Retired elementary school teacher and principal Elizabeth Curtis of Alabama has been named a 2024 inductee into the University of Alabama Hall of Fame. Photo Credit: University of Alabama

Many exceptional educators have made the teaching profession their life’s work. Elizabeth Curtis, an elementary school teacher from Alabama, is one of these. For her dedication, she has just named as a 2024 inductee into the University of Alabama Hall of Fame.

In a career career that spanned more than 50 years, Elizabeth has taught multiple age levels, including preschool, elementary school, and community college. She inaugurated her career a an educator when she accepted a position as a first-grade teacher at Central Elementary School in Tuscaloosa. She also taught for a short time in Phenix City, Alabama, and in New Orleans. But in 1986, she returned to where her heart lay, in Tuscaloosa City Schools. She worked for a time as a second-grade teacher at Verner Elementary, but by 1990, she was the school’s Assistant Principal. Two years later, she was promoted to the position of  Principal. Under her leadership, Verner Elementary became the highest-performing school within the Tuscaloosa City Schools (TCS) system and the state. As a result, Elizabeth was recognized as the PTA Principal of the Year.

In 1998, the governor of Alabama selected Elizabeth’s school as one of several pilot schools for a new program called the Alabama Reading Initiative. The pilot program proved so successful that it was expanded gradually throughout the state. Today, the program is still ranked as the No. 1 reading program in the nation.

After serving 28 years at Verner Elementary, Elizabeth retired in 2019. But did she stop working to improve education? No! She went on to become the Director of the TCS Future Leaders Instructional Academy. Today, she continues to serve as a substitute for Tuscaloosa City principals, and she conducts exit interviews for TCS Human Resources. In 2021, Verner Elementary named its library in honor of the accomplished educator, recognizing her legacy as a teacher, a principal, and a beloved instructional leader.

Elizabeth earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of Alabama in 1970. She earned her Master’s degree from the same institution. She has also been inducted into both Kappa Delta Pi International Honorary and Kappa Delta Epsilon.

To read more about Elizabeth Curtis, click on this link to the University of Alabama.

Ivette Kinney, an elementary school teacher from Omaha, Nebraska, has earned a 2024 Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year Award from the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation. Photo Credit: Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation

Many educators all over the country are featuring farm to table curriculum in their classrooms. One of these is Ivette Kinney, an elementary school teacher from Nebraska. In fact, she has done such a great job with her curriculum that she has earned a 2024 Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year Award from the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation.

Ivette teaches second grade at Mari Sandoz Elementary School in Omaha. In her classroom, she incorporates agriculture in her lesson-planning through a program called Classroom Visits sponsored by the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation. Ivette signed up for classroom visits, and later she recruited her entire second-grade team to participate. Now, every second-grade student on her campus participates in a Classroom Visit during the course of the year.

Included with Ivette’s Teacher of the Year honors is a $250 Amazon gift card, an agriculture book bundle, and an expense-paid trip to the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference. The conference, which will be held June 24-27, 2024, in Salt Lake City, Utah, brings educators together from all over the country to learn how to use agricultural concepts to effectively teach core subjects such as reading, math, science, and social studies. The conference features recognition for Teacher of the Year honorees, educational workshops, traveling workshops to agri-businesses and research facilities, and farm tours.

The mission of the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation, a nonprofit organization, is to engage young people, educators, and the general public to promote an understanding of the vital importance of agriculture in the lives of all Nebraskans. For more information about the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation, visit www.nefbfoundation.org. And here is a two-minute You Tube video about Ivette.

Congratulations to Indiana educator Carol Pierobon Hofer. She has garnered a 2024 Horace Mann Award from the National Education Association Foundation. Photo Credit: National Board for Professional Standards

I am always excited to share the news when an outstanding educator earns recognition for their work in the classroom. Today, I share the news that Carol Pierobon Hofer, an elementary school teacher from Indiana, has just garnered a 2024 Horace Mann Award from the National Education Association Foundation.

Carol currently teaches classes in English as a New Language at Fox Hill Elementary in Indianapolis. The school has an enrollment of over 500 students, and 77% of them are minority students. Carol’s students are in grades one through five, she has taught students of all ages, from preschoolers to senior citizens. Her career as an educator spans 28 years.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Carol serves her school community as an interpreter, translator, and family liaison. Additionally, she is a member of the National Board Network of Accomplished Minoritized Educators (NAME) and mentors National Board candidates. She has served as a workshop leader and site visitor for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program.

Her selection as a Horace Mann Awardee is not the only recognition Carol has earned. She has been named a 2020-2022 WIDA Fellow by the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She earned this honor for her exemplary service to bilingual and multi-lingual students. Eleven years ago, she was a Fulbright Educator. During this period, she participated in an exchange in Uruguay.

Carol immigrated to the United States when she was 18 years old. A world traveler and polyglot, Carol says she feels at home in any part of the world.

Congratulations, Carol!

Kylie Altier, a first-grade teacher in Baton Rouge, has been named Louisiana’s 2024 State Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Kylie Altier

It is always exciting when a member of our profession garners recognition for their outstanding work in the classroom. One of these colleagues is Kylie Altier, an elementary school teacher from Louisiana. She has been named her state’s 2024 Teacher of the Year.

Kylie teaches first grade at McKinley Elementary School in Baton Rouge. To enrich her students’ educational experiences, Kylie has applied for and won more than $33,000 in grants. Using these funds, she built a classroom garden, complete with a mobile kitchen. She incorporated virtual reality headsets into her curriculum to boost experiential learning, and she designed an outdoor classroom for her school. “In first grade, the four walls of our classroom are not always the most developmentally appropriate space for children,” asserts Kylie. “I have dyslexia, so I find it important to find ways to make the learning experience personalized to kids’ needs,” she continues. To this end, the honored educator brings experts into her classroom, which has given her students opportunities to interview a New York Times bestselling author, perfect 10-scoring collegiate gymnasts, curators from the Museum of Natural Science, and more.

Kylie has been a leader at every campus she has been a part of, starting an extracurricular garden club, co-founding an after-school reading program where high schoolers mentored emerging readers, spearheading campus-wide reading intervention, and leading professional development.

Louisiana’s Teacher of the Year is not the only honor Kylie has earned for her professional efforts. In 2019, while teaching in Texas, she was named her region’s Teacher of the Year and Mentor Teacher of the Year.

Kylie earned a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Florida State University in 2013. She earned her Master’s degree in Elementary Education from Stephen F. Austin University in 2019.