A Lakes Middle School history teacher is making some history of her own.

Tanya Lilley is the recipient of the 2023 Outstanding History Teacher Award, bestowed by the Lt. George Farragut Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She was celebrated with a certificate and a check for $250 during a Friday morning assembly in the school gym.

"Mrs. Lilley’s classroom is never dull or boring,” said Susie Snedaker, a DAR member who nominated Lilley for the award. "She believes in hands-on learning, demonstrated by her yearly Civil War simulation that all eighth graders participate in.”

Lilley teaches world history, U.S. history and leads the school's news organization, the LMS Press. She is in her third year of teaching at Lakes.

It was her passion for American history and her ability to bring the past to life for her students through the annual Civil War demonstrations that really caught Snedaker's eye. Snedaker has close ties to the Civil War, made tangible via a special medal she had with her Friday morning.

“It was my great-grandfather’s, and it’s a survivor’s medal from the Battle of Shiloh,” Snedaker said. “I read that she had a reenactment for her students. So I called her and said, ‘I think this is something you’d like to show them.’"

Snedaker's great-grandfather was D.J. Pattee, who served in the Union Army as part of a large contingency from Iowa.

“He left his family businesses and his family, as did all of them, and they fought at the Battle of Shiloh,” Snedaker said.

Lilley said she had an idea she was up for some kind of recognition after emailing with a DAR member.

“But it doesn’t take the shock away," said Lilley, who shed a few happy tears after the announcement was made and students burst into applause for their teacher.

She said she also felt elated to be honored by DAR, the daughters of American heroes, in this way.

"I’m fangirling a little bit," she said with a big smile.

As well as the chapter accolades, Lilley has also won the Idaho state award for Outstanding Teacher of American History from the Idaho DAR. She will receive the award April 22 at the state DAR convention.

The qualifications for teachers to receive this award include having an incisive knowledge of American history, fostering a spirit of patriotism for the country and Constitution, relating history to modern life and events, maintaining high academic standards and demonstrating good rapport with the students.

“I’m somewhat overwhelmed," Lt. George Farragut Chapter historian Debby Rocks said. "Knowing Tanya has been such a treat and reinforces in me that our kids are in good hands with teachers like Tanya.”