Tag Archives: Elementary Teachers

Kindergarten teacher Amber Nichols named WV’s 2023 Teacher of the Year

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Kindergarten teacher Amber Nichols has been named West Virginia’s 2023 Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Marshall University

It is always my pleasure to shine a spotlight on outstanding educators who have earned accolades for their work in the profession. One of these is Amber Nichols, a kindergarten teacher from Morgantown, West Virginia. She has been named her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Amber earned her Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Shepherd University in Shepherdsontown, West Virginia, in 2001. She earned her Master’s degree in Education from West Virginia University.

In a career that spans 21 years, the honored educator, who is a military wife, has taught in Arizona and Pennsylvania in addition to her current stint in West Virginia. She now teaches at Eastwood Elementary School in the Monongalia County School District in Morgantown.

In her classroom, Amber strives to create an environment in which all students feel safe, loved and appreciated. She says her teaching mantra is, “We are here for the kids, and we have each other.” Social and emotional development and academic achievement are the rigorous goals she sets for each child in her class. Amber also has background in teaching special education. In fact, she is a strong advocate for students with disabilities, especially those with medical differences. It is her distinct belief that, with the appropriate supports, all students can.

“I am passionate about teaching because it creates an opportunity to impact lives in a way no other profession can,” Amber declares. “My goal is to always foster a creative, inviting and welcoming atmosphere in my classroom that makes every student feel valued and pushes them to be their very best every day,” she continues.

In addition to her work with young students, Amber is an active member of her school’s leadership and curriculum teams. She is also a behavior intervention team member, a mentor teacher, and a co-operating teacher for both interns at West Virginia University and high school students at Monongalia County Technical Education Center.

As her state’s Teacher of the Year, Amber will receive a vehicle from Toyota Motor Manufacturing of West Virginia to use for the year; $5,000 from both Highmark West Virginia and the Horace Mann Companies; a $1,000 classroom grant from the West Virginia Education Association; a two-night stay at Tygart Lake State Park; a $250 Amazon gift card from West Virginia Professional Educators; and $500 from the American Federation of Teachers, West Virginia.

To read more about Amber, click on this link to a podcast by Leaders of Literacy containing the transcript of an interview with her.

Louise Archer taught in a segregated, rural one-room schoolhouse

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North Carolina teacher Louise Archer taught core academic subjects and life skills in a segregated rural one-room schoolhouse. Photo Credit: Louise Archer Elementary School

Our nation’s students are indeed fortunate to have so many dedicated and hardworking educators teaching in our public schools. One of these was Louise Archer, an elementary school teacher from North Carolina.

Louise was born on Oct. 23, 1893, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. As a young woman, she attended Livingston College, a historically Black Christian college located in Salisbury, North Carolina. She married Romulus Archer, Jr., in 1915. The couple relocated to Washington, DC, in 1922, and Louise continued her education at Morgan State College, a historically Black college in nearby Baltimore, Maryland. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree.

Louise inaugurated her career as an educator at the Oak Grove School in Southampton, Virginia, in a one-room schoolhouse for African American children. She taught there two years. In 1924, she became both the teacher and the principal for another one-room segregated school, the Vienna Colored School, located in Vienna, Virginia. The camped, unheated facility was the first in Fairfax County to educate African American students in fifth through seventh grades. For many, this was the only education they would receive.

The first boys who were the first to arrive at the rural school each morning chopped wood for the fire to keep the schoolhouse warm. Students brought water each day from a nearby spring and stored it in buckets in one corner of the classroom. Louise taught her students using tattered, secondhand textbooks, but she supplemented these with lessons in music and poetry. In addition, she taught her students life skills such as cooking, sewing, embroidery, cabinet-making, and rug-hooking.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Louise established a 4-H Club for African Americans in Fairfax County. Through this club, her students planted a garden and raised vegetables to add to a soup that was cooked each day on a potbelly stove.

By all accounts Louise was devoted to her young charges. For example, if they needed help getting to school, she drove them to the schoolhouse herself. She invited students to her home in Washington, DC, so they could experience a big city, and she let students use her home address when they enrolled in a DC high school so they could continue their education without paying expensive tuition fees.

Later in her career, Louise organized a Parent Teacher Association to raise money to buy much-needed classroom supplies. The group also raised money to construct a new schoolhouse, this one with three rooms, which opened in 1939. In 1941, she spearheaded fundraising efforts to pay for electric lighting, a music teacher, kitchen supplies, and bus transportation for the students.

Sadly, Louise suffered a heart attack and passed on April 1, 1948. In 1950, her school was renamed the Louise Archer Elementary School in her honor.

NV teacher Rejily Soriano garners prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Educator Award

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Kindergarten teacher Rejily Soriano of West Wendover, Nevada, has garnered a prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Educator Award. Photo Credit: Elko Daily Free Press

There are many exceptional teachers working in our nation’s schools who are deserving of recognition. One of these is Rejily Soriano, an elementary school teacher from West Wendover, Nevada. She has garnered a prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Educator Award.

The Milken Educator Awards have been described by Teacher Magazine as the “Oscars of Teaching.” In addition to a $25,000 cash prize and public recognition, the honor 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.

Rejily maintains high expectations for her kindergarten students. She is also careful to make strong connections with the children, supporting them as they In fact, most of her students are reading by the end of the year, and in May 2022, 89% reached grade level or above on standardized assessments in both math and English Language Arts.

In her classroom, Rejily puts emphasis on developing strong relationships with both students and their families. She communicates with parents often in both English and Spanish, maintaining open lines of communication about all aspects of students’ school experiences. She possesses an unwavering dedication to her job and her students as she works towards successful outcomes for every child in her class.

A teacher leader on her campus, Rejily is the school’s Leader in Me coordinator; she sits on the school improvement committee; and she designs professional development for her colleagues. In addition, she is the lead teacher for kindergarten, mentors new teachers, and is a leader for the school’s social-emotional learning efforts.

Rejily earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Western Governors University in 2017. She earned her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction there in 2020. She inaugurated her career in education in the Grow Your Own teacher recruitment program sponsored by Elko County School District. Through this teacher recruitment program, she worked with preschool students in the Head Start program before moving up to kindergarten.

To read more about Rejily Soriano, see this article about her published by the Elko Daily Free Press.

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.