Excellent Educators is a WAVY-TV 10 initiative to celebrate local teachers who have gone above and beyond for their students and communities during the coronavirus pandemic. These Excellent Educators were nominated by their school divisions. Congratulations to these educators for all of their hard work and accomplishments!
Name: Calvin Armstrong
Division: Norfolk Public Schools
Position: Health and physical education teacher at William H. Ruffner Academy
What the school division said about this Excellent Educator: We thought two weeks were going to go by quickly, but it turned out to be more than a year since schools shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Calvin Armstrong at William H. Ruffner Academy turned to Instagram the first week of closure and gave information to keep kids up-to-date. He tried to entertain them as well. It was a success and he planned an event for them as well with the HPE team, along with donations from his family businesses. He also partnered with the Historic First Baptist Church’s youth pastor Travis Barnes.
He created YouTube videos with workouts to promote fitness for his kids in a virtual world. He consistently uses Instagram and tries to implement other technology to incorporate student engagement. Additionally, Armstrong embraces the school norm of “literacy across the content area.” As a physical education teacher, he has weekly reading sessions with students where he reads books related to famous African-American people. He records his readings and encourages students to learn more about historic figures through the weekly readings.
