On the door outside Joe Hills’ classroom in Subschool 3 at Lake Braddock Secondary School is posted a cardboard sign that reads, "If you aim at nothing, you hit it every time."
The quote is attributed to Hills, who for 30 years has been encouraging his students at Lake Braddock to do just that.
"That’s the philosophy in the room," he said. "In this room, we aim at something."
Now in his 44th year of teaching, Hills received the ultimate honor in his profession in late October when he was named the 2005 Virginia State Teacher of the Year at a ceremony in Richmond.
"Especially for someone like me, at the end of my career, it’s an amazing honor to be as far as I am at this point in time. I can enjoy it in a little bit different way than other people," said Hills, 69.
Hills was nominated for the state award after winning the 2004 Fairfax County Teacher of the Year award, and earning the top spot in Virginia’s Region 4. As one of the eight winners statewide, Hills attended a day-long interview session, and at a black-tie reception that night, he was named Teacher of the Year.
"Just before they announced it, the eight of us [candidates] were allowed to be alone together in a room to talk, and I thought, ‘What am I doing here? These other seven people are incredible teachers.’" said Hills. "Later, we all laughed, because they said they were all thinking the exact same thing."
In winning the award, Hills receives a $14,300 technology package for his classroom from the SMARTer Kids Foundation, which includes a SMART Board interactive white board for his classroom.
"That kind of proves what I’ve thought all along," said Hills. "There are a lot of classrooms through this county and state with hard-working, committed and talented teachers. I’m very honored to be able to be their representative."
AND HILLS is not done yet. As one of the state winners, Hills is eligible to win the National Teacher of the Year award. Of the 57 nominees, five will be announced in January. Regardless of the outcome, Hills will attend a Rose Garden reception at the White House in April, where he will receive congratulations from President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush. At that reception, the National Teacher of the Year winner will be announced.
"There’s 90,000 teachers in this state, 6.1 million in the country, and we’re down to 50, and this little guy," said Hills of himself. "It’s an awesome thought, when you put it in that kind of context."
In addition to his pithy quotes, one of which is "Do something constructive with your life, like make a shoe," Hills has become known for his boundless energy and creative approach to lecturing, which according to his students makes the information stick.
"He’s always making things interactive, coming up with ideas other teachers haven’t before. He kind of makes history come alive, and it’s pretty neat," said Jessie Holder, a freshman member of one of Hills’ World Studies classes. She cited a recent lesson in which students tossed around thousand-year-old human skulls in order to determine their respective ages.
"He would never tell us the answer. He just wanted us to keep guessing," she said.
That’s not by accident, according to Hills, who uses the Socratic method, named for the Greek philosopher Socrates, whose landmark approach to teaching involved constant questioning by teachers of their students in order to draw out the answers.
It’s an approach Hills learned at the start of his teaching career in the late 1950s. After a stint in the U.S. Army, Hills was stationed at the Pentagon when he pondered a career change. He started at Fairfax High School in the City of Fairfax in 1960, then moved to Marshall and Langley high schools, before building a house in Burke and settling down at Lake Braddock in 1974, the second year it was open.
The Socratic method, for Hills, is the best way he has found to help students arrive at conclusions on their own, rather than force-feed them information.
"I want them to try to figure it out as much as they can on their own," said Hills. "When a kid discovers on his or her own something they’ve learned, I wish I had a camera."
Dave Thomas, currently an assistant principal at Lake Braddock, knows Hills' style well. He took World Studies I from Hills in the early 1980s and became a colleague of Hills in the early 1990s, when he joined the history faculty at Lake Braddock.
"I guess he's like the Rock of Gibraltar," said Thomas. "You come back, he's there, he's always going to be there."
By his count, Hills has taught over 10,000 students in his tenure. Some of his students are in government, medicine and the arts. He said his goal is not to "make them into little historians," but to appreciate the relevance of history to their lives.
"I want them to develop an appreciation for what history has to offer, so that somewhere down the line, they might think about history as it’s unfolding in front of them," said Hills.