April 06, 2015

New Jersey foreign language teacher honored

Part-time Rutgers-Camden Spanish instructor recognized

By Michael Phillis
PhillyVoice Contributor

Rutgers-Camden/Website

Dana Pilla was named 2015 Teacher of the Year by the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey.

A part-time Rutgers-Camden professor, who helped develop an online Spanish course aimed at providing students with regular feedback, was named the top foreign language teacher in New Jersey, according to a press release posted last week on the university's website.

Dana Pilla, who also teaches at Haddonfield Middle School, was named the 2015 Teacher of the Year by the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey.

At Rutgers-Camden, she has taught elementary Spanish and Spanish for health professionals. Pilla said she developed her online course with a goal to regularly assess a student’s reading, writing and listening skills and provide frequent feedback.

“I feel a connection to every single student in my course when I teach online, and I believe that they feel a connection to me and to their classmates, with whom they interact frequently,” she said in a statement.

Now that she has received the award, she will compete at the regional level against other teachers of the year at an upcoming conference in Baltimore scheduled for late April, the press release said.

Michael Phillis
PhillyVoice Contributor