Former elementary school teacher Stacy Bess, who taught in the School with No Name located in a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City, Utah. Photo credit: Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.

Here is a teacher who is truly inspirational: Stacey Bess of Salt Lake City, Utah.

As a first-year teacher, Stacey landed in a classroom set up in a storage shed in an area homeless shelter. The facility was literally referred to as the School With No Name. As you can imagine, her students wrestled with a variety of issues, including unstable living arrangements, domestic abuse, poverty, and alcohol and drug-abusing parents. Not the most desirable circumstances for learning. But this remarkable teacher created a safe and loving classroom environment for her kids. She went to battle with the local school board for a more suitable teaching space and better resources. And, oh, yeah, she raised her own family and defeated cancer at the same time.

When Stacey can, she travels throughout the country sharing her story and offering inspiration to new and veteran educators. “We are in the best business in the whole world,” she tells her audiences. “We are in the kid business.”

Former New York City kindergarten teacher Deborah Meier is well-known as the founder of the modern “small schools” movement. Photo credit: deborahmeier.com

Many excellent classroom teachers go on to initiate important reforms in the field of education. One of these is Deborah Meier, a former kindergarten teacher who is well-known as the founder of the modern “small schools” movement.

Deborah began her work as a public school teacher, principal, writer, and advocate in the early 1960s, after graduation from the University of Chicago. Her first teaching position was as an early childhood teacher in Chicago. Later, when her family moved to New York City, she taught kindergarten in Central Harlem.

For the next 20 years, Deborah helped revitalize public schools in New York City’s East Harlem District 4. In 1974, she founded Central Park East Elementary School, a highly successful public school that served primarily African American and Hispanic families. During the next dozen years, Deborah opened two other Central Park East elementary schools in District 4, as well as an acclaimed secondary school.

In 1995 she moved to Boston to establish Mission Hill, a K-8 school in Roxbury, Massachusetts. This schools was part of a network Deborah created that helped initiate new small schools, both elementary and secondary, in New York and Boston. At the schools she established, Deborah fostered democratic communities, giving teachers greater autonomy in the running of a school, giving parents a voice in what happens to their children in schools, and promoting intergenerational connections. She has always been an advocate of active, project-based learning, and of graduation through a series of exhibitions of high quality work.

In addition to her work in the classroom and as an administrator, Deborah is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Power of Their Ideas, Lessons to America from a Small School in Harlem, and In Schools we Trust. She is an outspoken critic of state-mandated curriculum and high stakes standardized testing and has written extensively on their unreliability and class/race biases.

For her work in the field of education, Deborah has earned many accolades. In 1987,  she garnered a MacArthur “genius” Award. During the 1990s, she served as an Urban Fellow at the Annenberg Institute. In addition, she is a member of the Boards of FairTest, Save Our Schools, the Center for Collaborative Education, and the Association for Union Democracy. She is also a member of the editorial board of The Nation, The Harvard Education Letter, and Dissent magazines.

It is always a pleasure to share stories about exceptional teachers who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Sarah Ann Painter, an elementary school teacher from Pinellas County, Florida. In a year when she declared her class motto is “Find joy,” she’s been named Florida’s 2022 State Teacher of the Year.

Sarah teaches fifth-grade at Eisenhower Elementary School in Pinellas County, Florida. In a pandemic year filled with challenges for both teachers and students, Sarah declared the motto for herself and her students would be “Find joy.” “That two-word phrase changed a mindset across our school,” she asserted.

In addition to her classroom responsibilities, she organized common planning and collaboration for fifth-grade teachers throughout the Pinellas School District. She is also the Chairperson for the School Advisory Council, the representative for English/Language Arts, and the school liaison for the extended school day program. And as if all that were not enough, she established an open-door policy for colleagues to observe her instructional practices. Her career as an educator has spanned nearly 19 years.

Sarah earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 2002 from the University of South Florida, and her Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction in 2012 from the University of Florida. She also earned a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from Florida State University in 2021.

Sarah was selected from among five finalists, and nearly 185,000 public school teachers across the state. As the 2022 Florida Teacher of the Year, Sarah Ann will serve for one year as the Christa McAuliffe Ambassador for Education. In this role, Painter will travel throughout the state to recognize and honor the contributions of Florida’s teachers and create greater public awareness of Florida’s exceptional teachers and the profession. In addition, she will receive $20,000 from the Florida Department of Education and a two-year Florida College scholarship from the Florida Prepaid College Board which she can to present to any student of her choice.