Chris Thompson Receives Crystal Apple Award

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Chris is loved and respected by many, including her students.  As we all know, there are many extra 
assignments that go along with our teaching assignment.  Chris has taken on her fair share of these and 
excelled at all of them.  She has coached basketball and track, has been on the community council, taken 
care of the faculty fund, and has mentored student teachers.  She is currently the advisor for student 
council and an association building representative.  Chris is a published author and has also become very 
involved in the Central Utah Writing Project where she works with educators around the country to 
improve their own writing and increase their skills in teaching writing.  She has presented at Language 
Arts conferences and at CUWP conferences around the country.  She is truly an asset to our faculty here 
at SFJH. 
Chris has a true desire to help others.  Personally, I have gone to her many times for advice regarding 
school and personal matters.  Her focus is always the same; what is best for my students, and/or what is 
best for me?  With that in mind, she helps me find the best, least stressful way to get there?  She is not 
afraid to tell me I am doing things the hard way and offer suggestions that bring me back to reality and 
sanity. I have truly appreciated this from her.
It is obvious her students care about her.  She has mentioned several times how “good” her students are 
to her this year.  She attributes this to their kind hearts regarding the loss of Marv at the beginning of 
the year.  While that may be part of it, I know students don’t just automatically connect to their teacher.  
They need to know they are cared for and respected.  Because Chris shows this to her students on a 
daily basis, they connect to her and care about her.  As an example of this, one young man in her class 
brought her a flower between every class period on Valentine’s Day.  He did this because he knew she 
would be struggling that day, and he wanted to help her feel better.  This student knows how much 
Chris cares about him, and he wanted her to feel cared for on that day.
Chris is also very knowledgeable.  She continues to learn through conferences and taking endorsement 
classes.  She has her ESL endorsement which she is putting to good use.  Chris enjoys teaching ESL and 
finding new and productive ways to help her students excel in learning in their second language. 
We are lucky to have such a great teacher among us.  She is dedicated to her colleagues and her 
students.  Chris is very deserving of this award!
In honor of this award, Joe has written a poem for her.
Saying we love your
guts may be imprudent, for
zombies roam these halls.
Chris has a deep personal connection to Zombie Haikus.