decided that she would have a greater impact on the world by teaching high schoolers.
She earned her undergraduate degree in secondary education with a concentration in social studies in 1971. She completed her graduate work at Webster University and has taken coursework at Saint Louis University.
Williams said her students now are vastly different than the ones she taught when she first started teaching, but added, “Teenagers are teenagers.”
Prior to joining U. City High School, Williams worked for four years as a principal and executive administrator at the West Side Christian Academy in St. Louis. She has also held teaching positions at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and her alma mater, Beaumont High School.
In her classroom, Williams creates a comfortable learning environment. She describes the most important part of her classroom as respect.
“I jokingly tell them that I wear a ‘R’ on my chest for respect,” Williams said. “And that becomes the foundation of my classroom.”
She brings history alive for her students through hands-on lessons and projects. Her students have built model slave ships, learned West African dances, planned debates using original 18th Century documents and created a civil rights timeline with pictures and symbols. Last year, her students took a trip to the state capitol to sit in on a legislative work session.
“Most teachers just lecture. Mrs. Williams lectures too, but she makes it make sense and fun,” said senior Marian Jamerison, who took Williams for honors U.S. government.
“When you leave the class, you understand,” said Mackenzee Brown, another former student of Williams.
In addition to teaching history, Williams is the coach of the school’s state-renowned Mock Trial Team. Since 1994, her teams have advanced to the Missouri State Mock Trial Team Competition 13 times and to the St. Louis Regional level 14 times. The team has earned second place twice and has been in the top four teams in the state all but three times.
“She is the epitome of a teacher,” Superintendent Joylynn Wilson said of Williams. “She is passionate about her work and has a way of motivating kids so that they want to achieve.”
Help to others
Out of the classroom, Williams enjoys helping others. In her own neighborhood, she was block chairwoman for National Night Out activities. She is a member of the United Black Drag Racers Association, which uses drag racing to raise money for charities while promoting drag racing as a safe, family sport. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.
The Missouri Teacher of the Year program is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with major funding provided by the Boeing Company.
As this year’s winner, Williams will receive a cash award, a new car donated by the Missouri Automobile Dealers Association, and new technology for her classroom. She will be honored, along with the other finalists, at a special banquet Nov. 19 in Jefferson City.
Her advice to someone who is new in the profession is to be patient, enjoy the job and show students that you care. And it is that very formula that has made Williams successful after 37 years in the field.
“They will respond every time,” she said of students.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education contributed to this story.
