Melissa Webster to Receive Street Law’s 2024 Classroom Champion Award

This year, Street Law will proudly present its 2024 Classroom Champion Award to Melissa Webster, a social studies teacher at Cascade High School in Everett, Washington. She will accept the award at Street Law’s 2024 Awards Gala on April 25^th in Washington, DC. 

The Classroom Champion Award is given to one exceptional educator each year for their exemplary use of Street Law materials and pedagogy in the classroom. Educators are nominated in the fall, and the winner is selected by a committee of Street Law staff, board members, and former award winners. 

“Teachers play an instrumental role in all our lives,” says Street Law, Inc. CEO Ashok Regmi. “Street Law is proud to recognize Melissa Webster for her years of commitment to developing the next generation of informed and engaged civic actors.” 

Melissa infuses an exceptional array of Street Law curricula and pedagogy into all the classes she teaches, including Civics, Introduction to Law, and AP U.S. Government & Politics.  

If you were to observe Melissa’s classroom, you would notice that she sets the tone right at the beginning of class—she introduces each lesson’s theme by posing a question to her students based on a legal or civic scenario from the Street Law: A Course in Practical Law textbook.  

As each day’s lesson continues, it becomes ever-apparent that Melissa’s students are not passive learners—they use Street Law materials to think actively and critically about the implications of important legal and civic concepts. Using Street Law’s mock trial and moot court materials and the expertise she gained from attending Street Law’s Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers, Melissa has been known to set up her classroom like a courtroom, invite a local member of the judiciary to her class, and assign the students to take different sides of landmark First Amendment cases. Her students are then empowered to take the initiative to research case materials, lead debates, and present well-grounded perspectives.  

Of course, even for adults, arguing a landmark Supreme Court case could prove contentious and quickly devolve into ad hominem attacks. Not for Melissa’s students. Melissa has integrated Street Law’s deliberations pedagogy into the courses she teaches. This is a research-backed technique used by educators like Melissa to help students to take all sides of an argument, build trust and respect for differing opinions, and conduct weighty discourse in a respectful way.  

Melissa’s classroom is also a key site in Street Law’s Legal Diversity Pipeline Program in partnership with attorneys from Microsoft’s legal department, enabling her students—over half of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds—to learn about practical legal topics and uncover pathways to pursuing careers in the legal profession.  

To top off Melissa’s Street Law pedigree, she also has integrated the Legal Life Skills curriculum into her course offerings. These lessons “have helped me make the class quite popular as news spread that we study rights and responsibilities during an arrest, traffic stops, and signing a lease,” she says.  

Melissa’s colleague Michael Takayoshi, who nominated her for the award, sums it up well: “Ms. Webster is fully committed to the importance of civics and law education and constantly seeks ways to provide her students with experiences that are meaningful, educative, and grow their understanding.”