Hawaii’s Vanessa Ching named State Teacher of the Year

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Meet Vanessa Ching, a middle school educator from Hawaii who was named the 2018 Teacher of the Year for her state. Vanessa graduated from Baldwin High School on Maui. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a double major in Elementary Education and Special Education. She earned her Master’s degree in Teaching Leadership from the National University at San Diego and, in addition, has been named a National Board Certification in Literacy, Elementary-Middle Childhood.

In a career that has spanned 14 years so far, Vanessa inaugurated her life as an educator with the Hawaii State Department of Education as a Special Education teacher for grades K-6, teaching at Pearl Ridge, Aiea, Alvah Scott, Webling, and Waimalu Elementary Schools. Then she accepted a position at Ewa makai Middle School where she serves as the Student Activities Coordinator, Green Initiatives Coordinator, and Student Leadership and Yearbook Advisor.

“Vanessa has made a tremendous impact on the culture at Ewa Makai Middle as coordinator of Student Activities and Green Initiatives, teaching students to reduce their carbon footprints and that of the entire school,” commented Superintendent Dr. Christina Kishimoto. “Ewa Makai is the only school statewide to have won the National Green Ribbon School certification,” Kushimoto continued. “Vanessa has done amazing work to improve the school and the Ewa community through her teaching,” the Superintendent concluded.

Vanessa’s principal, Kim Sanders, agrees that the honored teacher has been a great asset to the school. “Developing a culture of environmentally conscious students, community members, and parents, Vanessa worked to designate Ewa Makai Middle as a plastic-free school and won a refillable water station in a national contest with a powerful PSA,” Sanders remarked. “Vanessa and her students wrote grants to develop an organic garden, aquaponics, and a composting program towards becoming a waste-free school.,” Sanders described. “Her dedicated work has been an incredible learning opportunity for our students, and our entire campus and community have been improved as a whole,” Sanders concluded.

For more about this amazing educator, see the video below:

Math teacher, mountain climber, and national parks guide Alma Wagen Whitacre

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Alma Wagen Whitacre

Math teacher, mountain climber, and national parks guide Alma Wagen Witacre.

Many talented educators pursue careers in areas other than education. This is certainly the case for Alma Wagen Whitacre, a high school math teacher who also enjoyed an illustrious career as a mountain climber and national parks guide.

Alma was born in 1878 on her grandparents’ farm in Mankato, Minnesota. As a young child, she discovered an irrestible desire to climb, and because there were no mountains near her home, she began to climb local windmills. This earned her the nickname of “the windmill climber.”

After high school, Alma attended the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1903. She then moved to Tacoma, Washington, where she accepted a position as a math teacher at Stadium High School. Just about every minute she was not in the classroom, she climbed in the nearby North Cascades and Olympic Mountains.

In 1913, Alma became an official member of the Mountaineers, a nonprofit outdoor recreation, education, and conservation group founded in 1906. The next year, she traveled to Glacier National Park where she discovered a passion for national parks. The following year she climbed Mount Rainier for the first time. In 1916, the intrepid math teacher spent the summer hiking in Yellowstone National Park, and in 1917, she climbed Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Hood with the Mountaineers. It was during one of these climbs that Alma nearly lost her life. In the June, 1922, Sunset Magazine, it was recounted that, “When well up to the summit of Mount Hood, a small boulder, loosened by the melting snow, came bounding down the steep declivity, (and) struck Miss Wagen upon the back just above one hip. The pain and shock were terrific, but the girl, clutching the rope desperately, saved herself a fall that would have meant death.”

When the United States became involved in World War I, many mountain guides volunteered for military or civil service. To partially fill this personnel shortage, Alma joined the National Park Service as a guide in 1918. She was the first woman to become a guide in Mount Rainier National Park. She spent her work hours as a guide leading tourists on hikes to nearby glaciers. Joseph Hazard, Rainier’s chief climbing guide at the time, once described the teacher as “one of the best guides in the employ of the company.” She also worked in Yosemite National Park briefly in 1922 before returning to Rainier.

Alma had come to the Northwest wearing a jaunty Tyrolean hat decorated with a pheasant feather. Her hat and feather became her trademark as a guide. The rest of her outdoor clothing was warm and practical for use in uncertain weather conditions. The weather did not dampen her enthusiasm for climbing, however. In an interview appearing in the April 18,1923, Tacoma News Tribune, Alma declared, “I wanted to get up among the clouds and to feel myself as free as the birds and the air, and to be able to shout my freedom as loudly as I liked without having someone point to me sadly and say ‘It is not pretty for little girls to climb windmills.'”

Alma retired from her career as a mountain guide following her marriage to Horace J. Whitacre in Tacoma. After he passed away in 1950, she moved to Claremont, California, where she lived until her death on December 7, 1967.

Alaska educator and community activist Bea Rose

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Bea Rose

Alaska educator and community activist Bea Rose

Throughout our country’s history, there are many dedicated teachers who have earned recognition for their community service. One of these is Beatrice “Bea” Rose, an Alaska educator, long-time Jewish leader, and community activist who worked tirelessly for social justice issues. Advocating for the rights of the disenfranchised, Bea was a role model for many as she carried out the Jewish practice of “Tikkun Olam,” the responsibility to repair the world.

Bea moved to Alaska in 1957 after Bob Bartlett, an Alaska Territorial Congressional Delegate, encouraged her and her husband, Nissel (Mike) Rose, to help work on achieving statehood for the territory. The young couple quickly threw themselves into causes they felt would strengthen a new, young state.

Bea helped create and sustain the first Jewish synagogue in Anchorage, Congregation Beth Sholom. As a founding member, Bea worked with others to create a vibrant Jewish educational and religious center in a state where Jews constituted an almost invisible minority.

In addition, Bea was a long-time leader in the education community. She was particularly interested in issues related to special education. Working as a speech therapist with the Anchorage School District for 25 years, Bea assisted students with disabilities, serving on the first committee to initiate special education in Alaska. She also became the chairperson for the National Education Association in Alaska.

After their son was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1977, Bea and her husband became indefatigable advocates for improving mental health resources available in the state. She joined the board of the Alaska Mental Health Association and participated in national mental health conferences. Bea worked to destigmatize mental illness and was instrumental in lobbying for the passage of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Settlement.

In addition, the civic-minded Bea focused on advancing the rights of women and promoting progressive causes through the Alaska Democratic Party. She is remembered as a loving mother and grandmother, a committed friend, and a role model for many who appreciated her warmth, welcoming spirit, and kindness.

For her work as an educator and a community activist, this amazing chalkboard champion was inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame in 2018.

Teacher Ann Turner Cook: The baby face of Gerber Foods

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Did you know that the iconic image of the healthy, happy baby with the sparkling eyes and the inquisitive look on Gerber baby products grew up to become a high school English teacher? That’s right!

Ann Turner Cook

Teacher Ann Turner Cook: She was the face of Gerber Foods

The name of that irresistible baby is Ann Turner Cook. She was born on November 20, 1926, the daughter of Leslie Turner, a syndicated cartoonist who drew the comic strip Captain Easy for more than a decade. In 1928, when Ann was only five months old,  the Gerber company announced they were seeking images of a baby to use on the packaging of their upcoming line of baby foods. Artist Dorothy Hope Smith, a neighbor of the Turner family, submitted a charcoal sketch of Ann, promising to finish the drawing if it was selected. Smith’s drawing competed with thousands of entries, including many elaborate oil paintings, but the judges fell in love with this baby’s cherubic face and, when choosing it as the winner, insisted that the simple illustration remain a sketch. The image was trademarked in 1931, and it has been used on Gerber baby food packaging ever since.

When she grew up, Ann attended the University of South Florida and other post-secondary schools, where she studied education, English, and journalism. She earned several degrees, including a Master’s degree in English Education. After completing her education, Ann became a teacher at Oak Hill Elementary in Tampa, Florida, later transferring to the English Department at Madison Junior High School. In 1966, she accepted a position at Hillsborough High School, also in Tampa, where she taught literature and creative writing. In 1972, her students dedicated their school yearbook, the Hillsborean, to their beloved teacher, who had personally sponsored the book. In it, her students described her as “a teacher who really communicates with the students,” and who, “without any complaints, has stayed late, worked nights, and with quiet efficiency supported her staff in their monumental task.”

Ann’s career as an educator spanned twenty-six years. After retiring, this talented teacher became a successful novelist. A member of the Mystery Writers of America, she is the author of the Brandy O’Bannon series of mystery novels set on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The adventures of Florida reporter and amateur sleuth Brandy O’Bannon are described in Trace Their Shadows, published in 2001, Shadow Over Cedar Key, published in 2003, and Micanopy in Shadow, published in 2008.