LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

James Lamont was nominated by his colleague, Jim Gibbs.

"Coach Lamont is one of the most inspiring, encouraging educators who I have ever had the pleasure of meeting," said Gibbs. "I am so thankful that he was chosen to be my mentoring teacher.  He has not only assisted me in developing awesome lesson plans, but he has also helped me in handling students with discipline issues. He disciplines students in a loving, educational way that has changed the way I deal with students. Coach Lamont constantly shares with me that we have to win the hearts of our students. When we are able to accomplish that, students will perform at a high level and have confidence and trust in our teaching and methodological approach."

Coach Lamont's students are leading the way for other students by tackling very rigorous material. They are setting the standards for other students to learn from and master their skill set. Coach Lamont has only been at Wilmer Hutchins for two years, but through his teaching, students' state assessment scores have been raised exponentially as his expectations for his students have increased.  He lives out his mantra of "Flip the script" by having his students accept the challenges they have been handed them and turn lemons into lemonade.

As a coach, he has led his teams to championships. Wilmer Hutchins has a State Qualifier for wrestling for the first time under Coach Lamont's tutelage. Coach Lamont encourages his team to be leaders in the classroom and to respect each and every one of their teachers. He has been accepted into the Dallas ISD Bilingual/ESL Cohort as a leader in teaching ESL students how to succeed, not only in the classroom, but in all of their endeavors.

"Coach Lamont keeps reminding me that we are examples and role models in our classrooms, in the hallways, and at sporting events that we attend," said Gibbs. "Students are constantly watching us, and he reminds me of this during our times of discussion. I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting his class, and it was a great experience to see such an awesome teacher approach his students with nurture and understanding of cultural backgrounds. His ability to lead academic discussions that have fruitful results is outstanding, to say the least."

One of Coach Lamont's current students is a higher-ranked senior. In the fall of 2019, he asked her what she wanted to become in her future and where she wanted to study. She told him she wanted to attend a local community college and become a veterinarian tech. He told her she should go to a university and become a veterinarian. She started to cry, and she said she had never had a teacher show her so much care and concern.

"As Coach Lamont was telling me the story, his eyes started to well up with tears, as he shared with me that he saw her as something bigger and better than what she was seeing in herself," said Gibbs. "He always sees a bright future for all of his students, even when they do not view themselves as being that competent."

"As Coach Lamont says, 'We, as educators, must see our students for their future potential, not what we view at face value in our classrooms. If we do not instill that desire to succeed within them, they will have more intention to fail and to be content with that,'" said Gibbs. "Coach Lamont's diligence to the educational field and his desire for higher levels of student performance are the best that I have personally witnessed in my ten years of teaching."