James L. Smith
2003 New Mexico Teacher of the Year
Mr. Smith has been teaching Humanities and U.S. History for twenty-five years. He currently teaches students in grades eleven and twelve at Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
"Good teaching springs from a philosophy that all students can learn. Students should be encouraged to succeed and never be made to think they cannot conquer challenging tasks. Like a football coach who motivates players by saying 'hold on to the ball' rather than ‘don’t fumble,’ teachers must work to plant positive thoughts in the minds of students. Student success is built on a Foundation of positive thinking and a sense of self-worth, and good teachers find a way to liberate the thinking of their students and send them down the path to success. Good teachers stay focused on the importance of what they do they remember that education provides people with a basis of independence and self-reliance. They remember that teaching is steeped in moral responsibility."

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
"As a teacher I focus on building a Foundation for success in my students. I believe in emphasizing the development of academic skills, and I work hard to develop academic habits that students can carry from one class to the next. Helping students improve their reading, writing, and problem-solving skills is, to me, more important than making sure students remember historical trivia. I prefer students leave my class with a joy of learning rather than a memorized laundry list of names and dates."

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
"After several years of researching, writing and classroom testing, my book Ideas That Shape a Nation, was published in September 2000. The book serves as a supplemental textbook for U.S. history and government classes and has been endorsed by educators and scholars around the nation including two Pulitzer Prize-winning historians. Last fall the book was picked up by the Social Studies School Services for national distribution."

What's the most critical issue facing educators?
"Although several issues need attention from educators, dealing with the problem of student anonymity and the lack of individual attention is of paramount importance. In an overcrowded school students often feel lost in the shuffle, lacking the attention that young people so desperately need. In oversized conditions educators are less likely to give students the individual attention necessary for an adequate development of basic skills such as reading and writing. Reducing school size and alleviating the problem of overcrowded classrooms would do much to create an atmosphere more conducive to learning and increasing a sense of self-worth."

What do you think can be done to solve this issue?
“Anyone attempting to reduce overcrowded situations and give students an increased sense of belonging faces an obvious obstacle. Reducing the student-teacher ratio requires hiring more teachers and counselors, and the number of unqualified or uncertified personnel might increase. However, this problem can be overcome with improved recruitment campaigns, good training in the universities and accelerated certification programs to bring people from other professions into the field of education.”

One thought to inspire teachers to excel
"Good teachers bring knowledge to life with the qualities of their own personalities and their love of learning, qualities that often cannot be taught because they come from a person’s basic humanity."

One lesson every student should learn
"Learning requires the ability to question. Only when people learn to question can they be free and independent thinkers."

Favorite Teaching Tool:
"The best teaching comes not from a textbook or other educational resource. It comes from an approach to learning that is playful and that engages a student's imagination."

Favorite Web site:
www.historymatters.gmu.edu/ – History Matters Web site