The look on Colby Davis’s face as the crowd of 11 people – that included Superintendent Lupita Hinojosa, Springwoods Village Middle School Principal Kimberly Culley, and Davis’s own best friend – said it all. 

“I was very, very surprised,” Davis said. “I didn’t know what exactly was going on.”

What exactly was going on was Davis, a language and literature teacher at Springwoods Village Middle School, was being recognized as one of the winners of a prize from Honored Schools. 

Through a partnership with Honored Schools and Spring Independent School District, nominations were gathered from students and their families of teachers across the district.

From that, three finalists were selected (one each from elementary, middle, and high schools), and were surprised on Wednesday with the award – which also included a check for $5,000 from Honored Schools. That money is unrestricted, which means teachers could use it for anything they wished.

“We’re here to recognize excellent teachers, and to thank all of them for the work they do every single day for students,” Mary Blackshear, Director of Operations, Programs, and Strategy at Honored Schools said. “Honored Schools is an initiative to reward those excellent teachers, and to encourage them to stay in the classroom. We also hope to encourage future generations to want to teach.”

Davis said she was honored to be recognized and appreciated that her students see the hard work she puts in every day. 

“I have always been a part of someone’s village,” she said. “I was raised by a single mother, and it was a lot of people that did a lot of good things for me. Every little bit that you do makes a difference to someone. Sometimes just showing up at a game or showing up at a concert makes a difference to a kid.”

Davis was just one of three winners on Wednesday. At Spring High School, Gary Novick – a Career and Technical Education teacher – won for the high school level. His nomination called him an “excellent teacher, as well as a friend,” and mentioned that Novick believed in his students before they even knew to believe in themselves.

“Teaching is just a relationship of trust,” he said. “You try and build that, and teach them about responsibility. Everything is really just about the kids.”

That focus on the students and their education is exactly why Superintendent Lupita Hinojosa said these three were selected out of more than 2,000 nominations.

“We are recognizing these teachers for their amazing work, their dedication to their students, their commitment to making sure every single student receives an excellent, equitable education,” Dr. Hinojosa said. “These are teachers that come to school every single day to do the best for their students. They’re not expecting to be recognized, they just do what they love to do and that is teach our students.” 

Over at Jenkins Elementary, Nicole Whittington was nominated by multiple students and parents for her work there as an Adaptive Behavior teacher on campus. Whittington has been praised by administrators for her work in helping students to get up to grade level and then surpass those expectations, even through difficult situations. 

Whittington said she became a teacher because she was that student in school.

“I do what I do because of my childhood. I lived a very rough childhood,” she said. “A lot of [my kids here] have too. I feel like I can personally relate, and I feel like that personal connection helps me to help them. Because I can personally connect and tell them ‘you can get through this.’ It helps them have faith and want to do better.”