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Elementary Teacher Terri Wade Named 2024-2025 District Teacher of the Year
Sperry School Board of Education President Jeff Carter presents the 2024-2025 District Teacher of the Year award to 3rd grade teacher Ms. Terri Wade.
Terri Wade, a 25-year veteran of teaching elementary students, was named the 2024-2025 Sperry Public Schools District Teacher of the Year. Ms. Wade has taught both second and third grades throughout this time, with slightly more of her 13 years at Sperry teaching third grade. She has served as a mentor to new teachers, a cooperating teacher for a student teacher, and has helped pilot new instructional programs during her career.
“Teachers should promote academic success by providing meaningful, functional, relevant, and multimodal learning opportunities,” Ms. Wade said. “To make learning easier for them, we dance, sing, play games, and even act silly, all in the name of learning to teach songs, sayings and mnemonic devices that are catchy, silly, and fun.” Third grade students take the state mandated English and mathematics assessments for the first time, and Ms. Wade knows “we are on a strict deadline to have all standards covered for the test in April.” She emphasizes that “we have to balance quality and quantity throughout our instruction because we can’t hold students accountable if they haven’t been taught a skill, so me must cover everything and make our instruction count.”
Elementary Principal Traci Taylor said, “Ms. Wade effectively organizes lessons for whole group instruction, cooperative group work, and individual activities that promote meaningful learning from each method. There’s a balance to that kind of teaching that is only found in skilled and dedicated teachers like her.”
“Ms. Wade uses songs and crazy word games to help us remember things,” a student said of Ms. Wade. “She makes the classroom feel like home,” another said. One of Ms. Wade’s previous students remembered, “She was kind and always nice when you needed help. I never felt bad for asking a question, and she answered questions in a way that we could understand the lessons better.”
“Academic Success is measured not only on the assessments students take, but on the ability of those students to apply their learning to advance their growth as individuals,” Sperry Public Schools District Superintendent Dr. Brian Beagles said. “Ms. Wade provides her students with a solid foundation for their growth through their years in public school. Her focus on student-centered learning methods,” he added, “provides them the important element of being participants in their learning, not simply recipients of instruction. We are fortunate to have Ms. Wade not only as a teacher of the children of the Sperry community, but as a mentor to our new teachers and a valued colleague to us all.”
Ms. Wade will complete her Oklahoma State Teacher of the Year application soon. District Teachers of the Year from each district in Oklahoma are eligible to apply for the State Teacher of the Year award. The Oklahoma State Department of Education will review the nominee information and announce the State Teacher of the Year sometime next school year.
Ms. Terri Wade displays her 2024-2025 District Teacher of the Year award as she stands between Elementary Assistant Principal Jared Smith and Elementary Principal Ms Traci Taylor.
