Margaret West and Stacey Chapley, two teachers in the Frontier Regional and Union 38 school districts, have been recognized for their efforts in teaching through the 2022 Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Both teachers are no stranger to awards, either. West earned the same award in 2012 when she was working in Greenfield and Chapley was named the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation’s Biotechnology Teacher of the Year in the fall.
“To know that other people took the time to nominate me, I’m very humbled,” West said in her Conway Grammar School classroom. “I’m very grateful.”
“It’s wonderful to know that my colleagues thought highly of me,” Chapley said after school at Frontier Regional School in South Deerfield. “It was a huge surprise.”
The Excellence in Teaching Awards program is made possible by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation in partnership with the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. As such, the award is often referred to as the Grinspoon Award. More than 100 educators in Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties receive the award each year, according to the program’s website.
For West, who has taught fifth grade at Conway Grammar School for eight years, teaching through the pandemic has been an exercise in “being flexible” because kids’ learning has been so deeply affected by the past two years.
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot about … being able to meet kids where they’re at,” West said, adding that her philosophy is “not necessarily teaching standards, but teaching students” — meaning if more time needs to be spent on a specific topic, then more time will be devoted to it, rather than pushing on ahead.
In the 10 years since she last received a Grinspoon Award, West said that newfound flexibility has “evolved” her teaching style as she is more willing to break from what she’s done in the past.
“It’s finding what works for me and what works for students,” West said. “How can I connect with this kid?”
A full year of in-person classes has also helped West get back into the rhythm of teaching.
“The inconsistency was so hard,” West said of remote learning and on-off hybrid days during the first year of the pandemic. “This year, at least, they’ve been in school since day one. This job is so hard anyway.”
West thanked her colleagues at Conway Grammar School for their support.
“I’m grateful that I’m here at this school,” she said. “It’s a really special place.”
Chapley, who has taught science at Frontier since 2016, echoed West’s thoughts about getting back into a groove with in-person classes.
“I thrive on being in person and I feed on the energy of the students,” Chapley said, highlighting the “interpersonal connection of being in the same space” as her students.
Chapley said she never would have been able to do her job well enough to earn the Grinspoon and Biotech awards without help from her colleagues.
“I would not be the teacher I am today without my coworkers. Everybody’s been helping … and that’s huge, especially in the last two years,” she said. “That collaboration is huge.”
Chapley said she tries to keep her lessons “active” by having students move from desks to lab tables during activities, and she tries to emphasize the importance of learning abstract concepts like cellular interactions, even if these concepts don’t apply to everyday life.
“It’s learning how to learn and hopefully doing it in a meaningful way,” she said. “I meet them at the level they’re at and hopefully move them forward.”
Chapley said her favorite part of teaching is seeing the growth of students from year to year in both “academics and as a person,” and she doesn’t see herself moving on from Frontier, which is the only school she has taught at after a career change.
“Frontier is my one and only I think,” she said. “I’m so grateful to work and live in a community that looks out for one another and cares.”
West, Chapley and all other 2022 Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Award winners will be honored during a banquet at the Log Cabin in Holyoke on May 11. Each recipient will get an engraved plaque and a check for $250, along with tuition incentives and scholarships offered by seven local colleges and universities — Elms College, Bay Path University, Mount Holyoke College, Springfield College, Western New England University, Westfield State University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Winners also receive a WGBY membership and access to thousands of digital education resources, in addition to three-month memberships at the Springfield Jewish Community Center and one of the six regional YMCAs.
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.