Stephanie Billings, Sego Lily Elementary

“Mrs Billings is the 6th grade ALL Teacher at Sego Lily and she is fabulous! She has been teaching for 20+ years. She works tirelessly to ensure the best learning environment for her students. She provides exciting learning activities for her students that support the curriculum. During the Egypt unit they learn about mummification and actually mummify chickens! They give their chickens Egyptian names, backstories, and design their coffins. The kids dress up as Egyptians to perform a chicken funeral. The chickens are buried in a corner of the school playground. At the end of the year, they dig them up and see whose mummification process worked and whose did not.

Images of Greatness night is another amazing learning opportunity she provides. The students choose an important figure in history to represent on this night. They research the life of this person, create a presentation board to display, and they dress up as the person. The night culminates in their recitation of their BioRiddles about their character. An amazing night for the students and their families. During last year’s event, Mrs Billings brought homemade macarons as refreshments.

She takes them on amazing field trips supporting their classroom learning, including the Natural History Museum, Art Exhibits, Christmas Around the World at BYU, The Space Center, The Planetarium, and Ashton Gardens to name a few. She is in charge of the STEM fair at the school, encouraging scientific experimentation for kids in the 5th and 6th grade ALL classes. She is also director of the District Elementary STEM fair, a three night event that showcases all the best projects from around the district and includes shows for kids and their families.

In her classroom, she employs Class Dojo as a reward system. When the first student reaches 50 points (gaining points with good behavior, turning work in on time, participating, helping others, etc.) that student and any other students within five points are invited to a special lunch with her. She makes a completely homemade meal oftentimes including special drinks and desserts. She is also mindful of students with allergies or food restrictions to make them feel included. She finds amazing recipes that everyone can enjoy.

Not only is she fabulous with her students, but she is also a great communicator with parents. She is quick to respond to any email sent regarding any concern about our children, nothing is too little to ask for clarification about. She is very organized and keeps parents informed of all the events on the calendar. Her meticulous note taking comes in handy at parent teacher conferences where she can give parents specific examples of their child’s personalities on display in the classroom.

Anyone who knows Mrs Billings knows how much she cares about her students and the quality of her work. She was selected as the Teacher of the Year last year by the Sego Lily PTA. She has also been honored with the Calvin Taylor outstanding educator award by the Utah Association for Gifted Children. We at Sego Lily are proud to have her as our sixth grade ALL teacher.”

-Mindy Lindquist

“My son loves Mrs. Billings! She plans fun and creative activities to reinforce the lessons. She pushes the kids to be responsible for their work. She’s a great communicator to us.” ~current parent
“She is so organized! She communicates well. She expects a lot out of her students. She is also very caring and does all she can to help students grow.” ~current parent
“There are a lot of things I liked about that class. I liked the art things we did. My favorite units were learning about the Romans and the Shakespeare unit.” ~former student
“Mrs. Billings is always prepared and organized. She spends countless hours outside the classroom preparing opportunities for our students to excel often at her own expense. She’s simply the best!” ~current parent
“My favorite field trip was to the Space Center. I enjoyed watching CNN10 when we came in from recess.” ~former student
“She was no nonsense, but also allowed them to have fun. She created a safe environment so the kids all left her class as friends. She taught more than just the core. She had lots of field trips giving the kids extra experiences. She worked them hard, and expected them to succeed so they did. She was great at parent communication.” ~former parent