Provo Way Award Recipient: Mashell Stott, Westridge Elementary Teacher

“Mashell Stott is great at creating an equitable classroom where everyone feels included,” stated Olivia Emi Kelena Kim. “She makes sure that all students feel welcome.”

Kim is a current Shoreline student, but she was once a 6th-grade student in Westridge Elementary, where Mashell Stott taught Olivia and students like her. Despite her young age, Olivia nominated Mashell for a Provo Way Award, our Board of Education’s way to celebrate our students, teachers, and staff whose deeds uphold and uplift our community.

We’re so grateful for Mashell Stott and Olivia Kim’s nomination; Olivia’s words about Stott are pretty sweet. 

I’m sure many educators can feel that the hours of extracurricular work poured into a lesson plan go unnoticed, and they often do– but not in this case. Her lessons enriched Olivia’s learning experience, leaving an impression on her:

“Stott puts a lot of effort into making sure we have the best learning experience we can. I remember that she bought all these organisms for our STEM unit for us to take look after and take care of. We were the only class to do this, which was so much fun.”

The lesson our student refers to is one we covered last year; using the earnings from the district mini-grant, Mashell created a unit where students got hands-on with their learning, setting up habitats for milkweed bugs and observing their mating, egg-laying, and hatching processes. 

Stott used reference gardens—small-scale experiments that allowed students to observe plant growth and compare it with personal terrariums—and notebooks, which students used for scheduled observations. Stott’s project, incorporated into the end-of-year curriculum, extended to ecosystems housed within classroom terrariums and aquariums, where students studied interactions between consumers, composers, and decomposers.

Mashell Stott’s classroom is a space where students do more than read about complex scientific concepts; they get their hands dirty with them. And many students felt that, as Kim’s nomination demonstrates:

“She was also the most patient and kind teacher. Mrs. Stott was a chill teacher I felt comfortable with. I really hope that Mrs. Stott wins this award because she was a great teacher. I think she really deserves it.”

We wholeheartedly agree: Mashell Stott deserves the Provo Way Award. Thank you, Mashell, for all you do for Provo. 

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