After countless lectures, quizzes and essays, AP and on-level US History teacher McCallum recognized Jennifer Richter as the McCallum Teacher of the Year. Richter was voted on by her peers as the McCallum representative for Secondary Teacher of the Year. So, when principal Andy Baxa presented the Teacher of the Year award to her during her first period on Jan. 16, she was shocked.
“I was shocked, surprised, but most of all super honored,” Richter said. “I think there are a lot of really good teachers here, so it’s really nice for my peers to choose me as a representative.”
Now that she holds the title of McCallum Teacher of the Year, she also advances to the district Secondary Teacher of the Year as a representative and nominee for the title.
“I had to write an essay and make a professional teacher showcase to enter the district,” Richter said. “I also had to make a Canva two-pager about my teaching philosophy and other things about me.”
After many years of teaching different history classes, Richter landed on AP US History and On-Level US History. APUSH student junior Remy Lilly enjoys Richter’s style of teaching.
“I like that she pushes us to be our best self and challenges us, but in a doable way,” Lilly said. “It’s definitely one of the harder classes that I’ve taken but she is very upfront, like this will be hard, but she will help you get through it, even if it seems challenging sometimes.”
The US History AP test has many sections including multiple choice questions, a document based question, a long essay question and some short answer questions. Spanning over the years 1491 to the present, Richter has a lot of history to cover in just nine months. Lilly feels that Richter’s class is structured in a way that helps with this process greatly.
“Every night we have our Khan Academy homework and when we get to class we have a skill sheet which I really like,” Lilly said. “It’s kind of the same every day, but we’re really getting good practice on our theses and just very basic stuff that if we do every day, we’re slowly getting better at.”
After completing the daily skills sheet, Richter normally follows with a lecture discussing what the students should have learned on Khan for homework.
“I really enjoy her lectures because they’re not just notes on a screen that we’re copying down, they’re more interactive,” Lily said. “She pushes us to speak up and challenge different ideas throughout the lecture which helps build class engagement. She also goes outside of the curriculum basics and helps us get a deeper understanding of the content.”
Similar to Lilly, APUSH student junior Jack Maloy also enjoys Richter’s class because of its clear structure and interactive practices.
“You can tell her experience on the topics she teaches and that is really helpful for someone who is trying to learn,” Maloy said.
Previous to teaching at McCallum, Richter taught at other schools, such as Lamar Middle School and Hyde Park, a private Christian school. McCallum is a favorite for Richter because of the relationship she is able to build with her students.
“I feel like my students are pretty self-reflective and generally pretty honest about what’s going on with themselves,” Richter said. “They’re not super afraid to be real and I don’t feel like I have to be someone that I’m not, which is such a nice relationship to have.”
With many subjects as options for Richter to teach, she chose history because of the story telling element.
“I really love to tell stories,” Richter said. “I like to make things interesting for people and history, in my opinion, is just one long story that just kind of keeps going and we don’t really know the end.”
Since she was a kid, Richter enjoyed having options and getting to make decisions for herself.
“History reminds me a little bit like when I was a kid, in how I loved the ‘choose your own ending’ books where you could kind of make decisions and choices,” Richter said. “I feel like right now that’s kind of where we are in things also. I feel like we can choose the ending we want, but we have to make the choices now, and we can only do that from learning from history.”
Richter feels with the current historical situation that now more than ever history is an important class for students to take.
“I think that in the last couple of years, I have felt the urgency of what we’re learning,” Richter said. “It just keeps happening and in a way it is no longer like, ‘we’ve done that before,’ but more like, ‘oh no, we’ve done that before.’”
Lilly feels like Richter is different from teachers she has had in the past due to her approach in the classroom.
“I like that she’s always just honest with us,” Lilly said. “ She gives us good criticism, good feedback, but also if we’re down one day, she’ll always be there to bring us up. She makes me so proud of my accomplishments and helps me be the best student I can be.”
Maloy agrees with Lilly, and additionally appreciates her care for everyone of her students.
“I like having Ms. Richter as a teacher because it’s very clear that she cares,” Maloy said. “From the structure of the class to how she answers questions, you can tell.”
Lilly is grateful to have Richter as a teacher this year and feels that she earned Teacher of the Year.
“I think it’s so deserved,” Lilly said. “She really puts in so much time and effort and really knows what she’s doing. You always feel good in her hands and well prepared for the AP test. She really is a great teacher to have for academics, but she’s also just a great person.”