Associate Professor of English education and Coordinator of secondary education Dr. Chris Parsons was the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Teacher Award.
According to an article on the Keene State website, “the award recognizes excellence in teaching; encouragement of independent thinking; rapport with students in and out of the classroom; and student advising.”
The award was in result of a nomination process from fellow fauculty members within the English department, current students and alumni.
Parsons said that receiving the award was,” Just a total shock, in a genuine way… I feel very grateful for a lot of the support I’ve had, the work I’ve been able to do as a teacher educator and as a profesor at Keene State.”
Graduating from Carleton College of Minnesota and obtaining a PhD from the University of Michigan, Parsons began teaching at Keene State in the fall of 2017 and taught across the country beforehand.
“I was a high school teacher in Las Vegas for five years, 2006 to 2011,” Parsons said. “I got to teach American literature and reading fundamentals classes which are for students at the high school who had low reading levels.”
Since he began teaching at Keene State, Parsons’ goal was to connect with students to create a positive environment for them to succeed.
“There’s a lot of bad things being said about schools these days; how hard teaching is, how rough schools are, in what bad shape our students are in mental health [wise] with their academics and the pandemic,” Parsons said. “I try to teach with a lot of energy and it wouldn’t be possible to do without being inspired by their showing up [with a willingness to learn] every day,” Parsons said.
Dr. Brinda Charry, English professor at Keene State, was one of the faculty members that nominated Parsons for the award.
“A couple colleagues and I actually nominated him because we felt he is first, a tremendously generous as a teacher, he gives a lot to his students both in terms of time and energy and experience and just sheer enthusiasm,” Charry said.
Charry added, “I think he is a fantastic role model for young people as they themselves prepare to go out and teach, I think he’s the kind of teacher I think almost everyone should aspire to being.”
Charry said Parsons brings an important perspective to the English department.
“He has experience, he himself was a high school teacher at one point in his career so he brings that kind of experience in the classroom,” Charry said. “He essentially prepares students to go out, teach high school English… I think he also brings an awareness of the sort of complexity of English and what it means to teach English.”
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
