Rees Faculty Select Mr. Jeff Ballard As Crystal Apple Recipient

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Mr. Jeff Ballard, a long time member of the Rees faculty, received the Crystal Apple award on Monday, January 23rd.  The Crystal Apple award is sponsored by Horace Mann and is given once each year to a teacher selected by his or her fellow teachers.  This year, the teachers at Rees Elementary chose to honor Jeff Ballard, a multi-age teacher.  Mr. Ballard has done so much over the years for the students and other faculty at Rees.  Fellow teachers spoke many kind words as he received the award, among them team teachers Brenda Beyal and Chris Roberts.  Mr. B, as many students affectionately call him, has been a part of the Rees faculty for over 20 years and has worked tirelessly to help students learn.  He goes above and beyond in his amazing drumming program, the Rees African Drummers, or RAD.  Mr. Ballard set aside time for every student in every class grades 3-6 to come to a drumming tutorial.  He then hosted auditions which were open to all of these students.  The RAD group meets twice a week during Mr. Ballard's planning time.  When could be doing many other things, he chooses to teach students extracurricular skills that they would never get otherwise.  The students and teachers at Rees Elementary are lucky to have such a hard working, dedicated, and kind teacher as Mr. Ballard.

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by Ethan Deceuster