Outstanding educator Ben Walker of the Anchorage School District named Alaska’s 2018 State Teacher of the Year.
Ben Walker of Anchorage has been named Alaska’s 2018 State Teacher of the Year. Ben teaches science at Romig Middle School in the same classroom where his mother, Karen Walker, also taught school.
Ben is originally from Ketchikan. His family moved to Anchorage, where Ben graduated from Dimond High School in 1996. The honored educator earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Following his college graduation, he moved back to Anchorage where he worked in the science industry for ten years. Then he decided become a teacher. “I wanted to do something that was a little more meaningful in my life,” Ben confessed. He enrolled at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where he earned his Master’s degree in Teaching. His teaching career now spans 13 years.
Ben reveals that he works toward making science exciting, integrating hands-on activities into his daily lessons. For example, his students recently collected water from around the city. Then the students examined the samples under a microscope to find various microorganisms and classify them into different kingdoms. “Instead of just saying, ‘This is taxonomy. This is how we classify things,’ ” Ben explained, “we say, ‘Let’s get some real things, let’s bring them in and classify them.’ “
Congratulations, Ben Walker.
