Becky Cooper garners an Amazon Future Engineer Teacher of the Year Award

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West Virginia computer science educator Becky Cooper garners an Amazon Future Engineer Teacher of the Year Award.

Ten exceptional educators from around the country have garnered a Future Engineer Teacher of the Year Award from Amazon. One of these is Becky Cooper, a teacher at Riverside High School in Belle, West Virginia.

Becky was recognized for her work helping students in under-served and under-represented communities build skills in computer science. “Computer science skills will be of vital importance as we take on and solve the challenges of the future,” declared Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer. This is the first year Amazon has offered the prize.

Becky has devoted 11 years to working with students in the classroom, all of them at Riverside High School. Before she became an educator, she spent more 14 years as an IT business programmer analyst for Columbia Gas Transmission in Charleston, West Virginia.

In 1986, Becky earned her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Data Processing from Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky. There she minored in Biology.In 2008, she completed the requirements for her Master’s degree in Teaching with an emphasis in Biology from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

Each of the ten award-winning teachers received a prize package valued at over $50,000 to be used to benefit his or her school and students. In addition, Amazon is donating an additional $25,000 in school supplies, including Amazon Fire HD 8 Tablets, classroom essentials from AmazonBasics, and additional items from Amazon Essentials. Award recipients also received one full year of Amazon Music Unlimited and a 12-month Audible.com Gold Gift Membership. Becky and her fellow award-winners also received a $200 Amazon gift card to celebrate their hard work on behalf of computer science students across the country.

To learn more about all the winners of the award, see this link at Amazonblog.

Jeff Remington: Outstanding STEM teacher from Pennsylvania

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Many educators have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of them is Jeff Remington, an outstanding STEM teacher from Palmyra, Pennsylvania.

I always enjoy sharing stories about educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of them is Jeff Remington, an outstanding STEM teacher from Palmyra Area School District in Palmyra, Pennsylvania.

Jeff earned his Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Science Education and teaching from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1986. He earned his Master’s degree in Adult Training and Development from Pennsylvania in 1991.

In a career that has spanned 33 years, Jeff has been a superlative teacher of science and technology. He encourages his students to understand the impact of humans on the environment. He designs curriculum that puts them in the role of being problem solvers. He creates curriculum based on project-based assignments, and he is also a big proponent of collaborative learning. In addition, Jeff helped to establish a Youth Center to give struggling students a safe place to go if there was too much chaos at home.

Jeff has also promoted science learning abroad. He has facilitated science instruction in Haiti, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. For his work in the field of STEM education, Jeff garnered a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2002. With the cash award that accompanied this honor, Jeff funded science and technology classrooms and teacher training at schools in Haiti. He also helped set up internet connections there and established a wiki project between students between Haiti and Palmyra.

The Presidential Award is not the only only honor Jeff has received. He earned a Paul DeHart Hurd Award For Exemplary Middle Level Science Teaching and Leadership. He is also the recipient of a Nevelyn J. Knisley Award for Inspirational Teaching by a Lebanon Valley College Adjunct Faculty Member. Furthermore, this Chalkboard Champion was named a National Teacher STEM Ambassador by the National Science Teachers Association and The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. He has also been nominated for a Global Teacher Prize by the Varkey Foundation.

To read more about this amazing educator, see this article published by the Varkey Foundation.

Tracey Pendley named Georgia’s 2020 State Teacher of the Year

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Elementary teacher Tracey Pendley of Atlanta has been named Georgia’s 2020 State Teacher of the Year.

Congratulations are in order for Tracey Pendley, an elementary school teacher from Atlanta, Georgia. She has been named her state’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.

Tracey is a native of Atlanta. The young educator determined to become a teacher, she says, because during her rough childhood, her teachers were her salvation. Tracey’s mother was a single parent and an addict who spent time in and out of jail. She died when Tracey was a young teenager.

After her high school graduation, Tracey earned her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Religion from Furman University in 2006. She completed the requirements for her Master’s degree in Teaching in the Urban Teacher Education Program from the University of Chicago in 2009. Tracey was working with youngsters even before she earned her degrees. When an after school program for at-risk children was on the chopping block, Tracey volunteered to take over and direct the program in its three low-income neighborhoods.

Once she earned her degrees, Tracey inaugurated her career as a third grade teacher at a Chicago Public Turnaround School, where she taught for several years. In 2012, she returned to her home town of Atlanta.

In Atlanta, Tracey first taught 4th grade at Toomer Elementary. The next year she accepted a position at Burgess-Peterson Academy in the Atlanta Public School District. She has taught there for the past four years. In addition to her classroom responsibilities, she serves as a teacher leader and trainer. She also collaborates with community partners such as Page Turners Make Great Learners. And she established a 4-H Club at Burgess-Peterson. “One of my goals every day is to bring magic into the classroom,” Tracey declares.

For her work in the classroom, Tracey garnered the Atlanta Families Award for Excellence in Education in March, 2018. She also earned the Atlanta Public Schools’ district-wide Teacher of the Year honor in November, 2018. What’s more, the city of Atlanta issued a proclamation on June 3, 2019, to recognize her for her commitment to families in her community.

To read more about Tracey, click on this link to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Maryland’s Verda Welcome: Educator, politician, and community activist

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Maryland’s Verda Welcome: Educator, politician, civil rights activist, and community activist.

Many teachers dedicate themselves to social and political causes outside of the classroom. They know that improving opportunities for American citizens as a whole specifically helps their students in the classroom. One teacher who worked in this way was Verda Welcome, a teacher, politician, civil rights activist, and community activist from the state of Maryland.

Verda was born on March 18, 1807, in Lake Lure, North Carolina.  She was one of 16 children of farmers John and Docia Freeman. As a young girl, Verda attended North Carolina and Delaware public schools. The young scholar always planned to pursue higher education. However, following the death of her mother in 1928, she found herself with limited financial resources to pursue her goal. Undaunted, she worked as a domestic during the day and attended school in the evening. Eventually she earned her high school diploma. “I had to make the daily sacrifices needed to keep my dreams intact,” Verda once declared.

In 1929, Verda moved to Baltimore to continue her education at Coppin Normal School. There she earned her teaching certificate in 1932. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in History from Morgan State College in 1939. She completed the requirements for her Master of Arts Degree from New York University in 1943. In her later years, Verda was awarded honorary doctorates from Howard University, Morgan University, and the University of Maryland.

During her youth, Verda learned first-hand that African Americans were often underpaid, under-educated, and underprivileged. She determined to make a positive impact on the Black community as an educator, and so she taught in the Baltimore City Public Schools for 11 years.

In 1959, the dedicated teacher was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates to represent the Fourth District. She was the first Black woman to achieve that distinction. Verda served as a delegate until 1962, when she was elected to the Maryland State Senate. She was America’s first African American female state senator.

Verda served in the Maryland State Senate until 1982. Between the State House and the State Senate, Verda devoted a total of twenty-five years of service in the legislature. Significant among her accomplishments there was the passage of legislation dealing with such issues as discrimination in public accommodations, equal pay for equal work, the harassment of welfare recipients, illegal employment practices, voter registration, the abolition of capital punishment, and reforms in the state’s correctional facilities.

For her many important achievements in the area of civil rights, this Chalkboard Champion was inducted into Maryland’s Women’s Hall of Fame in 1988. Verda was 83 years old when she passed away on April 22, 1990, in Baltimore.

To read more about this amazing chalkboard champion, see this article published in the Baltimore Sun.