A 2023 California Teacher of the Year was introduced to Wheel of Fortune fans this week when she asked to temporarily substitute for program hostess Vanna White. Vanna was unable to report for work because she tested positive for Covid, so the award-winning teacher, Bridgette Donald-Blue, was asked to fill in. The choice was appropriate, since the show was celebrating Teachers Week that day.

“When I got the call to be a part of ‘Wheel of Fortune’ for Teachers Week, I was tremendously excited,” Bridgette recalled. “It was a great opportunity to champion the cause of education, the work that teachers do every day,” she continued. Bridgette has been an educator for three decades. She teaches Math Intervention at grades K-3 at Coliseum Street Elementary in South Los Angeles.

Bridgette describes her teaching style as reflective. “I’m constantly looking at data, at how students are understanding a lesson, then seeing where it can be tweaked or changed,” she explains. “I always think I could have done something a little better. If I give a lesson to 30 kids and 17 kids are right there and ready to go, that means that I’ve got 13 that are not quite getting it—and that’s absolutely not acceptable,” she declares. “So I always try to figure out, what can I do? To help make sure every student is learning, I end up including lots of different modalities,” she continues. “So if I’m teaching a particular topic one day, it might be taught via a lot of listening strategies. Another day it might be taught through a lot of speaking strategies. I’m trying to ensure that all my kids can enter in and understand the subject matter, no matter what their learning style is,” she says.