An inspiring spirit, a passion to teach, and a motivational attitude is the recipe for a successful teacher. Advanced Placement (AP) United States History teacher, Temple Truax possesses all three of these traits.
Truax recently won the Dave Campbell Texas Football Inspiring Teacher Award on Oct. 3 and was honored at the pep rally. The Dave Campbell Texas Football organization is an organization that grants scholarships and awards to Texas high school students. The organization reached out to principal Dr. Kevin Hunt Ph.D. to nominate an HPHS teacher.
“Based on my own evaluation of some of the teachers that do a lot and work really hard, and the feedback that I got from other people, we came to a consensus that Ms. Truax was the best choice,” Hunt said.
This reward is given among many districts in order to honor teachers for being inspiring in and outside of class. The teachers who are receive the award have $500 donated to their school in their name.
“I think it’s good anytime you can recognize a teacher, because every teacher in this building works really hard,” Hunt said.
Truax runs the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Social Studies and UIL current issues and events teams. She has recently become the UIL academic coordinator and has many other hobbies.
“A lot of my students end up on one of the UIL teams, whether they were already on the team before getting to my class or they heard about it from my class and joined,” Truax said. “I’m happy I can inspire kids to join UIL.”
Truax has been a teacher at Highland Park since 2007. She has taught multiple levels of history, the highest being AP U.S. history.
“She’s engaging and she teaches the Talented and Gifted (TAG) AP U.S. History classes, so she teaches some pretty high-level social studies classes and has to have a pretty high level of content knowledge and expertise,” Hunt said.
Truax has always wanted to teach because of her love for kids. She takes pride in helping her students grow and become more well-rounded people.
“My main job is supporting students and making sure that they are developing critical thinking skills, it’s a job I love” Truax said.
By adding games and social aspects to her class, Truax achieves a fun learning environment where students desire to learn and grow. She implements activities like Soup, Salad or Sandwich, where students debate which of those categories a food falls in, to engage her students.
“I feel like this year I’ve talked a lot more with my peers over what I’m learning instead of just writing it down, her class is super engaging and fun” junior and student of Truax Cameron Clyce said.
Truax is one of the most beloved teachers among the student body, the staff, the teachers, and the parents.
“I get a lot of positive feedback from other staff members and various parts of the school on just what a consistently professional teacher Ms. Truax is. ” Hunt said. “I’m so impressed with her and her teaching skills.”
Teaching is about motivating students to do well and inspiring them to take interest in the subject matter.
“She’s very passionate about history, and that’s something that I haven’t seen in other teachers. Her whole room is filled with history stuff, and when she talks about history she seems truly passionate” Clyce said.
Student feel her passion for the subject during every lecture.
“She has a really good rapport and good relationships with students. But on the other hand, she’s very rigorous and she challenges her students,” Hunt said.
Beyond her passion for history, Truax finds joy in the everyday moments of teaching. Truax gets to see students grow in her class, and it brings joy to her life.
“I like that teaching every day is different,” Truax said. “Even if you think you know what your day is gonna look like, something is gonna happen and it’s gonna be funnier than you thought or crazier than you thought.”
