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At its seventh annual Celebration of Teaching Awards dinner last night, the Rotary Club of Lowell awarded $500 each to the top three teachers of the year: Judith Conners from the Lincoln Elementary School, Patty Manning from the Bartlett Community Partnership School, and Michelle Richiotte from Lowell High School. The club chose the three winners, who represent excellence in teaching at the elementary, middle and high school levels, from 25 candidates nominated by their peers–a group of nearly 1,200 full-time teachers from across the district. 

As the nominees were announced and their qualifications read to the crowd of 500 people, each school cheered loudly for its candidate—some more wildly than others. For instance, the Shaughnessy displayed support for their candidate by waving multi-colored pom poms and the McAvinnue belted out an original, rhyming cheer. The best parts of all, though, were the written comments by elementary children in support of their teachers: One student wrote: “Mrs. Goes is a good teacher because she makes me learn a lot of things. She makes me learn so much that it can’t all fit in my head.” Another student wrote: “I have not known you for a very long time, but for as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been a very good teacher.” My favorite was from a Varnum School student: “Mrs. Rizzo is nice and she doesn’t yell. She is smart too. Teachers are usually smart, but she is especially smart!” In addition to the teachers’ awards, the Rotary Club gives out $10,000 in student scholarships annually. The 25 teachers honored to be nominated by their colleagues this year were more »