For Kenneth Schiumo, he hopes to be one of those teachers for his students.
For most people they can name at least one teacher that had a impact on their lives.
If you have the appreciation of your peers and the support of your peers, that’s everything,
— teacher of the year nominee Kenneth Schiumo
“The biggest thing that I’m looking for in education, in my impact with students, is building relationships,” Schiumo said. “The kids don’t really care what you know until that, you know, they know that you care. And so one of my favorite quotes is be who you need when you’re younger, and that’s something that drove me to education and that’s something that I try to instill in every piece of what I do every single day for my students.”
Schiumo is honored to have this support from his peers.
“It’s a great honor, you know, just being seen by not only my students but by my peers for some of the things that I’m doing around campus,” Schiumo said. “If you have the appreciation of your peers and the support of your peers, that’s everything and, you know, not only do I show up every day for my kids, but I also show up to grow capacity and other teachers be challenged to be better because of, you know, the the things that my peers are doing and how I can continue to inspire them and how we can make this community a great place to be at Liberty High School.”
Working with Schiumo, student teacher Daniel Vuong can see his passion for teaching.
“He’s is really passionate about, like teaching, like you see it every day and like the way he interacts with the kids, like he’s always, he’s always humorous, he’s always upbeat, he’s always at, like, doing everything he can to get them to succeed,” Vuong said. “Even sometimes, even sometimes when the students are kind of like fighting him, we’re not really wanting, you know, like he still, like, puts every puts and all the effort he can do, like to push them towards where they need to be.”
He’s always going to be that trusted adult I go to whenever there’s a situation in my life,
— senior Gia Singh
Even students no longer in Schiumo’s class keep a good connection with him.
“I had the privilege of having him twice throughout my high school career,” senior Gia Singh said. “Not only one year, and Schiumo was the first teacher I had in all of high school. He was my first period class, and he just really connects very well with the students. He’s always going to be that trusted adult I go to whenever there’s a situation in my life and you know, he’s always there for you, even though I’m in my senior year and I still go to his advisory just to talk to him.”
2023-24 Teacher of the Year Nominees
