Fifth-grade teacher Andy Townsend is the reason that Brian Corrales Jr. is excited to go to class every day.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I love Mondays now,” says Corrales Jr.
Corrales Jr., 11, is one of Townsend’s fifth-grade students at Elvira Elementary School and says that Townsend “has the ability to make everything we learn about into a fun thing.”
Classmate Jackeline Walldez, 11, says she asked the principal if she could be put into Townsend’s class because she knew he was a good teacher.
“His passion for teaching and his love for children come across so strongly,” said Elvira Principal Tom Hubbard. Because of this, Townsend will receive the 2011 Metropolitan Education Commission’s Crystal Apple Award in May.
Being a teacher was never on Townsend’s life agenda, but he now says it’s his passion in life.
As a teen, his dreams focused on sports. “I honestly thought I was going to be a professional athlete,” he said. “It was the middle of high school that I realized that this wasn’t going to happen.”
To continue to satisfy his love for sports, he began volunteering with youth baseball and basketball programs.
“Working with the kids was a blast,” Townsend said.
While he was at the University of Arizona getting a degree in history, he continued volunteering with kids. He had thought about teaching, “but it honestly was never a real solid thought,” he said
With the urge to “do something different,” Townsend moved to Las Vegas and took a job in sales.
He continued to volunteer with kids’ sports programs in Vegas and one day realized that being with kids was what made him happy.
He knew he needed to change directions.
“For me to go into my boss’s office and tell him I was going to quit… it was a scary thing,” he said. However, “I’ve always been quite thankful that I made that choice.”
He moved back to Tucson and started volunteering a few days a week at an elementary school, he said. The experience was just “testing the waters” to make sure that was what he wanted to do.
He got his substitute-teaching certificate and taught at schools around Tucson before he enrolled at the University of Phoenix for a master’s degree in elementary education, he said.
As soon as he finished his program, he started teaching a fifth-grade class at Elvira Elementary School.
He’s now been there for six years, and Hubbard says Townsend’s work ethic is laudable.
“He beats the custodian here every morning,” Hubbard said.
He said Townsend is so much more than a highly competent teacher. “He has that love and that passion for teaching.”
Not surprisingly, Townsend also manages Elvira’s after-school basketball, softball, soccer and cross-country programs. Sports help him connect with the kids beyond the classroom.
All four sports programs are free, which is “pretty rare,” Townsend said.
The basketball, softball and soccer teams are made up of fourth and fifth-graders and cross-country includes third-graders, Townsend said.
He gets to know the fourth-graders before they get to fifth-grade, so they know his expectations and when class starts the next year they can “hit the ground running,” he said.
Last year, Townsend was one of five finalists for the Arizona Educational Foundation’s Teacher of the Year award, said June Webb-Vignery, director of the Metropolitan Education Commission.
The Metropolitan Education Commission is a 34-member committee that advocates for educational welfare in Pima County. One of their goals is to honor educators who go above and beyond with their service to students, according to their website.
She says his nomination for the Crystal Apple Award stems from the Teacher of the Year nomination.
The Crystal Apple Award started 21 years ago and originally recognized K-12 educators. It later expanded to include colleges and universities, Webb-Vignery said.
Townsend will receive this year’s Crystal Apple, which is “very prestigious” according to Webb-Vignery.
Townsend says he plans on sharing the award with his classroom. The students played a part in him getting the award because it is given based off of what happens in the classroom.
“How could a teacher be a good teacher without good students? It’s not possible,” he said.
“One of the most exciting parts of the job is that you are never going to have a day just like the rest,” Townsend said.
Both Walldez and Corrales Jr. say they will come back to visit Townsend.
“He’s just a really awesome teacher,” said Corrales Jr. “Mr. Townsend will be a teacher I will remember for the rest of my life.”
