Congratulations are due to 2016 Winter Springs High School Teacher of the Year, Timothy Gallagher. Gallagher was announced Teacher of the Year on Wednesday, November 9, 2016 during the faculty and staff meeting after school.

Each year, teachers within the school nominate other teachers who they feel deserve to be recognized as Teacher of the Year. Gallagher had been nominated several times before, and up until this year, had fallen short of votes to gain him the title. As WSHS Principal, Dr. Reynolds, announced this year’s winner, Gallagher found this his wife, son, and two daughters were all present to share in his honor.

Gallagher has been a teacher for 18 years, all of which he has spent teaching at WSHS. In fact, he was present for the first class of seniors who graduated from WSHS.

On campus, Gallagher plays several roles. In addition to teaching grades nine through twelve, varying in Pre-Calculus, Advanced Placement Computer Science, and Pre-International Baccalaureate Pre-Calculus, Gallagher is also the staff sponsor of the Computer Programing Team, which competes in nationwide competitions, writes the drills for the WSHS Band of Gold, and helps out in the Graduation Opportunity Academic Learning (GOAL) room, which offers students the ability to improve their grades and make-up for loss credit, where he both tutors and mentors students.

Gallagher’s favorite part of his job is being able to work with a different variety of students and experience something new and different every single day.

“Every day, you get to accomplish something. Whereas opposed to another job you might have a project you’re working on for a year,” said Gallagher. “Here, every single day, I can say ‘hey, this major thing happened today; these students got this today; hey, a whole bunch of students finally got past or were able to accomplish this.’ And that’s something you can’t do at most jobs.”

When he is off campus and not teaching, Gallagher can be found designing marching band shows for other high schools and colleges, judging marching bands festivals, running, biking, or his favorite of all, spending time with his loving family.

“Being a teacher affords me a schedule that can be kind of flexible in the afternoons and on the weekends,” said Gallagher. This gives him the opportunity to diverge into these various activities and spend quality time with his family.

Gallagher’s success does not stop there, as there are many things in the near future he is excited about in his career. This December, Gallagher is looking forward to seeing the Band of Gold off to perform in London for the New Year’s Day parade. Next school year, his former AP Computer Science students will be eligible to dual enroll at Seminole State College in Computer Science. In two years, Gallagher will begin teaching one of the first official International Baccalaureate math courses for eleventh grade here at WSHS.

When senior and AP Computer Science student Ali Dehbi stated, “I like that [Mr. Gallagher] tries to have fun every day in his class and that he teaches his class very well.” Congratulations Mr. Gallagher, WSHS is lucky to have you!