Walt Whitman High School Social Studies teacher, Nicole Honovich, has been honored with a Bright Light award from the Association of Suffolk Supervisors for Educational Technology (ASSET).  ASSET’s mission is to enhance teaching and learning in our schools through the use of computers and other educational technologies.  Teachers who excel at integrating technology and learning programs in their classrooms are honored each year as a Bright Light.

She is an enthusiastic proponent of incorporating technology in the classroom because it offers so many opportunities for differentiation and accessibility.   “It provides students with so many avenues to reach their academic and even personal goals,” says Honovich. “Technology offers all students a voice, regardless of language and abilities.”  But she also works to make sure her teaching colleagues are getting the most out of the educational tech tools that are available to them.

Ms. Honovich has been with the South Huntington School District since 2020.  Colleagues say she instantly embraced the technology the district was using, and had such a firm grasp of it that she was helping teachers in her first year as the district navigated through the Covid pandemic.  She helped with tutorials as educators started working remotely, and as she worked in an ICT (Integrated Co-Teaching) classroom, she used technology to differentiate instruction for her students as they were learning from home.  She continued to adapt through the hybrid environment and “new normal” classes.  And she has taught many courses about tech tools through South Huntington’s Teacher Center to help teachers stay current in assessment tools.

As a teacher of Global History and Geography II, AP Government and Politics, and Student Court at Walt Whitman, Ms. Honovich believes technology is essential to learning social studies today.  “Technology offers students the opportunity to "visit" the places they are learning about through tools such as Google Earth and Edpuzzle,” she says.  

Ms. Honovich says it’s also preparing her students for the “real world.”  “Technology is a very real part of that world,” she explains.  “Any future job or career held by our students will most certainly incorporate technology in some way, shape, or form.  Exposing them to various technological tools, developing their tech skills, and teaching them digital responsibility is essential to their professional and personal growth."

She says she was shocked, excited and touched to be chosen for the Bright Light award, and believes it’s definitely a reflection on Walt Whitman as a whole.  She is especially thankful to Cheryl Irizarry, who nominated her, and to her co-teacher, Jen Hebert, who Ms. Honovich says “is a huge tech fanatic and a model of professionalism I constantly aspire to.”  Congratulations on a well-deserved recognition!

Above: Nicole Honovich (left) and Cheryl Irizarry (right) who nominated her.

Teachers who excel at integrating technology and learning programs in their classrooms are honored each year as a Bright Light.

Congratulations Ms. Honovich on this well earned recognition!