Two local private school teachers are being honored for their commitment to their students and their schools.
The recipients of the 2020 Reams Family Award for Excellence in Teaching are Shannon Royer from St. Bartholomew Catholic School and Lorna Clarke from ABC-Stewart school. Both teachers received a monetary prize of $3,000 as part of the award.
The award was established at Heritage Fund by Fred and Karen Reams “to recognize outstanding educators teaching in the private schools serving Bartholomew County.”
Teachers are nominated by their schools’ principals or directors. Criteria for nomination includes “exceptional skills and dedication to teaching, exemplary initiative and contributions to the school and its environment.”
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Royer is a third-grade teacher who is in her 21st year at St. Bartholomew. Prior to that, she taught at a Catholic school in Florida.
“I’ve been in third grade for 25 years now,” she said. “I did my student teaching in third grade also. So it’s definitely where my heart is. Third graders, they’re such a great age, because they’re fairly independent, for the most part, but yet they still like their teacher, and they still want to have fun. They still enjoy school, for the most part. So it really is a great age.”
Royer said that she’s always had “a knack for kids” and enjoyed school. However, when she went to Purdue University, she started out studying biology.
“About a month in, I kind of realized that that wasn’t for me, and I went back to kind of what my first love was, which was teaching,” she said. “And so I’m so glad that I did.”
Royer said that she enjoys working at a Catholic school, which she said is “like a family.” In addition making friends with her coworkers, she’s also been able to watch students grow up.
“I go back to so many graduation parties when kids graduate from high school and college,” she said. “They remember their third grade teacher. And that says something, that we do have a connection.”
The best part of her job is that every day is different, Royer said.
“The kids make me laugh, and they’re so much fun,” she said. “… I miss my kids. You know, that’s the fun part of the job. That’s what gets me up every morning, and I wanted to go to work because the kids are just so much fun. And they’re just little sponges, and so I just love it, just being with them and having fun with them. And just never knowing what to expect from each day. There’s no monotony in my job.”
Royer received the award while St. Bartholomew was still doing in-person learning. After Mass one day, there was an award presentation scheduled so that kids could receive awards that were originally meant to be given at the end of the 2020 school year. Then, after the students got their awards, the principal said that there was “one more surprise” and began to introduce the award.
“When she called my name, I was very, very surprised,” she said. “… When I stood up, my family, my parents and my husband and my daughter were there. So they had known about the secret and were able to show up and be there with me, so that was very exciting.”
Royer cried and said she was “genuinely shocked” to find out she received the award. She added that she appreciates the recognition.
“I love my job, and I certainly would never expect for anyone to have to tell me that I’m doing a good job,” she said. “That’s not what makes me tick, but it’s definitely nice to be noticed when you do work really hard and you do try really hard.”
Clarke teaches 3- through 6-year-olds at ABC-Stewart School, where she has worked for about 13 years.
“I’ve worked in different areas in the afterschool program and some of the preschool classrooms,” she said. “I’ve been teaching in this group for, I think, four years. I used to work in the 2-year-old classroom.”
Clarke actually found out she wanted to be a teacher by way of enrolling her kids at ABC-Stewart. She first enrolled her son (now 17 years old) at the school almost 16 years ago.
“And after I started substituting and volunteering here, I just fell in love with this teaching style,” she said, adding that she appreciates the Montessori method’s “hands-on” approach.
When asked what the best part of being a teacher is, Clarke replied, “Everything that I learn from the students. I think I learn more from them. … The way that I see the students grow and interact is how I wish I could see us adults interact in our world.”
Clarke found out that she’d won the Reams Family Award during a Zoom staff meeting. It hadn’t been on her radar, as usually the award is presented at the school’s Thanksgiving feast.
“I was extremely emotional when that happened,” she said. “It’s been the hardest year, since everything did shut down from COVID.”
In addition to the prize money, Clarke was also given flowers and a certificate. She said that when she read the letters written by her coworkers and by school parents, she was left “speechless.”
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Shannon Royer has been teaching third grade for 25 years. This is her 21st year at St. Bartholomew. She is originally from Columbus. Both she and her husband grew up here and went to Purdue University. They moved to Florida, where Royer taught at a Catholic school for a time, but they later moved back to Columbus. Royer has one daughter.
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Lorna Clarke has been working at ABC-Stewart for about 13 years. She is originally from Michigan but has lived in Columbus since she was a teenager. She got her paraprofessional certificate from MECA-Seton. She has three children.
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