William Annin's Nick Beykirch Selected as International Teacher of the Year

While Olympic medals might be the main type of international award gaining attention recently, another type of international award came to the area last week.

William Annin Middle School has been awarded the International Technology Education Middle School Program Excellence Award. The award, given by the International Technology Education Association, chooses schools worldwide to acknowledge for excellence in technology education programs.

Three teachers at Annin have developed and taught the technology education program at the school – Nick Beykirch, Mike Levy and Germaine Ogitis. In addition to winning the award for the school, Beykirch was also acknowledged by the ITEA as Teacher of the Year. He will travel to North Carolina in March to accept the awards for the school and himself. He has been at Annin for five years, while Levy has taught there for 20 years and Ogitis for about eight.

Beykirch said the process started in 2007, when the technology program at Annin was selected as state middle school program of the year. This year, he had to resubmit more documentation to demonstrate their continuing qualifications before the school was selected this year for the international award.

The process for Beykirch's personal award began similarly, when he was selected last year as the New Jersey Technology Education Association's middle school state teacher of the year, before his award for teacher of the year on the international level.

"It's phenomenal. It's a once-in-a-career thing," Beykirch said

He said the program at Annin is one of the most valuable things in the school because students learn to apply the math and science they learned in other classrooms to real life situations. The classes join students from every level of achievement.

"Kids can find a moment to shine; kids that aren't successful anywhere else can be successful with us," he said. "There's so much success that you see by them applying things that they've learned to other classes."

The technology program at Annin is part of the curriculum for all seventh grade students, and is offered as an elective for eighth graders. This year Beykirch also taught a pilot program for a third of the sixth graders as well.

Recent projects in technology education classes have included woodworking, building bridges, rockets, gliders, hot air balloons and towers, to name a few.

"It's essentially like a pre-engineering type of curriculum," Beykirch said.

In 2006, the program was named a Five Star program by the NJTEA, after a rigorous evaluation, according to Beykirch. The program was evaluated on the quality of the teaching, the program, and the teachers' interactions with the community and with students inside and outside of the classroom. The recent award follows increasing recognition at the state level for the program, including becoming a Five Star demonstration site for five years. This allows other teachers who are looking to redo their own programs to come in to see the program.