Webster Thomas teacher named New York State Teacher of the Year

According to Webster Thomas social studies teacher Greg Ahlquist, students are like a tube of toothpaste.

I’ll explain shortly what Ahlquist meant by that.  But suffice it to say, that kind of thinking is just one of many reasons Greg Ahlquist was named by the Board of Regents this week as the 2013 New York State Teacher of the Year.

Some of the hundreds of Thomas students and staff members who attended yesterday’s assembly.

Ahlquist made that analogy yesterday as he stood at a podium on the Webster Thomas stage, toothpaste tube in hand, and addressed an auditorium filled to capacity with Thomas students and staff members, administrators, Board of Education members, and local media representatives.  Ahlquist had officially received the award in a ceremony held Wednesday in Albany.  Yesterday’s assembly was a chance for the Webster Thomas family to congratulate him on his achievement.

Ahlquist is a Webster native and 1991 Webster Thomas High School graduate. He has been teaching social studies in the Webster School District since 2000, including AP World History, AP European History and a Holocaust elective. He currently serves as Lead Teacher for the entire Advanced Placement (AP) Program at Webster Thomas.

As New York’s Teacher of the Year, Ahlquist will represent the state’s more than 200,000 teachers, and speak at events around the state.  He is also in the running for the national award.

In 2007 Ahlquist was one of the five finalists for Teacher of the Year. He didn’t know he had won this year’s award until it was announced at the ceremony in Albany on Wednesday.

Ahlquist, center, with Webster Thomas principal Glenn Widor, Superintendent Adele Bovard, and students Douglas Pagani and Brenna Mason.

Now back to the toothpaste.  As Ahlquist displayed a thoroughly flattened toothpaste tube to the Webster Thomas audience, he described how he’d had to rescue it from his wife, who wanted to throw it away, assuming that no more toothpaste could be gotten from it. But he knew better. With some gentle coaxing and judiciously applied pressure, he could get another week’s worth of toothpaste out of that tube.

And so it is with students, he explained. “A great teacher sees potential (in a student) where others see very little.”

Congratulations, Greg.  You make the Town of Webster, the Webster School District, and Webster Thomas very proud.  I am honored to be a colleague.

(Photos courtesy Jen Calus, Webster Central School District)