Congratulations to Gerard Tyson - 2014 Award Winner for Teaching Excellence

Gerard Tyson and Laura Guertin

Gerard Tyson is a middle school teacher at Northwest Middle School in Reading, Pennsylvania.  He has been teaching Earth and space science for 26 years, and in the words of his nominator: “Gerard lives and preaches Earth science on a daily basis” and is always reading up on new science content and concepts released in the news.  His classes are designed to be very challenging and he continues to push his students.  He has very high expectations and “works his tail off” to get his students to that level.  When Gerard notices a student struggling in his class, he will “go above and beyond to help that student, walking the streets of Reading, going door to door, meeting with the parents of these students.  He discusses where they are struggling and how they can help.”

Gerard not only invests his time and energy in to his students, but in to his own professional development and the development of others.  For the past several years, Gerard has attended summer workshops of the Penn State Earth and Space Science Partnership.  He brings new ideas and content back to his school and then teaches his fellow teachers.  In fact, Gerard has helped introduce a new science curriculum for the middle school classroom, and he runs a daily professional learning community with the 6th grade science department for effective implementation of new and current content and pedagogical approaches.

For his sustained professional and personal dedication to his students, his peers, and the Earth and space science teaching profession as a whole, the Pennsylvania Earth Science Teachers Association congratulates Gerard Tyson as our 2014 Teaching Excellence Award recipient. Congratulations, Gerard.