RVAS Teacher Honored by Medford Wal-Mart Rogue Valley Adventist School (RVAS) teacher Michelle Wachter was named Teacher of the Year by the Medford, Ore., Wal-Mart in May. The award came with a $1,000 check to the school. "When they leave my classroom, they may not remember what I taught them, but they will remember how I made them feel,” Wachter often says. The way she made one of her students feel prompted the nomination. According to Tammy Woodworth, Wal-Mart community involvement coordinator, more than 250 teachers in the Rogue Valley were nominated at the Medford store. Wachter said her own eighth-grade teacher inspired her to become a teacher. "I loved being in her classroom and wanted to replicate my own eighth-grade experience for my students,” she said. For nine of Wachter’s 16 years of teaching, RVAS students have gotten to experience firsthand the joy she gets from teaching. “I was as excited the first day of school this past year as I was when I first started teaching,” she said. Wachter’s excitement with teaching drives her to find innovative ways to teach. Wachter maintains that a teacher cannot teach if she does not develop positive relationships with the students. She states, “I believe God puts students in my class that need whatever I have to give.” When asked what being honored with Medford Wal-Mart’s Teacher of the Year award means to her, Wachter responded, “It really touched me that what I do every day, because I love it, means so much to my students.”
RVAS Teacher Honored
by Medford Wal-Mart
Rogue Valley Adventist School (RVAS) teacher Michelle Wachter was named Teacher of the Year by the Medford, Ore., Wal-Mart in May. The award came with a $1,000 check to the school.
"When they leave my classroom, they may not remember what I taught them, but they will remember how I made them feel,” Wachter often says. The way she made one of her students feel prompted the nomination.
According to Tammy Woodworth, Wal-Mart community involvement coordinator, more than 250 teachers in the Rogue Valley were nominated at the Medford store.
Wachter said her own eighth-grade teacher inspired her to become a teacher. "I loved being in her classroom and wanted to replicate my own eighth-grade experience for my students,” she said.
For nine of Wachter’s 16 years of teaching, RVAS students have gotten to experience firsthand the joy she gets from teaching. “I was as excited the first day of school this past year as I was when I first started teaching,” she said. Wachter’s excitement with teaching drives her to find innovative ways to teach.
Wachter maintains that a teacher cannot teach if she does not develop positive relationships with the students. She states, “I believe God puts students in my class that need whatever I have to give.”
When asked what being honored with Medford Wal-Mart’s Teacher of the Year award means to her, Wachter responded, “It really touched me that what I do every day, because I love it, means so much to my students.”
Michelle Wachter, 200405 Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year, displays the check that was presented to Rogue Valley Adventist School. (Robin Lovelace)
