His Story
Les Nicholas, known to his students as “Mr. Nick,” has taught in the Wyoming Valley West School District since 1981. A fourth-generation educator, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English, German and education from Wilkes College (1981) and has done 60 credits of graduate work beyond a master’s degree. He began at Wyoming Valley West Middle School before moving to the high school, where he teaches English and journalism.
He was named Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year in 2004 and a Disney Teacher Awards honoree in 2005, and was also the 2005 University of Pennsylvania Educator of the Year and the 2002 Pennsylvania Journalism Teacher of the Year. He received the Journalism Education Association’s Medal of Merit (2006), the First Freedom Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association and Student Television Network (2007) and a USA TODAY All-USA Teacher honorable mention (2006). He is a Certified Journalism Educator (1996, renewed in 2001 and 2006).
His students have won state and national honors, including a Pennsylvania Student Journalist of the Year (1998) and Best and Brightest Journalism Scholarships (2000, 2006 and 2007), and many have gone on to work at publications such as The Boston Globe, The New York Times and Glamour.
Beyond the Classroom
Nicholas serves on the executive board of the Pennsylvania School Press Association, where he has supported students’ rights of free expression. His students earned the Journalism Education Association’s Medal of Merit after they defended their literary-arts magazine against a censorship challenge. He was a Teacher Ambassador for the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, completed an Educator in the Newsroom fellowship at the local NBC station, and is a SMART Technology Exemplary Educator who has presented in Los Angeles, Calgary and across Pennsylvania.
He served on the Kingston borough council for ten years and the Hoyt Library board for three, founded the Hoyt Library 5K Run/Walk, started sports camps and a broadcast camp for elementary and middle school students, and directed a teen travel camp. He also mentors new student publications advisers across the state and has written articles for the Journalism Education Association and the Pennsylvania School Press Association.
Philosophy Into Practice
Nicholas has four classrooms, two of which he built: a “traditional” classroom with a SMART Board, a publications lab, and radio and television studios where students broadcast daily. His students run Spartan Radio and Spartan TV, produce an award-winning interactive DVD yearbook, a newspaper and a literary-arts magazine with a companion CD of original student music, and help organize Arti Gras, an arts celebration he founded.
He trusts students with digital cameras and laptops they take home, and a classroom refrigerator stocked and paid for by students on the honor system. His students learn “by doing” and peer-tutor each other: when one student has learned a skill, such as writing an anecdotal lead, others are referred to that classmate. Through grants, he has partnered his classes with the local NBC television station, the Times Leader newspaper and Wilkes University, where students tour newsrooms and shadow professionals.
Drawing on his coaching background, he says a good teacher, like a good coach, must motivate students to “expect to win,” teach every child and be willing to change the game plan, and that he is “a guide on the side, not the sage on the stage.”
“Make it first class or third class, but never second.”— Leslie Nicholas, a favorite saying quoted by a former student
“Teaching should be less about telling students what they see and more about reminding them to open their eyes.”— Leslie Nicholas
In His Own Words
“I need to know that what I do matters.”— Leslie Nicholas
“Education is a noble profession and I am proud to have dedicated my life to it.”— Leslie Nicholas
“Teachers should trust children and let them make their own choices.”— Leslie Nicholas
“Mine is not a win-at-all-costs approach. The joy is not in the victories; it is in the striving.”— Leslie Nicholas
“I just don’t see how journalism can be a theoretical subject. It must be made practical.”— Leslie Nicholas
What Others Said
“He shares his knowledge, talent, and enthusiasm for education with everyone.”— Thomas Griffith, nominator and colleague
“Few teachers earn the respect of both students and faculty as Mr. Nicholas has.”— Marie Ambrose, Chair, English Department, Wyoming Valley West
“He sees every moment as a teachable one.”— Thomas W. Jones, retired English Department Chair
“Mr. Nicholas places enormous importance on the voice of high school students.”— Mary F. Mattern, parent of former students
“We would not have done it without Mr. Nick.”— Lindsey O’Brien, former student
“His passion for teaching journalism and advising student publications is best described as contagious.”— Kate Bolesta, former student