THE SON of a former Clarendon school principal is now himself excelling as a teacher in the United States, according to The Clayton News-Star.
The 25-year-old Lance Gooden, just three and a half years into his career, was awarded the 2005 Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year for Johnston County, North Carolina. The mathematics and algebra teacher was also awarded Teacher of the Year at his own school, Clayton Middle School.
And on top of this, the football team Mr. Clayton coaches finished second in the county, and the track team he helps to coach won the county championship.
SURPRISE
"It's awesome," he exclaimed. "It's a complete surprise; I'm still trying to grasp it." "He's as good as they get," added principal Deborah Woodruff.
However, the award might not be such a surprise considering his background. Of the seven children born to Clive and Candace Gooden, only two are not involved in mathematics; one is a nurse, the other is a linguistics professor.
His late mother was principal of Gimmie-Mi-Bit All-Age School, Clarendon. "My parents really emphasised academics growing up, and we're all really competitive," he said.
His teaching style is to create lesson plans that make the subject more relevant to daily life. He taught percentages by asking his class how they shopped for sale items in the summer.
"The kids have really responded well to my approach ... Like everyone else, it took them a while to understand my accent, but understanding the concepts I was trying to approach was no problem at all."
He plans to use half of his US$1,000 Wal-Mart award to buy learning tools for his classes. The other half will go to the remaining eighth grade classes.
