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Wheeling Chamber Honors Teachers of the Year

photo by: Photo by Eric Ayres

The Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce presented its Teacher of the Year awards and student scholarship to this year's recipients on Thursday night during the chamber's annual steak fry. From left are Michael Santamaria from Williams Lea; student Kaylynn Hall, winner of the Williams Lea and Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce scholarship; high school teacher Ryan Stanton; Chamber President Kurt Zende; middle school teacher Shawna Safreed; elementary school teacher Gabrielle Burriss; a

WHEELING — Officials with the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce honored local educators with Teacher of the Year awards Thursday night during the Chamber’s annual steak fry.

An outstanding local student was also presented with a $1,000 Williams Lea and Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce Scholarship.

Those who were selected to receive Teacher of the Year awards were Ryan Stanton of Wheeling Park High School, Shawna Safreed of Bridge Street Middle School and Gabrielle Burriss of Middle Creek Elementary School. Kaylynn Hall, a recent graduate of Wheeling Park High School and an incoming freshman at West Liberty University, received the scholarship.

“The Chamber thanks the members of its Education Committee for their work in reviewing each application for these awards,” said Laurie Conway, marketing and communications director for the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce.

Stanton has been an educator for 13 years and currently teaches Social Studies to sophomores, juniors and seniors at Wheeling Park High School. He is a certified AP teacher and has written and presented on various topics relating to Wheeling history for the Ohio County Public Library and other publications.

“His passion for local history and politics has made for several popular courses at Wheeling Park, where he has developed curriculum and continues to build the school’s popular ‘History of Wheeling’ course,” Conway said.

Stanton serves as the high school’s student council sponsor and was named a 2011 West Virginia History Hero.

Safreed, also an educator with 13 years of experience, currently teaches seventh grade reading to students at Bridge Street Middle School. She is described as an evolving educator whose instructional practices are constantly developing to meet the needs of her students. Principal Jessica Broski-Birch described Safreed as a model of excellence for her profession and a skilled curriculum coordinator, often serving as a liaison between the faculty and administration.

“Mrs. Safreed engages students and fellow faculty with her positive attitude and encourages her colleges to remember that ‘our bad days are not a student’s fault,'” Conway noted.

She is also actively involved in the local community, participating in her church and volunteering for activities in which her son participates. Safreed was also honored as both the 2022 Bridge Street Middle School Teacher of the Year and the Ohio County Schools Teacher of the Year, and was a finalist for West Virginia Teacher of the Year.

Burriss has been a teacher for two years and currently teaches fifth grade social studies and math to students at Middle Creek Elementary School. Her innovative practices have become a hit with her students, particularly in subjects that they can sometimes find frustrating.

“When she found out how defeated her students felt when computing fractions, Burriss dressed up as Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken to teach a lesson,” Conway said.

She taught students to KEEP the first fraction the same, FLIP the second fraction and CHANGE the division sign to a multiplication symbol (KFC). She also partnered with a local KFC to obtain their familiar red buckets to enhance the lesson, which let students pick out fabric pieces of chicken in the bucket with fraction division problems for them to solve. Burris is currently obtaining her doctor of education in trauma-informed education practices at Northcentral University.

Hall, winner of the $1,000 Williams Lea and Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce scholarship, recently graduated from Wheeling Park High School with a GPA of 4.66. She is enrolled at West Liberty University, where she will begin her fall semester after next week to pursue a nursing degree. Outside of her studies, she has been involved in the local community since the time she was in Girl Scouts, over the years participating in numerous service projects — from community cleanups to food drives. She volunteers as a regional environmental action program counselor and a West Virginia Sheriff’s Association Youth Leadership Academy Counselor.

“She also recently joined the Valley Grove Volunteer Fire Department as an emergency medical services student and junior firefighter,” Conway said.

She is enrolled in Emergency Medical Technician school, which will allow her to earn a license that will extend her abilities to aid the local community.

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