{"id":37322,"date":"2022-11-11T21:46:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-12T04:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/joseph-walter-named-farmington-teacher-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:37:00","slug":"joseph-walter-named-farmington-teacher-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/joseph-walter-named-farmington-teacher-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Walter named Farmington teacher of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joseph
Joseph Walter holding his 2022 Teacher of the Year plaque. Superintendent Cody Diehl (L of Walter), McCormick Elementary Principal, Lyn White (R) with board members.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Joseph Walter, third grade teacher at McCormick Elementary, has been named Farmington Municipal Schools\u2019 2022 Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n

Walter was selected from among 60 nominees by a committee of four former teachers of the year, according to Roberto Taboada, public information officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all think that he is a wonderful, wonderful teacher and that what he does for our schools and for the district is just really fantastic,\u201d Taboada said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a surprise and an honor,\u201d Walter said.<\/p>\n

In September, Farmington Municipal Schools Superintendent Cody Diehl visited Walter\u2019s classroom and announced to his class that Walter had won the honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said \u2018thank you\u2019 to the one above,\u201d Walter said, laughing.<\/p>\n

Born in Peru, Walter\u2019s early childhood years were spent in South America, where his parents were missionaries for evangelical churches. His first seven years were in Peru, followed by five in Colombia. Whenever his family returned to the United States, they went to Kansas, where Walter has family.<\/p>\n

As the youngest of five children, he said, all but one sibling was born in South America. His teenage years were spent in the now-notorious Medellin, Columbia. His family left in the 1970s, before the city became a drug cartel mecca.<\/p>\n

Walter attended a private Christian college before earning his teaching certificate from the University of Minnesota. It was there at a job fair that he visited a booth staffed by representatives from New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened to be that they were from Farmington, and that led to a phone interview and then a job offer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His fluency in Spanish landed him a job in a bilingual classroom, and he now makes weekly robocalls in both English and Spanish.<\/p>\n

\"Joseph
Joseph Walter loves seeing the kids learn, play and have fun. (David Edward Albright\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He taught fourth grade for his first 11 years, and third grade for the rest of his 28 years, all at McCormick Elementary.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably one of the highlights is \u2026 you know, eventually you teach the kids of former students,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s neat \u2019cause by then you kind of know the family. You feel like you\u2019re connecting,\u201d Walter said.<\/p>\n

His teaching style and philosophy are based on trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a real honor to gain the trust of the little kids. You know if they feel comfortable coming up and talking with you, and you can tell that they respect you \u2013 that\u2019s a real plus,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, the only things that have worked for me is quietness and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I try to be fancy, or showy or mean or really lay into the kids, it just doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he said. \u201cThis year, I\u2019m really trying to focus on just loving the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled how his mother advised him to \u201cpray for them, love them \u2026 then a lot of things are taken care of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Technology has changed both the teaching and learning process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they are more motivated by technology, so it\u2019s hard perhaps to get into reading the book,\u201d Walter said.<\/p>\n

He has seen children shift their focus to games and a lot of screen time, rather than outdoor activities. He referred to it as a \u201cwhole cultural shift in their activities at home.\u201d Their focus on technology must be considered in the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the bigger challenge is for me just catching up. It\u2019s not all bad, we have a really good curriculum now that kind of combines both,\u201d he said. It combines reading with videos that \u201creally grab their attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every child is assigned a laptop, which remains in the classroom, now that the pandemic has eased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are definitely tech-savvy, and I can just give an assignment, say open your computers, go to a website and start working,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said instruction is provided with both a book and an online platform. For example, he might start the day with a textbook, then assign a follow-up activity online.<\/p>\n

McCormick has dual language learning, which means that students in kindergarten through fifth grade have one class that is taught in both English and Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Spanish kids learn and improve their skills in English, and the English (speaking) kids get exposed to Spanish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"McCormick
McCormick Elementary, \u2018Where readers are leaders\u2019. David Edward Albright\/Durango Herald<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Walter and his colleagues are learning new curriculum \u2013 Core Knowledge Language Arts \u2013 which is provided by Amplify Education Inc<\/a>. and is known as the \u201cscience of reading\u201d Walter said.<\/p>\n

Walter received high praise from his principal and peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Walter has embraced the opportunity to grow professionally, as well as learn new ways of providing great instruction in our school,\u201d said Principal Lyn White. \u201cWhen his colleagues observe his classroom, there are always lots of great comments regarding his patience and ability to break down instruction into bite-sized pieces for his students. We are fortunate to be able to call Mr. Walter one of McCormick\u2019s and Farmington Municipal Schools\u2019 finest.\u201d<\/p>\n

To relax, Walter visits friends on the weekends and enjoys time in the countryside and hiking. He also enjoys sharing meals with friends and watching the Kansas City Chiefs.<\/p>\n

But he also finds joy on the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is kind of odd, but sometimes with the kids at recess, they\u2019re having fun running around playing, and you think, \u2019This is really nice.\u2019 I mean, it doesn\u2019t get much better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran teacher honored for 28 years of teaching dedication, excellence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799,28,138,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83631,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37322\/revisions\/83631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37322"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}