Examples of colors, shapes, numbers and letters are displayed throughout Kristen Weinman’s pre-kindergarten classroom at St. Thomas More Catholic Academy in Washington, D.C. In addition to helping children learn their ABCs and how to count in preparation for kindergarten, she has a special side benefit to her work.

“I get to see the children grow,” Weinman said.

Gerald Smith Jr., St. Thomas More’s principal, explained, “Ms. Weinman walks the halls and will talk to kids she taught in pre-kindergarten who are now eighth graders, and asks how they’re doing and where they’re going. She’s connected to them.”

The veteran teacher noted that “many children come back and see us when they’re adults because we’re a family here.”

On May 26 as Kristen Weinman taught some of her pre-kindergarten students who were sitting on a large oval rug decorated with train cars labeled with letters of the alphabet, while other pre-K students followed along online, some surprise visitors walked into her classroom.

Kelly Branaman, the Archdiocese of Washington’s secretary for Catholic schools and superintendent of schools, asked the children, “Do you have the best teacher in the world?” And the students sitting together on the rug shouted back, “Yes!”

Branaman announced that Weinman is a 2021 Golden Apple Award winning teacher, an honor giving to 10 Catholic school teachers annually in the archdiocese for their teaching excellence and dedication to Catholic education. The archdiocese has more than 3,000 teachers in its 91 Catholic schools, that include early childhood centers, elementary schools and archdiocesan and independent high schools.

Weinman was presented with a golden apple and a large-scale replica of a $5,000 check that the Golden Apple Award teachers receive, courtesy of the Donahue Family Foundation.

“Ms. Weinman, we are so proud of you and so grateful for what you do for students every single day,” said Branaman, who was accompanied by other representatives of the archdiocese’s Catholic Schools Office.

Father Raymond Moore, the pastor of St. Thomas More Parish, led the children and classroom visitors in a prayer and praised the award winning teacher, noting, “She has taught us to love you (God) above all things, and helped us grow in our faith.”

In an earlier interview, he noted Weinman’s deep commitment to the faith life of the children at the school. She teaches religion to St. Thomas More students up to the third grade, and helps prepare second graders for the sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confession.

“Her heart is totally in this,” the priest said. “She’s been here a long time and touched the lives of many families and children.”

In another interview before the surprise announcement, Nancy Taylor-Williams, the academic dean at St. Thomas More Catholic Academy, praised Weinman as a kind, caring, dedicated and faith-filled teacher who is willing to help everyone.

Asked about Weinman’s impact on her students, Taylor-Williams noted, “She’s their first teacher besides their parents.” She said Weinman tries to educate her students to be “little citizens of the world.”

Weinman, who is from Oregon and Washington State, converted to the Catholic faith and lived in in the Assisi community of lay people and religious in the Washington, D.C., area. After a background in social work, she was drawn to teaching.

“I wanted to work at a place where  it helped children get strong in their education, so they could provide for their family when they are adults,” she said.

After serving as a teacher’s assistant at the now-closed Immaculate Conception School in Washington for two years, she began teaching at St. Thomas More in 2001 and has been on the school’s faculty ever since, first for five years as a third grade teacher, then as a pre-kindergarten and religion teacher.

“Just to be able to share my faith, that’s why I joined the Catholic schools,” she said.

Weinman said she has three-fold goals for her pre-kindergarten students. The first is that they are strong in language arts and math when they move on to kindergarten.

“The second is that they learn how to be a good friend, that they learn how to share, to be kind and caring and to talk out conflicts,” she said, adding, “the third one is to know God loves them, and they can come to God always.”

The teachers at St. Thomas More work together, she said. “Everybody is connected… I think of everybody in the school as part of this award. They’ve been a part of the process of all my years here, trying to be the best teacher I can be.”

She praised how the teachers there adjusted to educating children during the pandemic, first shifting to virtual learning immediately after the shutdown last spring, then transitioning to hybrid learning for the fall, with some students at the school and some taking classes online.

“We do what we need to do. Each step is a learning step,” the teacher said.

Later that morning after Weinman was surprised with the Golden Apple Award in her classroom, the St. Thomas More school community honored her at an assembly in the cafeteria, with excited children first serenading her with noisemakers that sounded like duck calls. Speakers praised her for being a bright light to the school and for teaching the next generation of students with a beautiful spirit and a giving heart. Students presented her with handmade cards.

Lavelle Anthony, a mother who serves on St. Thomas More’s Home and School Association’s board, noted that Weinman had taught all four of her children there.

“You laid out a great foundation for them,” she said, as the teacher was presented with flowers.

Gerald Smith, the school’s principal, praised her commitment to the school, noting how she is often there at 6:30 a.m. to help open the building. Weinman works with Deidre Shuler, the school’s vice principal and dean of students and family life, to welcome students there in the mornings for before-care, which includes serving them breakfast and setting up games for them.

“Thank you for being a model for each of us,” he said.

In a later interview, Smith praised Weinman as a woman of faith and love. “She really is what it means to be an educator,” he said, noting how during the pandemic, she worked to provide one-on-one instruction to her young students. Weinman, he said, is “all-in every day” for her students and school. 

For Weinman, the Golden Apple Award was a wonderful surprise, but she is rewarded by her daily experiences with the students at St. Thomas More Catholic Academy, in her classroom and in the school’s hallways.

“I love them. They’re in my heart,” she said, adding, “I’ve said to parents, ‘I’ll be watching them all their growing years, seeing how they’re doing, keeping track that they’re doing the best they can.’”