Category Archives: Education

OK music teacher Leah McDonald garners Medal for Excellence

Posted on by

Oklahoma music educator Leah is one of five outstanding teachers who has garnered a 2025 Medal for Excellence from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. McDonald Photo credit:Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence

There are many exceptional teachers working with young people in our nation’s public schools, and I am always pleased to shine a spotlight on one of them. Today I shine a light on Leah McDonald, an elementary school music teacher from Oklahoma. She is one of five outstanding teachers who has garnered a 2025 Medal for Excellence from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence.

Leah teaches music to 750 K-5 students at Heritage Elementary at Edmond Public Schools in Oklahoma City. In her classroom, every one of her third, fourth, and fifth grade students plays the ukulele, including those with limited fine motor skills. Those students are given adaptive instruments and add-on devices with which to make music.

This unique classroom approach is appreciated by her peers. “Leah uniquely connects lessons to each grade level’s regular classroom Oklahoma Academic Standards,” remarks Cathey Bugg, the former Principal of Heritage Elementary. “Literacy is embedded in every lesson. Students read scores and lyrics and interact with children’s literature,” says Bugg.

Leah’s career as an educator spans 27 years, and 26 of them have been spent in Edmond, the city where she grew up. She says she decided to be a music teacher when she was only eight years old. “I became a teacher because of my love and passion for music,” she declares. “I teach music each day because I love children and making music with them,” she continues.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Leah has served in leadership positions in her school and in the state. She has served as an elementary music district facilitator, guiding and mentoring other music Edmond educators. She also chairs her school’s committee for the Great Expectations, a professional development program. In addition, she directs the Edmond Youth Chorus and also completed a stint as the President of the Oklahoma Music Educators Association from 2021-2023.

Her honor from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence is not the only recognition Leah has earned. In 2004 she was named Teacher of the Year by Edmond Public Schools, and the same year she became a finalist for her state’s Teacher of the Year.

Leah earned both her Bachelor’s degree and her Master’s degree from Oklahoma State University.

CA Head Football Coach Matt Logan named “winningest” coach in the Inland Empire

Posted on by

My former co-worker, Head Football Coach Matt Logan of Centennial, California, has been named the “winningest” coach in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Photo credit: Blast Athletics

I always enjoy sharing the story of an exceptional athletic coach, especially if the coach is someone I know! This is the case with football coach Matt Logan of Centennial High School in Corona, California. Before I retired, Matt and I worked together at the school.

Matt graduated from nearby Norco High School in 1985. Ten years later, he was hired as the Defensive Coordinator at Centennial. Two years later, he advanced to Head Coach, where he built a powerhouse football program. In the 28 seasons that have transpired since Matt took the position, he has logged 28 seasons. During that time, he has become the “winningest” coach in Southern California’s Inland Empire, and will very likely be inducted into the Coaches’ Hall of Fame.

Over the years, Matt has led his student athletes to more than 300 victories, a total of ten CIF Southern Section titles, and one CIF State Championship (2018). And that’s not all. For the past 18 consecutive years, one of Matt’s quarterbacks has gone on to become a future college quarterback.

And I had a front row seat for the excitement, having taught at Centennial from the day the school opened in 1989 until I transferred to Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale when that school opened in 2006.

So what is Matt’s secret to winning so many games? “The kids who come here know the expectations and obviously want to compete and that’s all we ask of them,” declared Matt. “Do the work, do what we ask, and we compete every week,” he continued. “I always say, ‘We may get beat, but we always compete.’ I don’t care how tall they are, how fast they are, how big they are. We just want good football players,” he concluded.

 

Maine teacher Becky Hallowell named her state’s Teacher of the Year

Posted on by

Wiscasset Elementary school teacher Becky Hallowell holds her 2025 Maine Teacher of the Year award in an outdoor classroom on the shore of the Sheepscot River, which runs right in front of her school. Photo credit: The Lincoln County News

I always enjoy sharing the story of an exceptional educator who has earned recognition for her work in one of our nation’s public schools. One such educator is Becky Hallowell, an elementary school teacher from Maine. She has been named her state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year.

The honored educator says she always knew she would become a teacher. “I wanted to be the biggest cheerleader for kids,” she reveals. “I have always been in awe of teachers. They were the people who made me smile and love school. They saw glimmers of my strengths and they encouraged me to chase after my interests,” she concludes.

To achieve her goal of becoming a teacher, Becky earned her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Maine at Farmington in 1994. She earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern Maine in 2011. Her career as an educator spans 30 years.

Becky teaches fourth graders at Wiscasset Elementary School in Wiscasset, Maine. In planning her curriculum, she says she is a huge advocate of project-based outdoor learning. To support this passion, in 2021 Becky worked with fellow teacher Kaden Pendleton to create an outdoor classroom on the banks of the Sheepscot River, which runs in front of the school. She called this classroom the Outdoor Wonderful Learning Space, or OWLS for short. There her second graders cleared the area of invasive species, and then conducted activities such as measuring leaves and diagraming plants.

“I’ve done my research, and the research is telling us that when kids are outside moving around, their ability to focus—even when they go back inside—improves for at least half an hour after they’ve had that outdoor time,” Becky asserts. “It’s something they can touch, it’s where kids tell me they feel safest, and they’re more accessible to learning,” she concludes.

Well done, Becky.

To read more about Becky Hallowell, click on this link to an interview with her published by the Maine Dept. of Education.

Teacher and librarian Charlotte Stephens of Arkansas was a trailblazer

Posted on by

Charlotte Stephens, born into slavery, became the first African American teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas. Photo credit: Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Many fine educators are notable for their “firsts.” One of these was trailblazer Charlotte Stephens, the first African American to teach school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Charlotte was born into slavery in 1854 in Little Rock. After the end of the Civil War, in 1869, she inaugurated her career as an educator when she became a substitute for her own teacher, who had fallen ill near the end of the school year. Charlotte was only 15 years old at the time. At the end of her first full year of teaching, Charlotte used her savings to travel to Ohio, where she completed courses in pedagogy at Oberlin College. There she studied Latin, geometry, the history of Rome, music, English, and the Bible. For three years she continued to perfect her craft, returning intermittently to Little Rock to teach and earn additional money to pay for her courses.

Charlotte’s lengthy career as an educator included 30 years as an elementary school teacher, 30 as a high school teacher, and 10 as a teacher librarian in both high school and junior college. In all, Charlotte’s career spanned an astonishing 70 years before her retirement at age 85 in 1939. Among her most notable students were African American composers Florence Price and William Grant Still.

This Chalkboard Champion passed away on December 17, 1951. In 1910, Stephens Elementary School in Little Rock was named in her honor. To read more about her, see this article published in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.