Connie Fink named 2017 Outstanding Educator
By Juanita I.C. Traughber, communications director
Fifth-grade social studies teacher earns $3,500 stipend and state-wide recognition for her innovative teaching methods.
Fifth-grade social studies teacher earns $3,500 stipend and state-wide recognition for her innovative teaching methods.
The Humanities Tennessee Board of Directors unanimously voted to present Middle School Teacher Connie Fink with a 2017 Outstanding Educator Award. Connie, who teaches fifth-grade social studies, joins five other honorees across the state in this year’s class and is the only educator from a non-public school in the award cohort.
In addition to the award, she has earned a $2,000 stipend for professional development and $1,500 for USN to purchase humanities-related instructional materials. With the stipend, she plans to attend the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute to learn how to promote inquiry-based historical thinking utilizing primary and secondary sources into her colonial to American Revolution unit. Connie also plans to use the funds to build the American history book collection in the Hassenfeld Library, take her students on a field trip to The Hermitage as the culminating experience in her unit on slavery, and purchase books, teaching guides, and videos to support her curriculum.
“My goal is for all of my students to feel well represented for who they are in the multifaceted history they are exposed to in my class,” she said. “I also value the effectiveness of place-based learning.”
Connie joined USN in 2009, and is known for bringing innovative and integrative projects to the classroom. Most recently, she worked with local historians and Tennessee State Library and Archives to take students on a tour of Nashville’s historically African-American neighborhoods and track their evolutions from the Jim Crow era to today. Students worked with historical documents dating back to the 1950s and created their own short films to explain what they learned during the Civil Rights unit lesson.
“Winning this award from among the thousands of teachers statewide who were eligible speaks to the exceptionality of Connie's dedication to her craft and to her students,” said Head of Middle School Jeff Greenfield. “I know Connie, and she would say that she is inspired by and learns from so many others who teach at USN. While true, it's also a fact that she sets the bar high for all of us when it comes to how we make the most of our opportunities here to innovate and to make our classrooms come alive with learning, learning that has real-world relevance and requires students to think deeply and personally about the impact each has on the world around us.”
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2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.