Angela Thomas Is Cast As Teacher Of The Year

Photo Credit: JEREMY HAAS

BY MARTINA SMITH

Cooper City High School Drama teacher Angela Thomas sat in her classroom, beaming with pride. Several of her Acting IV students had just completed a scene that they had been working on for over a month now. The result was phenomenal. Each aspect of the scene had been performed beautifully. Though she had just been crowned Teacher of the Year, it was this part of her job that she enjoyed the most.

“More than anything I want the students to be completely engaged in what they are learning,” Thomas said. “I love seeing them develop an interest in theater.”

Thomas grew up in a small town in Illinois. She went to the same grade, middle and high school and throughout this time, dreamed of a career in theater.  And though she wanted to go into acting her whole life, her father disapproved of getting a degree in it initially. However, they reached a compromise so that she could pursue her dream career in theater after she had gone through a trade school.

“I looked through a magazine and just found which trade school would take the shortest amount of time to complete so I could continue on to acting as fast as possible,” Thomas said.

Thomas ended up attending Lakeland College, hoping to eventually transfer to Eastern Illinois University and get a theater degree there. She took extra classes while at Lakeland so that when she transferred her sophomore year, she would not be too far behind.

After graduating from Eastern Illinois, she moved to Florida to get her masters degree. During the time she was in graduate school, she and several other graduate students opened up a theater company on Hollywood Boulevard called The Florida Playwrights Theater.

“Our mission was to educate and entertain through a diverse season of plays,” Thomas said.

During this time she also began her teaching career, teaching one or two classes at Broward College, along with classes for little kids at the University Center for the Performing Arts in North Miami. Thomas also began substituting in public schools as an extra job to support herself, because the money that was made in the theater went to keeping the theater itself running.  Eventually, she decided she wanted to teach full-time, and got a job at Piper High School in 2000.

“Teaching in a public school is a whole different world, but I found my way,” Thomas said.

Thomas thrived as the acting teacher at Piper and really enjoyed being there. She even was awarded Teacher of the Year in 2006. However, in 2007, she decided it was time for a change. The former CCHS drama teacher, whom Thomas was friendly with, was planning to leave the school and encouraged Thomas to take her job here.

When she was first hired, Thomas taught a debate class, an English 3 class, and just one acting class. Her goal was to eventually teach all theater classes, one she would achieve in just two years time.

“I wanted to get as many kids as I could on that stage so that they would be able to experience theater,” Thomas said.

Nowadays, she teaches a wide variety of acting and stagecraft classes both at CCHS and at Broward College, runs a children’s theater program after school, sponsors and supervises CCHS’s drama club, and acts in various shows on her own time. Most teachers could not handle such an insane schedule, but Thomas takes it in stride. She attributes her balance of all these aspects of her career with her ability to plan and schedule.

“Theater is constant; I love it and can’t stop,” Thomas said. “I don’t like down time.”

However, despite all of her in class accomplishments, perhaps it is her work with the students on a personal level that really makes her shine as a teacher. She has always been a friend to every student that has stepped into her classroom.

“Mrs. Thomas is the teacher I can always count on,” drama student Emily Peter said. “I can always talk to her and that’s helped me get through much of the stress in school.”

Each year, all of CCHS’s teachers nominate those who they believe deserve the title of Teacher of the Year, and then a ballot is composed of the top nominees. After the votes on the ballot were counted this year, her peers recognized Thomas as Teacher of the Year for the 2013/14 school year.

“When you’re alone in your program, you aren’t sure how people feel about what you’re doing,” Thomas said. “It does feel really nice to be acknowledged, however.”

Thomas is unsure how long she wants to be a teacher for. She mostly takes it day by day, enjoying the opportunity while she has it. While she does believe that teaching is getting more difficult due to ever-increasing class sizes, she still loves enlightening all kinds of students to the world of theater.

“My goal is to keep theater alive, and CCHS kids are so passionate,” Thomas said. “I am very fortunate.”