The Crystal Apple Award is given for teaching excellence and is sponsored by Bryant & Stratton College. Nominations are solicited four times a year by The Plain Dealer and the Sun News. Four winners are named in each of the following categories: K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. 

Mrs. Davis has been teaching first grade at Goldwood for thirty years. "It's my passion in life," she explains. "What I love most is watching the kids come in at the start of the year with some reading and leave in June reading, writing stories, being good math students, and feeling confident about them selves." Mrs. Davis credits the community of Rocky River and the parents with the students' success. "I feel really fortunate to be in Rocky River," she says. "We have a supportive community and I have supportive parents every year, who do homework with them, take them to museums and have them watch appropriate TV. I like to come to work every day. It's fun to be with kids who are six and seven. They have a lot of energy, they're funny, they really love coming to school. They come in hopping, skipping, happy, smiling. Why wouldn't you like this job?" Her favorite part of the day, she says, is reading to the kids. She does so daily, in order to model good reading behavior. 

An important part of the Crystal Apple Award process is the nomination. Hundreds of teachers are nominated each year, and the nomination letters are thoughtful, detailed explanations of why a particular teacher is so deserving. 

Mrs. Davis was nominated by Christine Banks, Judy Hudson, Bridget Troy, and Abbey Rego.
Banks' daughter is a current student of Mrs. Davis,' and her older daughter was in Mrs. Davis' classroom as well. Banks explains, "I was reading through the paper and saw the Crystal Apple Award nomination article. Instantly, I wondered if Anne had ever received this award, being that she has taught for so long and is loved by so many Rocky River families!" Banks enlisted the other parents, each of whom was eager to write a letter on Mrs. Davis' behalf. ("It was that easy because we all genuinely adore Anne," she says.) Both of Mrs. Hudson's sons were students of Mrs. Davis (Hudson is also a third grade teacher at Kensington) and all three of Bridget Troy's kids were in Davis' class. Abbey Rego, who has a daughter in Davis' class this year, was herself a student of Davis' as a child. 

Mrs. Davis says, "I wasn't even aware the parents in the room had nominated me. It brought me to tears. [Goldwood Principal] Carol Rosiak announced it at a staff meeting. She handed me the letters these moms wrote and they were amazing. It really touched me that each one was a little different. One of the parents [Abbey Rego] I had in my class when she was a first-grader. She had a specific memory about being in my room. It's very touching."

Banks sites the final sentences of nomination essay she wrote as a way to sum up Mrs. Davis' qualifications:
Banks wrote, "I found this quote that says it all…'A good teacher is like a candle, it consumes itself to light the way for others.' Mrs. Anne Davis has been a generous 'light' for so many families in our community over the last 37 years and she is most deserving of the Crystal Apple Award for extraordinary teacher."

The judges agreed, and Mrs. Anne Davis is one of twelve winners of this year's prestigious Crystal Apple Award.