Every year, at the Stockbridge Schools’ Annual Welcome Back Staff Breakfast, The Helen B. Mitteer Employee of the Year is awarded. This award is a district-wide award and is given to the employee who has shown unselfish commitment to the students. This year, on August 13, 2024, that teacher was named Lissa Avis, or better known to students as Mrs. Avis.
Before working at Stockbridge for 24 years, Avis worked at East Lansing High School, teaching math and chemistry as well as coaching volleyball there. However, Avis decided to move back to her hometown to give back to her community in many ways, including creating a nurturing environment for her students and continuing the values she followed as a student herself.
“I moved back to teach in Stockbridge to have the opportunity to raise my own family in this community, be close to my family, to teach alongside my former teachers, and give back to the community I grew up in,” Avis said.
Since beginning her teaching career at Stockbridge Schools, Avis has helped many students strive for excellence and a better education. Avis has taught an abundance of math classes, starting from beginning Algebra 1 classes to highly advanced AP Calculus classes, but Avis is not only a highly sought after educator in Stockbridge but has also been sought after within the Ingham Intermediate School District and even at the collegiate level. Avis participated in a multitude of mathematics education conferences, as well as taking part in TheMat research at the University of Michigan and participating in the Ingham Mathematics Advisory Team for several years in the hope of increasing the educational rigor at SCS to give better education to students.
This desire to bring students a better education is found in Avis’s approach to an almost unconventional education structure. Avis, for example, believes that students should not be given a simple lecture and a worksheet but instead maximize communication and engagement with other students and adequate repetition with clear and realistic learning objectives.
“I know that frequent opportunities for students to engage with material, adequate repetition with clear learning targets, and small group work push students toward success. Students perform better when they have frequent opportunities to explain math to each other, rather than merely hearing a lecture or completing a practice worksheet.” Avis said.
Despite being a sought after teacher at many educational institutions and levels, Avis remains unboastful, and rather humble. Avis was speechless to receive the Employee of the Year Award and thanked her colleagues for nominating it, as well as giving them advice they will always remember.
“I was super surprised to receive the Employee of the Year Award at the Annual District Breakfast! I am very humbled that my colleagues took time to write nominations and speeches to honor me. I was speechless. The only thing I could think to say at the time was “thank you” to my colleagues who gave speeches and, in addressing the district teachers, I advised them to learn from each other– to take opportunities to observe in other teachers’ classrooms and borrow/steal all of the things to make their own classrooms better.” Avis said. Avis reflected on this moment with a mix of emotions of disbelief and gratitude. In that moment, Avis realized it was not only a personal achievement but a testament to the power of collaboration and community among all staff.
