Tag Archives: Elementary Teachers

Elementary teacher Kelly Hine of Indiana earns district honors

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Beloved elementary school teacher Kelly Hine of Zionsville, Indiana, earns district honors. Photo Credit: Lebanon Reporter

It is always my pleasure to shine a spotlight on exceptional educators from around our country. Today, the light shines on Kelly Hine, an elementary school teacher from Indiana. She was named the 2022 Teacher of the Year for Zionsville Community Schools.

For the past two years, Kelly has taught first graders at Trailside Elementary School. Previously she taught kindergarten at Union Elementary School, and pre-kindergarten for two years at Pleasant View Elementary. In all, her career as an educator spans 18 years, including 11 years at schools in Fairfax, Virginia.

Kelly describes herself as a teacher’s pet in grade school, but she never imagined becoming a teacher herself. But that changed when she became involved in a cadet teaching program in her senior year of high school. As a result of the program, she fell in love with the idea of a career in the classroom.

Kelly says she loves working with younger students, because of their positive attitude and innocent sense of humor. “It’s kind of hard to have a bad day when you’re teaching first grade,” Kelly declares. “I can’t really imagine doing anything else. I still to this day just love going to work and being with the kids,” she reveals. In her classroom, Kelly says positive reinforcement and clear boundaries are her fundamental instructional practices.

Kelly credits her colleagues for a large part of her success as an educator. Observing different teaching styles and participating in professional development has played a big role in her ability to grow as a teacher and stay excited about her work, she confesses. “Teachers need to be lifelong learners,” she says. “You can’t expect your students to be excited about learning if you don’t share that passion with them,” she believes.

Kelly earned her Bachelor’s degree from Maranatha Baptist University in Watertown, Wisconsin.

New Jersey STEM teacher Helen Corveleyn earns accolades

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Elementary STEM teacher Helen Corveleyn of Hopewell, New Jersey, has earned many accolades for her innovative environmental projects involving young students. Photo Credit: Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space

I always enjoy sharing stories about innovative STEM educators who have earned recognition for their innovative work with young people, and today’s featured teacher, Helen Corveleyn, is one of the most inspiring.

Helen is a STEM coordinator at Hopewell Elementary School located in Hopewell, New Jersey. She has also taught seventh grade Life Sciences at Montgomery Middle School in Skillman, New Jersey.

This amazing educator is passionate about promoting elementary STEM education. She inaugurated her school’s Green Team, where she leads her young students to become careful stewards of the planet, providing many opportunities for them to practice environmentally safe habits. For example, she introduced a ban on plastic in the school’s cafeteria, and she introduced a hydroponic garden to grow organic produce for the school lunches. In fact, the garden project earned her school a Best in New Jersey Farm to School Award in 2018. In addition, Helen runs the Nature Harmony Project, an initiative which blends STEM and the arts with social and emotional learning in an outdoor education setting.

Helen’s dedication to environmental awareness expands beyond the elementary school. She helped her community inaugurate a townwide Earth Week to promote environmental justice issues. She serves as a Board Trustee of both the Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space and the Hunterdon Somerset Mercer County STEM Ecosystem. And, as if all that were not enough, she has taught Environmental Leadership to graduate students at The College of New Jersey and Conservation Biology to adult students at Miami University of Ohio.

For her work as an educator, Helen has earned many accolades. She was honored as the I can STEM NJ Role Model by the New Jersey STEM Pathways Network in 2021. She earned a coveted PAEMST (Presidential Award for Education in Mathematics and Science Teaching) in 2020, and that same year she was named New Jersey County Teacher of the Year. In 2019, she garnered a Governor’s Educator of the Year.

Helen’s career as an educator spans 13 years. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy from Marist College. She earned her Master’s degree, summa cum laude, in Conservation Biology from Miami University of Ohio. She completed international field work with Project Dragonfly, which included studying island bio-geography and whale sharks in Baja, Mexico. She also studied orangutans and sustainable palm oil in Borneo, Malaysia. Finally, she created a multimedia-based conservation campaign to support the Belize Zoo and Maya Forest Corridor.

You can read more about this amazing educator at centraljersey.com.

STEM teacher Utah’s Jennifer Carver-Hunter advances space exploration education

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STEM teacher Jennifer Carver-Hunter from Salt Lake City, Utah, garnered a coveted PAEMST award for her innovative work in space exploration education. Photo Credit: Mountain View elementary School

It is always a pleasure to share stories about exceptional educations. One of these is Jennifer Carver-Hunter, an elementary school teacher from Salt Lake City, Utah. For her work in space exploration education, she has earned a coveted PAEMST award.

Jennifer teaches fifth grade Science and Language Arts at Mountain View Elementary School in Salt Lake City. In a career that spans 22 years, she’s been at Mountain View for 11 of those years. Prior to her work in Utah, Jennifer taught oral and written language comprehension and communication skills to multi-language learners at Johnson and Northside Elementary Schools in Montrose, Colorado.

Jennifer earned her PAEMST for. her work in space exploration STEN education. She believes in leading her students by example, and she works hard to share the message that learning is a lifelong endeavor. She is passionate about inspiring her students to feed their curiosity by wondering and asking questions, because these practices are critical in developing problem-solving and collaboration skills.

Jennifer herself is a lifelong learner. She  is a member of the Teacher Innovator Institute sponsored by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and she is the master teacher and crew commander for the Spaceward Bound Utah program with the Mars Desert Research Station. Through these two programs, Jennifer promotes student interest in scientific exploration beyond Earth. Her young students spend their fifth grade year immersed in various simulations of life on Mars. Through student-designed investigations and hands-on engineering design projects, Jennifer’s students not only stay engaged in the content, but they also start to view themselves as the future scientists who might help send astronauts to Mars.

For this innovative work, in 2022, Jennifer was named one of five finalists for Utah State Teacher of the Year. She also earned a coveted PAEMST (Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching) in 2020. You can read more about this at PAEMST.

Jennifer earned her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Bryn Mawr College and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Adams State College. She is certified in Building Excellence in Elementary STEM from the University of Utah and an endorsement in Linguistically Diverse Education from Fort Lewis College.

GA teacher Natasha Berry recognized as outstanding educator

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Elementary school teacher Natasha Berry has been recognized for her outstanding work in the classroom. Photo Credit: Valdosta Daily Times

It is always a pleasure to share the story of an outstanding teacher working in public schools. One of these is Natasha Berry, an exceptional STEM teacher from the state of Georgia.

Natasha inaugurated her career as a professional educator in 2003 after earning her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Valdosta State University. She also earned certification in Gifted and Talented Education. She currently works as a STEM Lab teacher for Henry County Schools in Henry County, Georgia. Prior to that, she taught third graders at Sallas Mahone Elementary School in the Valdosta City School District, and before that, she taught in the Lowndes County system for 14 years. In all, her career as an educator spans 20 years.

The daughter of a military veteran, Natasha was forced to relocate several times as a child, but she spent most of her life in Valdosta. Despite her moves, Natasha had strong support for education in her childhood home. “I come from a family of educators. My mother and many of my aunts and uncles are in the education profession,” she reveals. “I grew up watching and admiring the countless hours my mom spent using her creative talent to make learning exciting and engaging for the students inside her classroom every single day.”

For her work in the classroom, Natasha garnered a 2023 Gale Samuels Award from the Georgia Teachers of the Year Association.  The honor is bestowed in memory of Gale Samuels, a beloved educator at the Georgia Department of Education who contracted leukemia and passed away in 1998. Samuels was considered instrumental in promoting excellence in teaching in her state.

The Gale Samuels Award is not the only recognition Natasha has earned. In 2022, she was named a finalist for Georgia Teacher of the Year. In 2019, she was honored as the Sallas Mahone Teacher of the Year, and that same year this Chalkboard Champion was named the Valdosta City Schools Co-Teacher of the Year.

IN teacher Brittany Tinkler garners prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Award

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Elementary school teacher Brittany Tinkler of Indianapolis, Indiana, has garnered a prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Educator Award. Photo Credit: Brittany Tinkler

There are many exceptional teachers working in American schools who are deserving of recognition. One of these is Brittany Tinkler, an elementary school teacher from Indianapolis, Indiana. She has garnered a prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Educator Award, she learned on Feb. 8, 2023.

Brittany teaches second grade at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Perry Township. She has taught there for 11 years. In her classroom, Brittany has embraced project-based learning, and she shares the practice with fellow educators through presentations, articles, and podcasts. Furthermore, Brittany enjoys exposing her students to different careers. To that end, she has brought a variety of community organizations into the school, including the local zoo, a radio station, and a fire station. In addition, she has launched a robotics club and founded  an after-school running club.

Brittany, who graduated from Perry-Meridian High School, says her own academic struggles as a child led her to pursue a career in education. “When I got into high school after all of this struggling, I officially decided I was going to become an educator so that I can help students feel successful and find what it is they’re good at, so I can bring that out of them at a young age,” she declared.

The honored educator earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 2012 from Indiana University and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instructional Leadership in 2018 from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Brittany is one of 40 educators nationwide who has earned a Milken Educator Award this year. The honors have been described by Teacher Magazine as the “Oscars of Teaching.” In addition to a $25,000 cash prize and public recognition, the recognition includes membership in the National Milken Educator Network, a group of more than 3,000 exemplary teachers, principals, and specialists from all over the country who work towards strengthening best practices in education. To learn more, click on Milken Educator Awards.