High Point teachers honored

SUSSEX BOROUGH — Two High Point High School teachers were honored recently, as Barbara Fasano won Princeton University's Distinguished Secondary Teacher Award and Kory Loyola won the New Jersey History Teacher of the Year.
Fasano is one of four educators chosen from approximately 75 public and private New Jersey school applicants. The winners received their awards during Princeton University's commencement ceremony.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History selected Loyola for her work with primary source documents in the classroom, being an inspiration to her students, as well as her career achievements in education.
After being nominated by High Point Supervisor of Humanities Aldo Deodino, Fasano submitted recommendations, résumé and supporting documents. The 75 applicants were then narrowed down to 10 teachers. Princeton sent representative Rosanne Zeppieri to interview Fasano's students, administrators, colleagues, and observe her teach three classes.
Fasano said, just like when she coached softball, she “left it out on the field” — there was nothing she would have changed; she was content. She said her students were wonderful and excited for her. Fasano has taught Advance Placement World History for two years, along with other history courses.
When asked to teach AP World History, Fasano said she was nervous and honored. She had coached two state titles in softball and said, “This was a new ball game, literally.” She developed the lesson plans and curricula for pre-history to present day, which she teaches to freshment students.
Fasano added she is grateful for the support of family, friends, school and students. She said it was amazing to be honored at the Princeton University Commencement in front of 10,000 people on the stage. She is excited and said it is something she will never forget in her teaching career. “It was the top,” she said.
Loyola teaches U.S. AP History, American Studies I and II, Debate and Public Speaking. She was nominated by a colleague for the Gilder Lehrman award.
Loyola submitted her résumé, philosophy of teaching, lesson plans and unit plans. She said her philosophy of teaching statement was eye opening as she evaluated why she does what she does in teaching.
Currently, Loyola is in the dissertation phase of her Ph.D.
She submitted her mock trial unit of Thomas Jefferson's reputation. For the lesson plans, she submitted her traveling debate of whether confederate flags and monuments should be removed from public spaces.
Loyola said Gilder Lehrman makes thousands and thousands of archived American History documents accessible to teachers. On top of that, they teach free college level history courses to history teachers by professors from even Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
Recently, Loyola's students completed close readings of Lincoln's writings in his life. The students determined on their own how consistent he was about the immorality of slavery, even from the very beginning.
Loyola said she wants to empower her students to think for themselves and believes history teachers are in a unique position to help students understand things did not have to be the way they were. She said she does a lot of teaching regarding social justice.
Someday, she said, her students may have a moment where they could make a decision and understand they are on the right side of history.