Goodson Named Watchung Hills Regional Teacher of the Year

Usually articulate, English teacher Laura Goodson was, for once, at a complete loss for words. Who wouldn’t be, when a delegation which included Watchung Hills Regional High School’s superintendent, principal, vice principal and English Department supervisor, walked, unannounced, into her classroom one morning last week?

The teacher’s first impulse was to “deny she had done anything wrong.” The news that she had been selected as the school’s 2012-2013 Teacher of the Year elicited a huge gasp of surprise and the momentary inability to speak. Quickly regaining her composure, Goodson gave profound thanks and listened intently, along with her class, to the accolades being bestowed upon her.

Goodson came to Watchung Hills Regional in 1997 after a stint at the Lord Stirling School, which is located in her hometown, Basking Ridge. At Hills she’s taught students all along the spectrum. At first, from 1997 to 2007, she was a member of the Special Services Department, teaching English and History to Language- Learning Disabled students and partnering with English teacher Jim Kanach (also a former Teacher of the Year) in inclusion- learning classes for five years.

From 2007, when she left Special Services, to the present,  she has taught English to sophomores and seniors on the advanced level—Advanced Placement, for instance—and claims to have grown along with each class as they progress from freshmen to seniors.

Goodson’s day does not always end when she packs her things for her homeward trip to Hopewell (N.J.).  A Grade Level advisor who has served three successive classes since 2002, she   guides these student government leaders for four-year stints as they meet after school as often as three times a week in their various  activities and extra-curricular projects, building leadership skills, orchestrating proms, navigating conflict, helping kids  plan “do-good” activities such as staffing the So. Bound Brook soup kitchen three times a year. ( Serving just one four-year round as Grade Level counselor is considered a good deed of great magnitude.)

What goes into the making of a “good teacher,” Goodson was asked. Naturally, a good grasp of one’s subject. (Goodson’s   credentials include a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers, master’s credentials from Jersey City State College and 22 credits from the New Brunswick Seminary.) A good sense of humor helps, a love of teen-agers, a passion for life, a sense of hope. And, never-ending learning; although  an experienced teacher herself, Goodson still likes to audit  other teachers’ classes to learn new approaches.  All the same attributes also  go into the making of a Teacher of the Year.

As she practices her art, Goodson is definitely not a “stand still” person; she doesn’t sit behind her desk. If she discovers an exciting book, she’s not afraid to ask her department chair- person, Will Ross, to let her try to use it as a text that’s never been used before. She attends as many extra-curricular activities as she can, often engaging her high-school senior daughter  and college-age son as well.  She’s not shy about trying new approaches to learning. For example, to raise awareness and promote understanding,   she had one of her English classes and a class of learning-disabled students interview one another. “It’s gratifying now to see kids from either class ‘high-five’ each other now as they pass in the halls,” she said.

Goodson, whose mother and grandmother were also professional educators and administrators, says of teaching young people: “The best thing is watching them grow; the worst thing is letting them go.”