Awarding excellence

Liberty alumnus wins teacher of the year award for Lynchburg City Schools

Liberty University alumnus Kenneth Burrows Jr. was named Lynchburg City Schools’ Teacher of the Year in a surprise ceremony April 18.

Recognition — Kenneth Burrows was awarded for his efforts.  Photo provided

Recognition — Kenneth Burrows was awarded for his efforts. Photo provided

Burrows teaches English language learning (ELL) to all grades at Heritage Elementary School.

He is originally from the Bahamas and graduated from Liberty in 2010.

He has been teaching for the past six years.

In order to be nominated for the award, a teacher must be selected by his or her colleagues, including a letter of recommendation from the principal.

Burrows is Heritage Elementary School’s first teacher to win the award.

The News and Advance reported that with this title, Burrows is granted a year-long lease of a new Nissan from Mabry Automotive Group.

He will represent the city of Lynchburg in regional and statewide Teacher of the Year contests.

The Teacher of the Year award came as a shock to Burrows, who said he did not think a resource teacher who teaches English as a second language could be eligible.

One of Burrows’ first memories of wanting to go into the education field came in the 11th grade as he sat in class going through “teenage angst.”

“I was sitting there and not really paying attention, and my teacher came over and said, ‘Kenneth, what’s wrong,” Burrows said.

He began to ask his teacher a lot of questions he was curious about.

“I wanted to know why we even call a shoe a shoe,” Burrows said.

His teacher proceeded to break down the meaning of the word, including its Latin and Germanic roots.

“When I saw her do that, I realized I wanted to do that for the rest of my life,” Burrows said.

“She could take a word and make it relevant to life.”

The decision to specifically teach English to international students came while Burrows was at Liberty.

“I had plans to go into education, specifically English, but it was not until I met a friend my freshman year who was from Korea,” Burrows said.

“We were in history and at the end of class, he said to me, ‘I do not understand. Could you help me?’”

Realizing English was not this student’s first language, Burrows began helping him and other international students and learned more about the culture.

After this encounter, Burrows said he fell in love with ELL and had found his calling.

Burrows said one of the most effective teaching methods is allowing his students to act out a “word of the day.”

For example, when the word of the day was “appear,” he would have them say the word three times and then act it out in a way that would be meaningful to them.

Some would hide behind a table, pop out and “appear.” For others, they would pretend to be a magician and have various objects “appear” out of thin air.

Burrows has created multiple learning programs, including PRIDE promotions.

He describes PRIDE as a behavior incentive where students work together to write songs, sketches and dances to perform in front of the student body at school assemblies.

Another event Burrows has implemented is Culture Night, where students and their families come together to enjoy different cultures throughout the world.

In past Culture Nights, students have performed Taekwondo and Indian Bollywood dances. Burrows said the biggest hit of the event is the food vendors that come.

Burrows said he hopes his ELL students are able to adjust to culture and to integrate what they learn in the classroom.

“My main goal for all my students is to help them to be problem solvers and overcome adversity,” Burrows said.

As a Christian, Burrows said he hopes to be a Christ-like example to those around him by serving others. “My passion really comes from the Scripture,” Burrows said.

“Christ was a servant. Christ was a teacher. It is that simple.”

Coleman is a news reporter.

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