When Nigel Washington started sixth grade at Langston Chapel Middle School, he was not living up to his potential in math. Math teacher Joni Chavers pushed him to do better, and he responded by not only improving in math but also writing a heartfelt essay about her a year later. During a Wednesday morning assembly packed with several hundred schoolmates in the LCMS gym, Bulloch County Schools and Sea Island Bank officials surprised Washington and Chavers with the countywide prizes in the American Education Week essay contest, "What My Teacher Means to Me," sponsored by the bank.