Heisler wins Golden Apple Award

WARSAW, Ill (WGEM) - Warsaw Elementary School teacher Valerie Heisler was awarded the WGEM Golden Apple Award for January.

Heisler is in her twenty-eighth-year of teaching. She’s spent nearly her entire teaching career educating preschool students.

“I think it just comes easy because I love them and so I think they can feel that, I don’t know. They just know that they are important,” Heisler said.

“She goes above and beyond for those kids. I think my favorite part is how much she loves them and how much they respect her,” parent Kristin McAllister said.

“She’s phenomenal, she’s so great with the kids. She is a kid person, she makes it fun,” fellow Warsaw teacher Pam Thill said.

Heisler works hard to engage the youngest of learners and keep them interested.

“We have a block area and a house area and a manipulative area. We usually have a craft and a sensory table, we try to switch that up all the time,” Heisler said.

One of Heisler’s favorite ways to make learning fun is through field trips.

“We always try to go to the pumpkin patch and try to have a big field trip at the end of the year,” Heisler said.

Co-worker and Heisler’s former teacher Pam Thill was one of those who nominated her for the Golden Apple. She said Heisler makes even the most basic lesson fun.

“She took them to one of the gals that works in the classroom with them to her house and they played in the yard and they just had such a good time,” Thill said.

Arlean Lucas has had five grandkids in Heisler’s class. She says her creativity creates lasting lessons for the kids.

“She’s great! She’s great with the kids they learn, they are happy when they come home. There is so much they get to do and I think that’s awesome,” Lucas said.

Heisler is thinking outside the box to make learning fun for her young students, and in the process giving them what they need to learn and grow.

Copyright 2022 WGEM. All rights reserved.