{"id":11711,"date":"2024-01-19T08:21:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T13:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=11711"},"modified":"2024-01-19T08:21:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T13:21:23","slug":"teacher-of-the-year-finalist-cynthia-johnston-helping-students-turn-interest-into-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/teacher-of-the-year-finalist-cynthia-johnston-helping-students-turn-interest-into-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher of the Year finalist Cynthia Johnston: Helping students turn interest into action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Red Mill Elementary School gifted resource teacher Cynthia Johnston is a finalist for citywide Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n

The daughter of a Virginia Beach City Public Schools teacher and a graduate of Kellam High School, Johnston credits several educators from her childhood for inspiring her to help students become leaders of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey believed in giving students the opportunity to be autonomous in their learning by transforming interest into action,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cIt is not any single lesson but a teacher’s enduring qualities that make the greatest impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Johnston received the Virginia Teacher for Tomorrow award and teaching contract upon graduation from Kellam. Her nine years of teaching experience have all been with Virginia Beach City Public Schools, including several years at Alanton Elementary before joining the Red Mill staff in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>She helps our teachers imagine the possibilities of education and pushes students toward greater ownership of their learning,\u201d said Dr. Michelle Miller, Red Mill\u2019s principal. \u201cShe understands the importance of her role in supporting the development of our gifted learners, but she is even more passionate about ensuring all students see the relevance of the subject matter and look at topics at a deeper level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston gives back as an after-school tutor, PTA Reflections chair, science club co-sponsor, school media liaison and principal advisory committee member.<\/p>\n

To help students with social and emotional learning, she started an after-school program called The Page Turners. Students delve into age-appropriate novels featuring gifted characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipants gain insights into the advantages and limitations of their giftedness, fostering their self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making abilities,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

Johnston designed professional learning modules for science teachers across the division and learning activities that are used in science classrooms across the city.<\/p>\n

To help Red Mill students learn economics, Johnston invited 20 local business owners to speak with students about real-life connections to the skills they were being taught. Students interviewed business leaders about why they started their business, how their business addressed a local problem or need, what resources were needed, and how they promoted their business.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating their own business proposals after interviewing local business owners also facilitated meaningful intradisciplinary learning,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cStudents applied concepts like supply, demand, scarcity, and resources when developing their business model from an economist perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every student deserves an enriching education that ignites curiosity and passion for learning through personalized, interdisciplinary challenges, Johnston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to build teacher capacity in nurturing students’ unique talents and strengths while empowering critical and creative thinking,\u201d she said. \u201cSeeing students gain confidence in themselves motivates me to continue providing opportunities that nurture each student’s unique potential so they can make meaningful contributions to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Mill Elementary School gifted resource teacher Cynthia Johnston is a finalist for citywide Teacher of the Year. The daughter of a Virginia Beach City Public Schools teacher and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11711"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11718,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11711\/revisions\/11718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}