Felicia Williams, a mathematics teacher at Wilcox Tech in Meriden, has been named the 2012-2013 Connecticut Technical High School’s Teacher of the Year. An eleven-year veteran, Felicia was selected from a group of seventeen Teachers of the Year, each selected by their peers at one of the system’s schools last spring. After completing a detailed questionnaire, and an interview before our president, Jan Hochadel, and the superintendent, Felicia was chosen to represent our system in competition for Connecticut’s Teacher of the Year.
Felicia’s road to becoming Teacher of the Year is a fascinating one. She is a graduate of Connecticut’s first Alternated Route to Certification program which encourages professionals in other fields to enter teaching. She worked at a law firm while she completed the program and prepared for her new career. She spent some time substitute teaching, and then was hired full-time by the CTHSS. She worked at Eli Whitney Tech in Hamden and was selected by her colleagues there as Teacher of the Year, making Felicia one of very few SVFT members to have been honored by her fellow teachers in two different schools.
Colleagues, administrators, and students universally sing Felicia’s praises. Her principal, David Telesca, has been impressed with her balance of high expectations and the “warm, flexible and inviting climate” she has created in her classroom. He calls Felicia a “positive presence as a school leader” who has a “commitment to students and a collaborative nature with colleagues.” He also appreciates how Felicia incorporates technology into her lessons. Cheryl Collett, a social studies teacher at Wilcox commented recently that Felicia is “dedicated, innovative, and gives kids the structure and excellence to assure their success.”
It says a lot about a teacher when former students make the effort to come back and visit them. On a recent day, 2012 Wilcox graduate Anthony Flores stopped by to see Mrs. Williams and catch her up on what he’s been doing since graduation. Anthony mentioned how much he learned in Felicia’s class and that she used “fun and exciting ways to make us learn math.” He enjoyed the projects they worked on and liked the fact that Mrs. Williams connected their lessons to real world and trade area examples.
For her part, Felicia mentioned that being selected as our system’s Teacher of the Year seems like a dream and that she is honored to represent all her CTHSS colleagues. “It was my life’s dream to become a teacher, and now I am living that dream. I feel truly blessed.” She also added that having been singled out for excellence she feels a little pressure to keep it going. A mother of three who just celebrated her twenty-third wedding anniversary, Felicia will no doubt continue to set high standards for teaching in the Connecticut Technical High School system for years to come, inspiring students and colleagues along the way. The SVFT offers its heartfelt congratulations to Felicia and wishes her continued success.