Hingham Extraordinary Teacher: Ron Woolley

Name:             Ron Woolley

School:           

Subject:           History, Economics

Grades:           10, 12

 Exercising creativity, Hingham High School’s Ron Woolley helps students understand how to use education to achieve things they want - and avoid pitfalls.

 Realizing they are capable of tremendous things, Woolley strives to make connections that awaken students to the world we are living in; effectively learning to stand on their own feet as functioning adults, he said.

The social studies teacher peppers puzzles to hone higher thinking. By experientially illuminating comparisons across time, students understand how changes occur on a gut level. Woolley creates opportunities to connect historical events with what is relevant for students in their own lives.

 While studying the rise of Fascism, Mussolini, and Hitler, Woolley offered students a better grade in exchange for a giant extra credit project. Once the adrenaline rush tapered off, students connected past and present.

 By turning to the person who provides an easy solution, seemingly innocent decisions can spiral out of control.

 “It is neat to see how kids have epiphanies” Woolley said, describing such close-to-home experiences as tools that make sense of their world, provide information, and shape identities.

 Seeing the teacher as model, Woolley walks his talk. Reading and writing are valuable, so he reads in cycles with the course and adds books to his whiteboard shelf reference library, inspiring students to go deeper themselves.

 Because he asks students to write, he writes too. "Stack of Rocks,"   an essay by Woolley, and a worthwhile read,  was recently published in "This I Believe: On Fatherhood." It is available at Barnes & Noble in Hingham.

 Hingham appreciates you, Mr. Woolley, for the innovative and imaginative ways you teach your students – in the truest sense of the word.