Pooravi Srivastava

Mr. Ly in his world language classroom preparing for his French classes.

One of South Windsor High School’s world language Teachers, Moussa Ly, was awarded the World Language Teacher of the Year Award by the Connecticut Council of Language Teachers (COLT) for his hard work and dedication to teaching his students. 

Ly has been teaching French for over 17 years and began teaching in South Windsor in 2021. He has been a constant inspiration to students at South Windsor High School. Along with being a full time world language teacher, he also runs 5 clubs: The French Club, Islamic Club, Cricket Club, STEAM, and Indian Classical Dance Club at SWHS. 

He believes there are certain qualities that are essential to being a great world language teacher. 

“You have to make [class] fun. I think that teaching anything, especially for a language teacher, you have to make sure your students are engaged. [Students] have to take a risk to be able to [participate in a classroom if it’s not your first language. When I have my freshmen coming in from TE, I introduce myself and share my history with them.” Mr. Ly explained. “English wasn’t my first language and so I took a risk. I let my students know to take risks, participate in class.”

Ly’s students and colleagues admire him for his work and his commitment to his students. He continues to serve as a model of excellent teaching.

“Mr. Ly makes sure that his lessons are understandable and if not he teaches them again thoroughly,” sophomore student Navya Arora said.

Ly ensures that his students flourish within his classroom while learning important lessons. 

“He is a great teacher because he doesn’t just teach, he prepares us for real world situations,” freshman Mason Smith said. “He is my favorite teacher because he always has a good attitude and he is always willing to help with any problems I have related to school or in my personal life.”

Along with his students, his co-workers are very appreciative of them and believe that he is worthy of the award.

“Mr. Ly is the face of South Windsor High School. He is such a rock-star teacher and is very involved and cares a lot about his students, he is a phenomenal teacher overall. As a colleague, he is very caring, friendly and is willing to help his colleagues and collaborate with them,” said  colleague Ms. Ullinger, who admires his effort in teaching and is grateful to work beside him.

These qualities make Ly an exceptional teacher and led to his nomination for the CT COLT World Language Teacher of The Year Award. 

“Once you get nominated by one of your colleagues or someone else, you have to send an email asking to accept your nomination and if they say yes, you have to write a personal statement and you have to have letters from your director, from parents of students and send all those. Then you are going to go to your interview. After that you go to the award ceremony and give your speech, something like that,” explained Ly.

After a long process of nomination, Ly won his well deserved award. When he received this award, he described his feelings of gratitude and pride.

“I was thrilled to have that. I am very grateful to have this award. I think this award is not only for me but all the World Language teachers here, always going above and beyond in academics to make this happen and make their students successful.” 

Ly has proven to be a wonderful teacher, person, and colleague to many. His students appreciate his teaching and advice and his co-workers are inspired by his commitment. 

Ly was also the recipient of CT COLT Pegasus P.R.I.D.E Award in 2022, an award presented to teachers for commitment to professionalism, professional service and growth, respect for cultural differences, dedication to students, and enthusiasm for languages and teaching.