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The KMC needs to put their hands together for Ramstein High School’s teacher Dorothy Goulet, winner of the national Department of Defense Education Activity teacher of the year for 2009.
“It starts out as a great honor to be receiving this once-in-a-lifetime chance, but then it turns into a tremendous responsibility,” Mrs. Goulet said.
Hard work and persistence went into winning, she said.
Mrs. Goulet won district teacher of the year in August 2008, which put her in the running for the national competition. She won the national competition by sending in nine essays.
After she completed the application process, she had a long wait to see what the outcome was.
“Shock, unexpected, surreal,” were words that ran through Mrs. Goulet’s mind when she finally found out she had won.
However, she gained much more from the experience than she would have ever imagined.
She said it was not only a learning experience for her, but she got to meet incredible people. She was also awarded technology packets, 1-to-1 netbook computers, SMART boards (an interactive digital whiteboard) and other supplies, which she uses in her world regions and french classes.
In addition, Mrs. Goulet was afforded the opportunity to let high school students advance their education for free.
She had the chance to give out two full-ride scholarships to the University of Phoenix, one to RHS graduate Sam Gayton and the other to Kaiserslautern High School graduate Christopher Wells.
She was also able to send Christine Qabar to the NASA’s U.S. Space & Rocket Center on a scholarship.
“What a great feeling and honor to have kids (benefit) from (me) winning this award,” Mrs. Goulet said.
Mrs. Goulet is also excited about her involvement in Sabbatical, a new online learning community that helps teachers network all over the world and benefits both teachers and students in DoDEA.
When she’s not connecting with other teachers across the world, Mrs. Goulet is keeping her students where they need to be in their classes and making them love learning as much as she does.
Maybe it’s her kindness, her teaching skills, her love for the classroom or the way she makes learning fun that keeps her earning all these amazing awards.
One of her world regions students, Quinton Wagner, thinks she’s a great teacher.
“She makes class fun by bringing in technology and entertaining us rather than putting us to sleep,” he said.
Most kids couldn’t care less why the Muslim religion is the way it is, but in Mrs. Goulet’s world regions class students seem to enjoy hearing about the world around them.
“We use the netbooks in class almost every day to help with lessons, which makes us feel like we’re in charge and not just being told what we need to learn,” Quinton said.
With this experience, Mrs. Goulet she is able to use things from her own life in her teaching. She gets to try new things she learned along the way and she has met people who have showed her new and exciting ways to teach.
“It’s only normal being back in the classroom and seeing the kids have a good time, but winning DoDEA teacher of the year has made me a better teacher,” she said.
