(above) Watchung Hills Regional High School (WHRHS) Principal George Alexis presents the 2016 Teacher of the Year plaque to 18-year WHRHS History Teacher Jamie Lott-Jones.
History teacher Jamie Lott-Jones has been selected by a committee of her peers as the 2016 Teacher of the Year. Lott-Jones has been on the faculty at Watchung Hills Regional High School (WHRHS) for 18 years, and before that completed her student teaching assignment there. The plaque presented to Lott-Jones by Principal George Alexis included the words, “for encouraging students to think independently, for promoting a culture of acceptance, and for inspiring students to embrace empathy, kindness, and responsibility.”
“Mrs. Lott-Jones is highly respected by both her colleagues and her students,” said Superintendent Elizabeth Jewett. “Her compassion for her students and her love of learning are qualities for the entire Watchung Hills learning community to aspire to and emulate.”
Lott-Jones said her selection, which was announced at a meeting of faculty on Thursday, April 14, came as a complete surprise. She said “When Principal Alexis asked me if I wanted to say anything, I said No, because I am not sure I could even state my full name, I am so surprised.”
In a letter of thanks to her fellow teachers the following Monday, Lott-Jones wrote, “What an honor it is to be selected as teacher of the year. I feel an even greater sense of pride because I was picked by you to represent our amazing staff. I was totally shocked.”
She continued, “I have had the privilege of teaching at WHRHS for a span of 18 years, and I know, without a doubt, that I work with the very best team of educators and professionals in the state. I have always felt that my co-workers were my extended family, and as such, you advise me, encourage me, and even tease me. Lott-Jones expressed that “Teaching takes a lot of exhausting work,” but is re invigorated when she receives encouragement from her fellow teachers.
Lott-Jones was born in South Dakota, and when very young, lived in North Dakota with her parents, a public health doctor and a social worker, who were providing services to Native American residents. They returned to New Jersey, and lived in Plainfield from ages 3 to 8. She graduated from The Pingry School in Bernards Township and received her bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College in Carlyle, Pa.
During her junior year at Dickinson, Lott-Jones completed a semester establishing a pre-school on the Cheyenne River-Sioux Reservation in South Dakota: the pre-school was funded through a government grant.
“It is still open,” Lott Jones said, with pride. “It is called, Oti Waste’, which in the language of the Sioux, called Lakota, means ‘Good House.’” Lott-Jones earned her master’s degree in education from Rutgers University and has taken additional classes at Kean University. She has also completed a one semester fellowship at Columbia University, New York City, in Genocide Studies.
This year, Lott-Jones is on the executive committee of the Facing History & Ourselves NJ Advisory Board, a group of History teachers and administrators from WHRHS and also schools in West New York, Hoboken, Jersey City, Montclair, Sough Orange, Maplewood, and Bloomfield. The board meets four times a year to discuss and develop best practices for teachers of history trying to encourage students to participate in productive civic engagement experiences.
“We work together to try to find creative ways to explore and support “upstanding” values in the curriculum,” she said.
She also attended a professional development workshop on “Closing the Opportunity Gap,” with noted educator and author Dr. Richard Milner of the University of Pittsburgh. Lott-Jones co-authored a paper to be published in the scholarly journal of Kappa Delta Pi with fellow History teacher Mary Sok, and former WHRHS Superintendent Frances Stromsland. It is titled, “The Power of One – Creating the New Culture of Upstanders.”
With Sok, she also prepared and led a seminar last summer for new teachers, titled “Teaching Social Justice,” at Montclair State University Network for Educational Renewal (MSUNER). They will likely repeat the presentation for a group of new teachers this summer. Last Fall, students in Lott-Jones’ World History Honors classes participated in StoryCorps’s Great Thanksgiving Listen. This National Public Radio (NPR) “Oral History Project,” records interviews and personal remembrances on various types of Americana and the American experience for archiving in the Library of Congress.
Lott-Jones was among the teachers and students who developed the WHRHS anti bullying initiative, “White Out.” This year, the White Out initiative will visit and engage students at Warren Middle School on Friday, May 13. Last year, the initiative visited and engaged students at Watchung’s Valley View Middle School. In years past, the “White Out” initiative students have made presentations at municipal meetings to the Township Committees of Warren, Long hill, Green Brook, and Borough Council of Watchung.
Among the other innovative teaching techniques she has had her students do are: read “White Man’s Burden,” the classic 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling and write an answering poem from the viewpoint of the Indian. As well as create a Sikh action plan, including a mission statement, goals, and activities to educate people on the Sikh culture, so they are not labeled as Muslim terrorists.
According to one of her fellow History teachers, many students have said that Lott- Jones’ World History Classes have been among their more challenging during their school experience at WHRHS, but also their favorite. She and her husband, Mike Jones, have two children, Luke, 13, and Jake, 10.
