Rockford Teacher Honored for the ‘Loving Environment’ in Her Classroom

During our conversation, I realized this Rockford, Illinois teacher is more proof of the accuracy of one of Maya Angelou's most famous quotes.

Let's start with some congratulations.

97ZOK's Teacher of the Week

Payton Orzech from Summerdale Early Childhood Center in Rockford, Illinois.

While reading the letter below that nominated Payton for this honor, I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes from poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

What matters most in our interactions with others isn't so much the specific actions we take or the words we say that people remember most, but how someone was made to feel.

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Payton was nominated by the mother of one of her students, Rosie Wollenberg, she writes:

Ms.Payton was my son Connor's pre-school teacher last year. He is a super nervous child. Ms. Payton made him feel so welcomed and encouraged. He totally loved going to school every day! This past April we lost my mother-in-law. She had passed about an hour before I was set to bring Connor to school. I got the call and did not know what to do. Bring him to school or meet up with my husband at his Dad's house? At first, Connor wanted to go see his Dad. Then he cried out "I wanna go to school". At 4 years old Connor knew that he would be ok at school! Ms. Payton had created such a loving environment that he knew that it would be ok to go to school on such a sad day! As a parent it made my heart swell knowing my Lil guy felt that he had a safe place to go! He craved that normalcy in such a tragic time. For 2 hours my husband and I could grieve and take care of things with his mom and we knew our little guy was in good hands with Ms. Payton! Even after he graduated pre-k, she has been an amazing influence in Connor's life. He was so excited to video chat with her before his 1st Tae Kwon Do tournament in early August! She wished him luck. Also, when he started kindergarten at a new school this year, Connor was super nervous and anxious! Ms Payton and Amanda (a para from Summerdale) sent Connor a video on his 1st day of school that he would do great in kindergarten! He was so encouraged by this that he was no longer afraid of going to kindergarten! I can't thank Ms Payton enough for her dedication and hard work with her students! Connor is such a good student and she really made his 1st experience with school amazing!!!

Listen to Payton being honored on The Steve Shannon Show.

TOTW VID-Payton Orzech Summerdale ECC by Steve Shannon

As Teacher of the Week, Payton was surprised with a cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes and money to spend at WM Day Spa Salon.

If you would like to nominate your favorite teacher, click HERE.