All around the world, teachers do fantastic work. They don’t just teach a curriculum – they instil values, encourage, support, befriend and truly impact the lives of their students and colleagues around them.
To help celebrate teachers and publicise their fantastic stories, we run a global competition called the Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards. The awards invite students, parents and other teachers to nominate an educator for something wonderful they have done. We then share these nominations for the world to see.
After we received over 11,000 entries from 99 different countries for the 2023 awards, our judges decided on Latin teacher Nathalie Roy, from Glasgow Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the United States as the regional winner for North & South America. So let’s find out more about Nathalie!
Bio
Nathalie Roy teaches Latin, Roman Technology, and Myth Makers at Glasgow Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
Her classes recreate the products, processes, and stories of ancient Roman daily life through experimental archaeology and hands-on history STEM labs. Her students have built sundials, mosaics, pottery kilns, catapults, dice towers, and a Roman road using ancient Roman tools and methods.
She runs a support club for LGBTQ youth at her school, and two Girl Scout troops that focus on service and outdoor education. A National Board Certified Teacher, Nathalie writes regularly about her work on her blog, All STEM Leads to Rome. Access free mythology and classical STEM lessons on her website CreativeClassics.org and follow her on Twitter @MagistraRoy!
Nathalie’s nomination
Here is the nomination from one of Nathalie’s students that earned her the title of regional winner for North & South America.
“As a Latin teacher Ms. Roy has a limited amount of students but she makes an impression on everyone she teaches. I changed my school just to be taught by her. She encourages students to learn and makes sure we know that her classroom is always open to those who need a shoulder to cry on. She organizes several STEM projects for her Latin and Roman Tech students, including but not limited to the Roman Road Project where students built a sidewalk that improved the school, the Roman way. Ms. Roy runs a fabulous LBGTQ+ club which acts as a safe place for students as well as a Girl Scout troop that does several service projects. She encourages us to never give up and offers several materials to help us improve in her classes. I learned from her to change the world you must start with the students.”
Q&A with Nathalie
What does it mean to you to be a regional winner of the 2023 Dedicated Teacher Awards?
I was truly touched when I read the words in my student’s nomination. Sometimes, our busy teacher lives keep us from realizing our impact on students – this nomination is tangible proof that what we do as teachers really does matter.
Why did you become a teacher?
Both my parents served as teachers so it was a lifestyle I knew and understood. At heart, I simply enjoy helping others. As a lifetime Girl Scout, I wanted to make the world a better place by encouraging my students to grow into adults of courage, confidence, and character. THEY are the future of our world.
Do you have a dedicated teacher that inspired you?
My father taught math and science at the high school I attended. Every year, he juggled classes in algebra, chemistry, physics, trigonometry, and computer coding, all while working a night job as a projectionist at a local movie theater. He spent his “movie time” preparing for the next day’s classes and grading/marking his students’ work.
As a student in his classes, I was inspired by his unwavering energy, dedication, and humor in the face of sometimes overwhelming professional and personal responsibilities.
Do you have a memorable teaching moment?
One morning this past year in January, a student walked into my classroom carrying a bag of her belongings. She told me she was running away from home and asked me where she could go. When I asked her for more details, she explained to me that her parents refused to accept her as an LGBTQ person. She came to my classroom because as a member of my LGBTQ Friends and Allies Club, she knew it was a safe space for students to be themselves. But this may not be the situation next year.
Currently, all over the USA, lawmakers are attacking policies and legislation that protect LGBTQ youth, some of our most vulnerable children. For these children, teachers may be the only supportive and loving adults that they have in their lives.
Please share three words to describe your typical week of teaching
“All the feels”
Tell us about a current project or school initiative that you’re excited about.
My Roman Technology classes just completed a huge three-month project in which we built a Roman road through our school’s campus. Using experimental archaeology methodology, the students used an ancient Roman surveying tool, the groma, to align the road, hauled 42 tons of limestone rock in buckets, mixed and poured ancient Roman concrete, and designed and decorated milestones along the road.
The just-finished road serves as a sidewalk through a swampy area of campus to help alleviate traffic in our crowded halls. The lessons accompanying the project focused on the lives of Roman soldiers, the builders of ancient roads. Learning about the lives of ancient people through their work helps students to understand the past in a more concrete way.
Vote for Nathalie
To vote for Nathalie as your overall winner of the 2023 Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards, go to our vote page.
