{"id":11741,"date":"2024-01-22T11:39:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T16:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=11741"},"modified":"2024-01-22T11:39:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T16:39:20","slug":"teacher-of-the-year-finalist-iwalani-wilson-helping-students-discover-who-they-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/teacher-of-the-year-finalist-iwalani-wilson-helping-students-discover-who-they-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher of the Year finalist Iwalani Wilson: Helping students discover who they are"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Great Neck Middle social studies teacher Iwalani Wilson is a finalist for citywide Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n

As a child, she loved reading and looking up new words in the dictionary. Every day after school, she came home elated to tell her mother everything she had learned. By middle school, she knew she wanted to be a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI teach because I want to inspire my students \u2014 inspire them to love learning, to be problem solvers, and to be interested in and take an active part of the world around them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Principal Thomas Quinn described how Wilson recently encouraged her sixth graders to learn about five indigenous groups of North America. Among several activities, the middle schoolers invited elementary students on a museum-style tour to learn about different cultures.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cLani empowers every kid to embrace and direct their own learning using inquiry-driven, collaborative based strategies where they are challenged in the content and pushed to more complex levels of understanding,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cIn short, her students learn how to run the show themselves by developing their essential skills preparing them for enrollment, enlistment or employment. This gives students the freedom to choose how they will demonstrate their learning, and have included opportunities through technology, art, dance or even signing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her professional development programs have helped staff members break down stereotypes and create a more inclusive environment, Quinn said. Stephanie Baker, library media specialist at Great Neck Middle, said Wilson is a champion for diversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer commitment to cultivating cultural awareness is evident in the schoolwide monthly heritage celebration displays and morning announcements she has created,\u201d Baker said. \u201cAs sponsor of the YOU BELONG student club, she spreads awareness and celebration of the differences which are the foundation of our school community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson has 19 years of teaching experience, six at Virginia Beach City Public Schools. She has taught at Churchland Elementary School in Portsmouth as well as Alanton Elementary in Virginia Beach. She is on her school\u2019s instructional leadership team, AVID site team and literacy team, as well as being the Social Studies 6 professional learning community lead.<\/p>\n

She can also be found selling tickets to a football game, cheering on her students at sporting events or swaying to the music of a band performance. When teaching history, Wilson often gives students a choice in creating a final product, such as a drawing, a song or a dance, to show their learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a student who always chose to take the perspective of the person or group of people we were studying and deliver a monologue,\u201d she said. \u201cLast year, I went to see him as part of the adult leading cast of \u2018Grease\u2019 by the Virginia Musical Theater. The hug I received from him and his mom after the show brought tears to my eyes. He thanked me for always allowing him to use his dramatic skills in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI derive immense joy knowing l play an integral role in helping my students discover who they are and the impact they will make,\u201d she said. \u201cPouring into the next generation of world changers keeps me in the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Great Neck Middle social studies teacher Iwalani Wilson is a finalist for citywide Teacher of the Year. As a child, she loved reading and looking up new words in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11743,"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-11741","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\/11741","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=11741"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11748,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11741\/revisions\/11748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}