Whitney Reardon wins 2023 Humanities Texas Outstanding Teaching Award
By Joycelyne Fadojutimi
Humanities Texas recently announced that Whitney Reardon of Johnston-McQueen Elementary School in Longview has been named a 2023 Humanities Texas Outstanding Teaching Award recipient.
The competition was stiff and competitors numerous – 600 Texas teachers were nominated for the 2023 Humanities Texas Outstanding Teaching Awards. Humanities Texas selected a handful of fifteen teachers as recipients.
Best of all, the recipients did not simply receive plaques and certificates for their shelves and walls. Rather, Humanities Texas connected excellence in teaching leadership with currency. Hence, during the 2023–2024 school year, Reardon will receive $5,000 and an additional $1,000 for Johnston McQueen Elementary School to purchase humanities-based instructional materials.
“Our 2023 Outstanding Teaching Award winners represent some of the state’s strongest teachers of the humanities,” said Eric Lupfer, Humanities Texas executive director. “Humanities Texas is honored to recognize the vital work they do in the classroom every day.”
“Getting the award has been very exciting for me because it is allowing me to spread awareness about deaf education,” said Reardon. “I am very passionate about my students and love to share what I do with other people.”
Johnston McQueen ES Principal Christie Scott highly recommended Reardon for the Humanities Texas award.
“I have had the pleasure of working with Whitney since the 2017 school year,” said Scott. “She is an amazing educator who develops inspiring relationships with her students and strives to help students succeed in all they do.”
According to Scott, Reardon has served on the leadership teams and is constantly seeking to grow and improve as an educator. Scott described Reardon thus: “Whitney is a deaf education teacher for students from kindergarten through fifth grade. In her classroom, students are engaged and challenged to look at the impact of human culture and how the impact on societies in art, language, and humanities. Since language is a focus, Ms. Reardon’s class exposes them to opportunities to demonstrate how language is used to help communicate our ideas and thoughts.”
Importantly, Johnston McQueen ES is a Regional School for the Deaf in East Texas. Scott states that Reardon’s contributions to this regional school is second to none. “She not only knows our students’ language deficits, but she is also constantly striving to give students opportunities to build language skills through hands-on engaging activities.” Scott mentions a cogent example: “When students were learning about civilizations in other countries in regards to housing, Ms. Reardon took students through an entire unit of study by transforming the classroom and creating a transdisciplinary curriculum for students to learn and grow.”
Scott stated that Reardon is a comprehensive and innovative teacher leader, therefore she was selected teacher of the year for Johnston McQueen and District Teacher of the Year.
Reardon’s leadership qualities include recognizing the power of relationships with her students and colleagues. In addition, she seizes professional development opportunities, works to the best of her abilities and joie de vivre.
Humanities Texas presents annual statewide awards to encourage excellence in teaching and recognize Texas classroom teachers who have made exemplary contributions in teaching, curriculum development and extracurricular programming.
“Getting the award has been extremely exciting for me because it is allowing me to spread awareness about Deaf education. I am very passionate about my students and love to share what I do with other people.“ – Whitney Reardon, Johnston McQueen ES Teacher of the Year, District Teacher of the Year and now Humanities Texas Award Recipient
