Ms. Ursani Honored by Belleville High School Board of Education

At the February school board meeting, BW Principal Rich Mertens honored English teacher Ms. Soune Ursani.  In recognizing Ms. Ursani, he made the following comments:

Soune Ursani is a Belleville West graduate who returned home to join the staff.  She is currently in her eleventh year in the English Department.

Soune spends most of her day teaching freshmen and sophomores, but she is always ready for the challenge of a new course.  This year, for example, she added Advanced Writing Skills—a class for college-bound seniors—to her schedule.  But even in the classes that Soune teaches every year, she is constantly innovating, rethinking, and redesigning.  Each year, her students discover new books, new projects, and new activities in her classes; in this way, she keeps classes relevant, engaging, and exciting for her students and herself.  And in her classroom, students have access to one of the best classroom libraries in the school.  Even after they finish her class, students are known to stop in Soune’s room for book recommendations and copies of the best new books.

Last year, Soune started a chapter of Project LIT at Belleville West.  Part of a national organization, the Project LIT Book Club is a student-led group with a focus on relevant, diverse, high-interest books that promote a love of reading.  The BW chapter held its first meeting last spring.  This fall, more than 100 students read the book Monday’s Not Coming and participated in lunch-hour discussions.  Last summer, Soune took a small group of student leaders to the national Project LIT summit in Nashville, Tennessee; she is currently working with a group of students who will attend this year’s workshop.

Soune is a leader in the district’s current equity work.  She served as a facilitator for the equity workshops during the fall semester, and she currently leads a teacher book club on the West campus that focuses on equity issues.

In addition, Soune is frequent volunteer in English department activities.  The food booth run by her freshman honors students is a staple of the spring Shakespeare festival.  This fall, she worked with a small group of teachers to organize and run the first BW Yard Sale, a fundraiser for our spring visit with author Tiffany Jackson.  She is also one of three advisors for the Belleville West chapter of the National English Honor Society.

Soune is dedicated to ensuring the best education for every student at Belleville West, and for that we are grateful to have her as a member of the staff.