Matanzas High School Teacher of the Year: Khady Harmon

Palm Coast Observer
Schools

Sometimes, Matanzas High School Teacher of the Year Khady Harmon's chemistry students ask her why she's torturing them.

"Khady has a great rapport with her students, which is evident when you walk into her classroom. She keeps learning lighthearted and fun while maintaining rigor.:"

— NICOLE CASTANHEIRA, assistant principal, Matanzas High School

"As a chemistry teacher, I am aware that my class is often the first exposure to true critical thinking skills and mathematical applications," she wrote in her Teach er of the Year application statement. "Although rather comical, the 'torture' reference acknowledges the rigor associated with the subject of chemistry. Just as a culinary chef strives to present his best curated meal, I aspire to deliver lessons that are intellectually stimulating, pragmatic that will foster lifetime applications."

In 2019, 61.1% of Harmon's AP chemistry students scored a three or above on the notoriously difficult AP chemistry exam (scores range from one to five, and three or above is passing) — much higher than the state average of 48.1% or the global average of 54.4%.

Harmon teaches French as well as chemistry.

She immigrated to the U.S. from Senegal after high school and volunteered to teach English to Mexican laborers; then attended college at the University of Texas and became the first woman in her family to graduate with a college degree, earning a bachelor's in chemistry with a minor in math.

She expected to finish her masters at Florida State University this year — in instructional systems and learning technologies, a program that's helped her learn skills she used this past year to digitize course materials for her students as classes went online because of COVID-19.

After teaching chemistry and physics for a year in Texas, she moved to Florida eight years ago, and began teaching at Matanzas.

"Teaching in Flagler County has been a source of such joy in my life!" she wrote. "I particularly value building relationships with students as we investigate new phenomena, design laboratory experiments, debate about current events, or dance to the beat of francophone songs."

Alongside the tricky conceptual problems that scare so many beginning chemistry students, Harmon focuses on crossover skills, teaching her chemistry students note-taking, organization, independent study skills and expository writing skills.

In her French language classes, Harmon helps students recognize the bevy of loan words hat have come into English from French — so that they can integrate words like "cuisine" and "expatriate" into their everyday vocabulary, a skill that will help them on standardized exams like the SAT or ACT.

Fellow Matanzas teacher Andrew Bennett wrote in a letter of reference for Harmon's Teacher of the Year application that, after 61% of Harmon's AP students passed the AP chemistry exam in the 2018-2019 school year — numbers that would make most AP chemistry teachers proud — the first thing Harmon had said to him in conversation was, "How can I improve on those scores?" Harmon, he added, spends hours after school tutoring students.

Sometimes, her former students come back to tell her how glad they are that they'd taken her class in high school.

"They sometimes remind me of the most trivial lessons as their most meaningful moments," Harmon wrote in her Teacher of the Year application statement. "... I take great pride in my student success as a harvest of modeling hard work, patience, diligence and the importance of cultivating solid work ethics."