Elementary school teacher Bradley Upshaw inducted into National Teachers Hall of Fame.
We who are in the teaching profession are always excited when one of our fellow educators earns a prestigious honor. One teacher who has earned recognition this summer is elementary school teacher Bradley Upshaw from Tarzana, California. He has just been inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame!
Bradley earned his Bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts from San Diego State University in 1980. He completed the requirements for his teaching credential at California State University, Northridge, in 1990. In addition, Bradley is a National Board Certified teacher.
Bradley’s impressive career as an educator has spanned 33 years. Since 1985, he has worked as a teacher of the second and third grades at Vanalden Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). This chalkboard champion is obviously well-suited for the important work he does. “I am filled with purpose and joy every day,” Bradley declares. “Every interaction I have with every student is an opportunity to build trust and set higher expectations for what is possible,” he says.
This amazing educator is known to many Vanalden students, both past and present, for his innovative and high-energy instructional methods, including the award-winning videos he creates to showcase his students’ academic and athletic achievements. During the course of his career, Bradley’s students have earned more than 80 awards for video productions from his classroom. “Teaching is storytelling,” Bradley asserts. “There has to be a reason to come to school every day. I want students to know that something great is going to happen, and they don’t want to miss it.”
The National Teachers Hall of Fame, located in Emporia, Kansas, inducts only five teachers per year to be inducted into their Hall. Bradley is the second teacher from the Los Angeles Unified School District to be selected. The first was mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante of Garfield High School, inducted in 1999.
