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Connecting the Past to the Present at Rocky Run Middle School

Jamie Sawatzky is a nominee for Virginia Teacher of the Year.

Jamie Sawatzky’s students are seventh graders at Rocky Run Middle School. When he started teaching at Rocky Run twelve years ago, they were babies. Now they are in his classroom, ready to learn about American history from the Emancipation Proclamation to modern-day issues.

Already, just a month into the school year, Sawatzky’s students know they are lucky to have him for a teacher. His jokes (which make them groan and laugh at the same time), his technology savvy ways, his ability to make history personal have made a mark on these students—and twelve years of students before them.

For excellence as a teacher, engaging his students and inspiring other teachers, Jamie Sawatzky has been nominated as Virginia’s Teacher of the Year, one of eight finalists from around the state. The winner will be announced at a banquet in Richmond on Oct. 14.

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“In a county like Fairfax, where so many people are doing good things in the classroom, I’m honored to be the ambassador from Fairfax,” said Sawatzky, reflecting on this year-long journey. 

“I feel I’m just representative of what a lot of teachers are doing every day,” he said, sharing credit to the history team at Rocky Run Middle School for his recognition.  

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Innovation and interaction are the cornerstones of his success in the classroom. Sawatzky had students create their personal timelines. They then choose from a list of events that had occurred in that time period and explain how the history they had lived through had influenced their lives. One student lived in India during the tsunami, so she had a very tight connection between her personal history and bigger world history. 

“Testing can be about random facts, but not the connections. I want them to connect today’s events to history, to see that Reconstruction in 1865 has a lot to do with Arab Spring in 2011. We are always thinking about ‘thinking,’ applying and analyzing," explains Sawatzky.

He wants his students to “get a grasp of history in their lives to get a grasp of history,” he said.

Throughout the year, his students will re-enact trench warfare in their classroom, travel using a “time machine” that Sawatzky created, greetand re-create Ted’s Excellent Adventure,  where Sawatzky channels Teddy Roosevelt for the day, completely in costume.

The event with the most last impacting happens at the end of the year, Honor Day, when “the latest generation meets the greatest generation” in a celebration of their service and legacy.

Twelve years ago, one of Sawatzky’s students brought her grandfather to class to share his experiences during World War II. Sawatzy has taken that visit to a much greater level, holding Honor Day every year.

This year, over a hundred veterans will visit Rocky Run Middle School as part of Honor Day, interacting with the students who have prepared questions to ask their guests as part of the “Rosen Oral History Center” in the Rocky Run library. Their oral histories and personal recollections live on at Rocky Run and in the minds of the students.

Sawatzky‘s classroom is digital (“paper is so 2010”). Each student has a notebook computer in the classroom, complete with a digital version of their text book. Students can book mark, highlight, listen to a digital recording, follow links to more information, all in their notebook computer. When they access their account from home or the library, their notes on their personal wiki pages and highlights are available to them. Sawatzky completely and comfortably incorporates technology into his classroom, using a randomizer to pick students names to answer questions and clicks back to a video for emphasis on a concept.

In the meantime, he can be found in his classroom making history come alive for Rocky Run Middle School seventh graders. He hopes they’ll share “his passion, his deep appreciation for history because history is about you, it is personal.”

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