Williams Named North Carolina Social Studies Teacher of the Year

By Joel Frady

After spending the last 31 years teaching history and social studies to the youth of the county, Ashe County High School's Terry Williams has been recognized by the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies as North Carolina's 2009 Social Studies Teacher of the Year.

The news came as a surprise to Williams, a 1973 graduate of Ashe Central High School who earned his BA in history from Appalachian State University.

"I was shocked, first of all," he said. "I work in a great department. Of all the end-of-course tests, U.S. history is the most difficult.

"I have people that work extremely hard," Williams said of the department, which he heads. "I've watched them pull social studies scores up by 15 and 20 points in the last couple of years, so I'm proud of this de-partment. This award is more about the department and ACHS." Williams added that it was also a "humbling experience" due to the recommendation letters that his peers and a former student teacher wrote to the council.

Ashe County High School Principal Phil Howell said that he has known Williams for years, having taught and coached together at Beaver Creek High School, and that Williams "is a master teacher, no doubt.

"He leads the social studies department in all aspects," said Howell. When the state added end-of-course ex-ams in U.S. History and Civics exam a few years ago, it "was a task that we had to build back to, because it was brand new. We didn't know a lot about it, but Mr. Williams, in these three years, he's taken those two [exams] from the department and we're well above the state average on those.

"He's just an exemplary teacher and he cares about the students, and that's the real heart of it," Howell con-tinued.

For Williams, it all started with an early interest in history.

"When I was in high school, I was always interested in history," he said, noting a particular interest in read-ing about history and movies about the Roman gladiators and World War II, especially those starring John Wayne. Even with all the history in the world, however, his interest was still rooted at home.

"What really peaked my interest was that my father had been there and I wanted to see what it was like," he said, noting that his father served in World War II and was present on D-Day. His father has spoken to many of Williams' classes over the years and given his son artifacts from World War II, such as a giant Nazi flag he found on a third-story building in Dusseldorf, Germany. Williams says he likes to show the artifacts to his students "because it makes it more real for them."

After graduating from ACHS, Williams attended Lees-McRae College (then a two-year school) and pondered where to go next.

"I was trying to make that decision: Do I want to spend my life in a museum? Do I want to write? I even thought about going to law school," he said. But it "was always social studies that kept drawing me back, and my grades were always excellent in those classes. I think that was because I enjoyed it."

While at Lees-McRae, Williams began to work with underprivileged youth, which led him to transfer to Appa-lachian State.

"I enjoyed it. I enjoy being around young people," he said. "It seemed to me that you could make a differ-ence." He later added that he thinks his "repertoire with kids is probably my strongest asset. I like to see them get into college, I like to write those letters of recommendation. I like to tell them that they can suc-ceed and I like to watch them walk across the stage [on graduation night]."

Williams said that his interest lies primarily in political history, whether it be European history in 1450, U.S. history or modern history. He still enjoys reading about history in his free time, but is not the "kind of his-tory geek" that sits around watching The History Channel at night. Instead, he likes to keep up with the popular culture his students enjoy and current events, which he relates to historical events.

"I think kids today are interested in current events and current news, so we bring that into the classroom," he said. "We're in a situation where we have to teach U.S. history and prepare for an end-of-course test, be-cause testing is the big thing now, but I think you can do that and relate it to events today," such as compar-ing the current economic slump to the Great Depression.

"Contrary to popular belief, many of them are more well-read and up on events than people give them credit for," he said. He noted that students are still intrigued by the 1960s and 1970s, both the social aspect and the Vietnam War.

Williams began his teaching career at West Jefferson Elementary School when he graduated from Appala-chian State in 1977. He then spent 17 years teaching at Beaver Creek High School before transferring to Ashe County High when the county's schools merged.

Williams said that the always changing nature of the department keeps the job interesting.

"It changes all the time, that's what keeps it fresh," he said. "It's never-ending. … That's also one of the problems [associated with] having to teach a course that's tested: the information grows, year after year. There's more information that you have to teach in the same time frame."