Menu
Très bien, Mlle. Berry
GHS teacher wins Golden Apple Award
For 33 years, WTHI-TV 10 in Terre Haute has been giving the Golden Apple Award to area educators.
For that same 33 years, Amy Berry has been teaching French to Indiana high school students.
While that may be little more than coincidence, it is a fact not lost on Berry, a lifelong resident of the Wabash Valley, except for her first year of teaching, when she was at Medora High School in Southern Indiana.
Since then, she’s spent 32 years at Greencastle High School, where she was surprised with a Golden Apple Award earlier this month.
It’s not that the award itself was entirely out of the blue — Berry had already gone through an initial interview process for the award — it was the sheer number of people filing into her room.
In filed WTHI anchor/reporter Patrece Dayton, along with a cameraman, as well as administrators Chad Rodgers, Yo Goodpaster and Jeff Gibboney; fellow teachers Donovan Wheeler and Logan Kuhne; and, perhaps most surprisingly, parents Judy and John Berry, sister Anita Cole, nephew and niece-in-law Ryan and Candace Cole and good friend Katherine Keep, Berry’s original nominator for the award.
“When I was teaching third hour, in came the reporter, Patrece Dayton, the photographer and all the people Chad and Yo had coordinated with,” Berry said. “They had called my family — I was really stunned.”
And so, the French 1 lessons went out the window for a few minutes as the students had a chance to share in their teacher’s big moment.
After that, she was even able to leave class for a bit, courtesy of French 4 student Tyler Rodgers and later Spanish teacher Matthew Williams covering her class.
“Tyler Rodgers — at a moment’s notice,” Berry said gratefully. “They allowed me to go to the reception and out to eat with my family.”
Of course, winning awards isn’t the reason Berry got into teaching. It was a desire to teach and a love of the language.”
“I had always wanted to be a teacher,” said Berry, who graduated from the very last class before Staunton High School was consolidated into Northview. “So the teaching part I knew early on, but I certainly didn’t know I was going to be a French teacher.”
Then as a freshman she took her first French class, and that was it.
“It was such a wonderful experience,” Berry said. “I knew I definitely wanted to be in languages. So when I decided I wanted to be a teacher, the natural choice was French. I really didn’t consider another major.”
That was just down the road from her hometown, at Indiana State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree, and later her master’s, all while continuing to teach.
It has been quite the program that Berry has had the chance to develop over the years. Not only does she teach two sections of French 1, a section of French 2 and split class of French 3 and 4, she teaches two rotation classes at the middle school.
Exposure to a world language at the middle school level is a rarity for a school the size of Greencastle.
“It allows me to teach beginning concepts for three semesters,” Berry said.
And even if students don’t choose to pursue French in high school, it gives them a feel for what taking Spanish or Latin might be like at GHS.
“The fact that we can support three world languages is unusual,” Berry said. “It actually means that we have a lot of community and administrative support for world languages. I will say that all three language programs are strong.”
The kind of support Berry sees is also evident in the letters of recommendation that were written during the application process. She received letters of support from math department chairman Logan Kuhne, English department chairman Donovan Wheeler, science teacher and former assistant principal Jennifer Finnerty and a team-written letter from Principal Rodgers and Assistant Principal Goodpaster.
“It’s humbling. I feel great gratitude,” Berry said. “I think that the process has meant as much to me as the honor. The people that I asked to write recommendations are busy people. So the fact that they took their time to write recommendation in a busy season meant so much to me.
“Some of the recommendations included quote from other faculty members, so it was more than just them.”
The selection process also included an interview by a panel of former winners back in March.
“If I was one of the five, that would be a surprise,” Berry said.
She is, however, one of the five, not only receiving her award earlier this month, but being interviewed for a segment that is set to run during the evening news on Friday, April 29.
Knowing that Putnam County also represents the eastern edge of the WTHI viewing area, Berry is also happy to represent the community.
“I suppose the fact that I can represent Greencastle in the Terre Haute community is also very important to me,” she said.