Alumni Receive Honors

Two Georgia Southern alumni have recently received prestigious state and national honors recognizing their excellence in teaching and their dedication to ensuring students’ educational success.

Pam Williams, an American government and economics teacher at Appling County High School in Baxley, Ga., and Jeff Johnson, an AP Physics teacher at Hoover High School in Hoover, Ala., are creative educators who think outside the box by actively engaging their students in the classroom, whether it is a lively debate or a musical performance to learn the concept of sound waves.

Williams received her master’s and specialist degrees from the University’s College of Education and was recently named Georgia’s Teacher of the Year. A 20-year veteran educator, she will spend the school year traveling around the state of Georgia as an advocate for public education and the teaching profession, speaking to teachers and students at various schools as well as to groups such as Future Georgia Educators and at the Georgia Conference for Social Studies.

Williams was selected from a pool of 148 candidates for the honor, based upon her teaching experiences and her underlying focus: the three ‘Rs’ – respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for actions. “Teaching is about making real world connections, and making the learning experience meaningful. For example, I have the students create their own business plan, and help them understand the gross domestic product, the recession and taxes. We have debates about current news, such as the role of the government in the BP oil spill. The students understand how something like this can affect them – and why the prices have increased for gas and food,” she said.

Johnson’s passion for teaching and specifically the subject of physics led to his selection as the Siemens National AP Teacher of the Year. Since 1998, the Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement have supported the efforts of students and teachers who perform exceptionally well in STEM-related (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Advanced Placement initiatives across the nation.

Johnson received his biology degree and master’s in education from Georgia Southern, and he has long considered himself a teacher. “I used to teach students at NCAA cheerleading camps when I was one of the University’s first male cheerleaders,” he said. During Johnson’s educational career, he was greatly influenced by professor emeritus Arthur Woodrum. “Dr. Woodrum is the reason why I teach physics,” said Johnson, speaking about his love for teaching. For the past 11 years, his AP Physics students have achieved a 90 percent-plus pass rate, an impressive accomplishment since the national pass rate for that subject is 48 percent. Last year, four students from the state of Alabama were accepted to Harvard, and two of them were enrolled in Johnson’s high school class.

Johnson modestly credits the relaxed classroom environment as well as the student/teacher connection as the winning combination for a student’s success. “Interacting with the students makes me a better teacher. They will come in and talk to me about TV, dates or movies – this creates a relaxed atmosphere and makes learning accessible,” he said.

Johnson’s classroom structure doesn’t include the standard textbook/lecture model, but rather learning concepts motivated by sheer creativity. For example, a recent assignment on the topic of sound and sound waves transformed the classroom into the Blue Man Group, an innovative musical band that uses pipes as instruments. “I divided the class into groups of three to four students, and asked them to pick their favorite song. Each group then had to research what notes compose a song and find out the frequency relating to the musical note. For example, if the students were looking at the note ‘A’ – which is 440 hertz – they had to cut a PVC pipe in class that would correspond to the frequency of that note. The final assignment was to play the song for the class,” he said.

In addition to the national honor, Johnson’s school was the recipient of a $5,000 grant, which was used to purchase data collecting devices to be used not only in physics, but also environmental science and biology. Representatives from Vernier Software & Technology trained faculty how to use these devices, which present a graphical analysis on the computer. Johnson expects these devices will have a substantial impact on the school. “For example, when we use these devices in a physics class, students could study a time graph that analyzes force vs. time vs. gravity,” he explained.