Students usually doze off during the last few minutes of class before they’re dismissed for the day.
Or they may engage in side conversations with other classmates, paying semi-attention to the instructions a teacher is giving.
But on Wednesday afternoon right before the dismissal bell rang, Saugus High School teacher Amber Feldman had her AP psychology class reviewing the developmental psych unit information through a game called “CatchPhrase.”
The students, fully engaged, were given a word and then they had to give clues for others to guess. Similar to the game charades, the students love it, Feldman said. It allows them to retain information without the traditional textbook note taking and encourages them to create connections among their own peers.
“Sometimes the simplest activities yield the best learning,” Feldman said. “I can talk, but after a while, they need each other.”
Feldman began teaching at Saugus High in 2019 and has a 12-year educational career with the William S. Hart Union High School District. She also teaches United States history.
Earlier this week, she was named the district’s 2026-27 Teacher of the Year, an award that recognizes educators who have made a significant impact on the lives of their students and the community.
Feldman will be honored at the annual Los Angeles County Teacher of the Year Awards in the fall and represent the district at the county level at the Teacher of the Year competition, according to a Hart district news release.
But the recognition came as a surprise for Feldman, she said as she sat at one of the students’ desks in her classroom on Wednesday.
“I was shocked, not because I don’t see value in what I do. I felt honored and really proud that I have been able to create a reputation that others see as valuable,” Feldman said. “When I came to Saugus I really wanted to come here because I just knew the reputation of the school, the people here and knew were going to make me better.”
Even with over a decade of teaching experience, Feldman has a lot more to give. She sees herself teaching other subjects at Saugus in the future and maybe teaching at the college level, too. But for now, as she leads the youth with historical knowledge and helps them understand complex ideas, Feldman wants her students to become confident individuals in and outside the classroom.
Self-efficacy is one thing she hopes students take away from her classroom once they reach the end of the school year and head off to the next level in their school careers.
“The belief in the confidence of their own abilities,” Feldman said. She wants them to know that even though it might be hard they shouldn’t be afraid of failure, because “that is the part of growth.”
Feldman didn’t quite know she wanted to be an educator when growing up, even when her entire family had a career in education. They all worked or currently work within the Hart district as well, she said.
Like every teenager growing up, Feldman wanted to be rebellious, she said with a light chuckle. She found herself exploring other career avenues different from what her family was used to. She graduated from the University of Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and then participated in the Macy’s executive development program.
“I did not like it at all. I found that it was 0% my passion, and the only thing I liked about the job was training the employees,” she said.
Training the employees in different tasks was how she realized teaching was her calling.
She then became a substitute teacher and fell in love with spending time with students in the classroom, and not long after, she pursued her master’s degree in education at the University of La Verne.
Feldman “always has a smile on her face and continually looks for ways to positively impact our Saugus community,” said the school’s Principal Genevieve Peterson Henry, in a district news release announcing Feldman’s Teacher of the Year recognition.
But like anyone else, Feldman is human and acknowledged that not every day is perfect. To show up for her students every day, her mindset is to “leave it at the door. I think only educators can really understand this in a way that, when those kids are in front of you, they are expecting you to be there for them,” she said.
“That doesn’t mean that hard things don’t happen. I do rely on my colleagues to help me through tough days,” she added. But the students and their personalities uplift Feldman’s attitude during harder ones.
“Teenagers can help change your mood in the best way possible, even when they’re being moody (or) they’ll say something funny … I tell my kids all the time, ‘You’re not going to see me upset because, A, I’m not. Or I’m just not going to bring that energy to what I do here,” Feldman said.
As a U.S. history teacher and given the recent political climate, Feldman acknowledged that her lessons are extra important today.
“My job is to help kids think. Not tell them what to think,” she said. “To get them to care, to have opinions and to be proud of those opinions, but also willing to understand that other people have opinions.”
“Part of my passion with history is that the story of the past helps us better understand the present. I want all students that come into my class to walk out with, in regards to history, a better understanding of the story so that they can walk through this world knowing, ‘That’s why that is.’ So they can think, ‘Well, what do I want for my future?” she said.
Feldman’s students all come from different backgrounds and belief systems, but when they engage in the classroom “there is magic that is made,” she said, which is all that she can hope for.
“What these kids need is that hope, that the world that they’re going to leave, this sheltered high school, and the world they’re going into is going to be a positive world. The only way we can do that is to give them that power. That they have the ability to make a positive change, to dream, and believe that there’s a better future if they don’t like what’s happening.”
As the dismissal bell rang, and students gathered their belongings, many of them would say, “Bye Mrs. Feldman!” as they walked out the door.
The Teacher of the Year knows that not every lecture will be remembered, but if students leave the class believing in themselves, learning from one another, and living every day with confidence, she knows that as a teacher, she has succeeded.
