Coppell ISD Superintendent Dr. Brad Hunt, CHS9 Principal Cody Koontz and CHS9 assistant principal Nick Coenraad walked into three classrooms clutching plaques to present to deserving teachers on Feb. 21 at CHS9. 

Algebra I teachers Lucy Grimmett, Gunjan Jain and William Harrington received CISD Super Teacher Awards for a final project they created for their students at the end of last semester. 

“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” Jain said. “It was a total surprise. I was teaching in my class and the superintendent and the principal and assistant principal walked in my class and announced the award. It’s my first year teaching here, and I’ve just been focusing on doing my teaching right.”

Super Teacher Awards are given three times a year by the district to teachers nominated by the administration at each Coppell campus. The award reflects dedication and a unique approach to teaching. 

“Are they doing something innovative, are they doing something that is impacting students on a personal level, as opposed to just an educational level?” Coppell High School Principal Laura Springer said. “It has to be something they’re doing above and beyond what a regular teacher would do. We feel like we’ve got so many people in CISD who go above and beyond for their kids and give their personal time from their families.”

The final project had students choose two of the five units covered in the class that semester and create a real-world problem. The students then put their problems through peer edits and received feedback before recording and presenting a Flipgrid teaching their class how to solve the problem. 

“We noticed some of the students are really good at writing and not as good at explaining, and vice versa,” Jain said. “I was pretty amazed at how they did on the feedback part as well because their friends were giving them feedback, and they were critical about it. The final product they created was very nice.”

The project allows students to review the concepts by teaching each other as opposed to a final exam on paper. 

“Most students enjoyed it because it was something different from a math class,” Harrington said. “We really wanted to hit the domains of communication, presentation skills and teaching skills and all the attributes that go into teaching in general.”

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