Science teacher Blaise Smith was awarded the Kansas Horizon Award by the Blue Valley school district and was awarded the Kansas Horizon Award by the Blue Valley School District on Sept. 16 after being nominated by BVNW administrators. After this nomination, Smith will now advance to competing at the regional level with other teachers nominated within the local congressional district.
Superintendent Dr. Gillian Chapman and Blue Valley Schools director of human resources, recruitment and retention Dr. Kelly Wessel informed Smith of his win during his sixth hour class. According to Smith, he was stunned when the district team walked into his classroom.
“[I was] kind of overwhelmed, honestly I kind of forgot that today was the day that this could have happened,” Smith said.
First year teachers nominated for the award must write an essay about their teaching approach and submit it to their school district. This essay, along with an essay from the school principal, is then evaluated by the district superintendent.
According to principal Leah Vomhof, Smith was introduced to Northwest after attending a career fair held by the Blue Valley school district and being recommended by Wessel. She said when she was interviewing him she thought he was a good candidate for the role due to his experience and personality.
“He has a kind of relational piece about him that I think we’re always looking for… students, even if physics or physical science isn’t their passion, they’ll learn because they really like and trust the teacher,” Vomhof said. “He seemed to have both of those things”
Smith said he came to Northwest after leaving a career as an engineer and being inspired by his time as a lab teacher’s assistant and tutor in college. He said this reward helped reassure him that pursuing teaching was the correct choice.
“It’s just really validating here. It tells me that I made the right choice, and that this is where I’m supposed to be,” he said.
Vomhof said she appreciates Smith’s creativity in his teaching and ability to work with others. .
“He creates hands-on projects for students to apply their knowledge, which I think gives them that engagement piece and helps them bring more abstract concepts together into a concrete project,” Vomhof said. “Another piece that we talked about less but that has come to light, is just what a great colleague he is. He’s a great collaborator in his science PLC.”
According to Smith his favorite part of teaching is getting to know the students.
“It’s just fun to get to know who they are… and how I can help them both with the science content that I teach and also just with everything else that they’re working through and getting to know them as a person,” Smith said.
