Humber College's Greatest Teacher of the Year - CDS's Tom Lewis
By Jon Yaneff

Tom Lewis has been a teacher at CDS for 15 years.

To be great, it helps to learn from the greatest.

The Country Day School (CDS) alumnus Chris Rogers nominated his former teacher, Tom Lewis, for one of Humber College's Greatest High School Teacher of the Year awards for 2008.

As a result, Lewis is the Greatest High School teacher of the Year. This is the third year these awards have been presented.

The Greatest High School Teacher of the Year contest invited first year students at Humber to submit an essay nominating a high school teacher who had a positive impact on their lives.

In Rogers' essay, he described a heartfelt account of his time as a student in Lewis' Grade 12 history and philosophy classes.

"All teachers strive to help their students learn and understand in the classroom, but few strive to learn and understand their students," he wrote. "Mr. Tom Lewis is one such teacher."

"Mr. Lewis let me know that my work at school was excellent and that I should be proud of who I was and where I was going," he added.

"This recognition means a lot because obviously you want to try to bring out the best in the students you teach," explained Lewis, who has been a teacher at CDS for 15 years. "You want to do whatever you can to make them better people and when you've found out you've had an impact on a student's life, it's very rewarding."

Rogers graduated from CDS in 2003 and after obtaining a degree from the University of Toronto, is currently a first year student in Humber's media program.

"Chris is a great person that wants to make a difference in the world," said Lewis, a social sciences teacher. "When I read his essay it certainly suggested he has taken what he's learned from my classes toward his future career. That makes me feel good that I had a part in his future."

Lewis said his philosophy on teaching has never been about the content, but instead teaching his students life lessons in the classroom.

"I want to teach them things hopefully they will use for the rest of their lives to help make them be better people outside of the classroom," he stated. "I'd like them to think more 'we' oriented then 'me' oriented, so they don't think just of themselves, but of the world around them."

Lewis has been in teaching in schools, helping his students grow as successful individuals, for more than 23 years. Before that he worked in outdoor education, as he helped re-direct the lives of young offenders through out-reach programs such as Project Dare and Outward Bound.