Tag Archives: English Teachers

Beth Barkley named Washington DC’s 2024 Teacher of the Year

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Beth Barkley, an English-language teacher who works with immigrant students, has been named the 2024 Teacher of the Year for Washington, DC. Photo credit: The Washington Post

Many excellent educators all over our country are deserving of accolades. Today, I share the story of one of them with you. She is Beth Barkley, a high school teacher who has been named the 2024 Teacher of the Year for Washington, DC.

Beth teaches English as a Second Language to 9th and 10th graders at the International Academy at Cardozo Education Campus. The school was established to accommodate newly arrived immigrant students. Beth has worked at the school for eight years. One of her main responsibilities there is teaching Spanish-speaking students who arrive in the capital city on migrant buses from Texas and Arizona.

Beth passionately supports the rights of immigrant students. “All of our students deserve opportunity and being treated with dignity and respect, regardless of where they come from,” Beth declares. She also indicated that we need to “Welcome our students with love. They’re a part of our community. They’re leaders and change-makers in our community, and DC is a great city because they’re a part of it,” she said. 

In addition to English language acquisition, Beth has taught a course in human rights and social action, and she has co-facilitated dialogues and social identity workshops with students. Beth works with her students to organize for justice, including a recent campaign for access to mental health services and resources for immigrant students and families. “We’ve been fighting for years for our undocumented students to have access to mental health support,” Beth comments. “Many of them have experienced a lot of trauma in their home countries.”

In addition to working with English learners at her school, Beth also serves as the teacher lead for the International Academy’s Family Engagement Leadership team. In this role she helps students and their families adapt to and succeed in their new educational environments.

Beth is very active outside of the classroom, too. She is a part of United We Dream and Teaching for Change’s DC Area Educators for Social Justice People’s History Curriculum working group.

Beth earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature, with a minor in Spanish Language and Culture from the University of Maryland. She also  earned her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction there.  

In addition to her designation as DC’s Teacher of the Year, Beth was a 2020 DC Teacher of the Year finalist, and the recipient of the DCPS Rubenstein Award for Highly Effective Teaching.

English educator Ivona Todorovic named North Dakota’s 2023 Teacher of the Year

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English language educator Ivona Todorovic from Grand Forks, North Dakota, has been named her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Grand Forks Herald

It is always my pleasure to recognize exceptional educators who have been honored for their work with students. One of these is Ivona Todorovic, a high school English teacher from Grand Forks, North Dakota. She has been named her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Ivona teaches English language learners in grades 9—2 at Red River High School, Grand Forks.

In addition to her work with students, Ivona organizes district-wide professional development to provide support for general education teachers about effective ways to work with new Americans and immigrant students. She helped to create “Culture Night” on her high school campus. The event has become a community-wide celebration and opportunity for her students to share their cultures through dance, music, food, poetry, and crafts.

Ivona is a native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, She grew up in Zenica, about 43 miles northeast of Sarajevo in southeastern Europe. When the former nation of Yugoslavia broke up into six independent republics in the early 1990s, war and ethnic conflict ensued. That’s when Ivona and her husband, Alex, emigrated to the United States as refugees. The Todorovics arrived in Grand Forks in June, 1995.

Here in the United States, Ivona worked as a Title I para-educator at an elementary school, where her determination to teach again became stronger than ever. She worked in this role for ten years. Next, Ivona enrolled at the University of North Dakota, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. Soon after, through the resident teacher program, she earned a Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Reading Education. She also earned a degree in Elementary Education from the University of Sarajevo.

After completing her education, Ivona accepted a position as an English Language teacher in the Grand Forks Public Schools, where she has taught for the past 17 years.

 

Deaf Education teacher Dana Miles named Washington State’s 2023 Teacher of the Year

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Deaf Education teacher Dana Miles has been named Washington State’s 2023 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: League of Education Voters Foundation

It is always a pleasure to share the story of an exceptional educator who has earned recognition for her work in the classroom. One of these is Dana Miles, a secondary teacher who has been named the 2023 Washington State Teacher of the Year.

As an educator, Dana is a “jack of all trades.” She teaches English, Applied Bi-lingual Language Arts (BLA), Work Experience, Special Education, Consumer Math, and Homeroom Advisory to grades 9 –12 at the Washington School for the Deaf (WSD) in Vancouver, Washington. In her classroom, Dana works on helping her students become bi-lingual in American Sign Language and English, and to become career proficient and life ready. When developing curriculum, Dana employs real-world scenarios—such as resume writing, finding independent housing, and navigating transportation system—to help her students become confident adults and achieve work success so they can live independently. She works tirelessly to equip her students for the real world by teaching them to advocate for themselves, and she strives to build a more inclusive society by expanding community partnerships and work opportunities.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Dana is also a member of a statewide transition committee with the outreach team of the Washington Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth. The team develops learning materials for deaf and hard of hearing students across the state. Dana says she was inspired to become a teacher in the program as a result of her own experiences as a second-generation deaf educator. Her parents were both deaf educators, and they were careful to provide her with a language-rich environment in American Sign Language and English.

Dana is, herself, a former student of the high school where she now teaches. She graduated from WSD in 1993. After her high school graduation, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and English from Gallaudet University in 1998. She earned her Master’s degree in Deaf Education from the same university in 2000. Gallaudet University, founded in 1864, is a private, federally-chartered university located in Washington, DC. The institution provides quality education for deaf and hard of hearing students.

 

NC teacher Leah Carper named her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year

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English teacher Leah Carper has been named the 2023 North Carolina Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

There are many exceptional educators in our country who have earned accolades for their work with young people. One of these is Leah Carper, an English teacher from North Carolina. She has been named as her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Leah Carper teaches at Northern Guilford High School in Greensboro, North Carolina. In her classroom, she designs curriculum that not only teaches the skills and standards of the course, but also teaches her students how to be empathetic, contributing members of a global community. “They’re students of humanity, and they’re learning how to be good people, and they’re learning that in our classrooms every day,” declares Leah.

Since her selection as North Carolina’s Teacher of the Year, Leah has shared stories about the many of the educators who influenced her. These teachers taught her about being accepting of new people or appreciating different cultures and countries. She even recalled a third grade teacher who bought her new shoelaces because she didn’t have any. These are things, she remarked, that cannot be measured on a standardized test.

In addition to her recognition as North Carolina’s Teacher of the Year, Leah garnered the title of 2022 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. She was also named the 2021 Guilford County Schools Teacher of the Year and the Guilford County Schools PTA Outstanding High School Educator Award in both 2020 and 2018. She was named the Guilford County Schools Rookie Teacher of the Year in 2007.

Leah earned her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2006. She earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Queens University of Charlotte in 2017. Her career as an educator spans 18 years.

 

Jason Torres-Rangel named CA 2023 State Teacher of the Year

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High school English teacher Jason Torres-Rangel has been named the 2023 California State Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Pomona College

It is always a pleasure for me to share the story of an exceptional educator who has earned accolades for his work in the classroom. One of these is Jason Torres-Rangel, a high school English teacher from Los Angeles, California. He has been named his state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Jason teaches Advanced Placement (AP) English to juniors at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. His career as an educator spans 19 years. In his classroom, Jason strives to create “curriculum that is student centered, culturally aware, (and) that tries to show minoritized voices in ways that challenge assumptions in society.”

The honored educator had excellent models to emulate when he chose to go into the teaching profession. Both his father and mother are math and computer science teachers who inspired him with their own dedication to creating science, technology, engineering, and math opportunities for East LA students.

Jason’s honors as California’s Teacher of the Year is not the only recognition he has earned. He was named the LAUSD and LA County Teacher of the Year in 2022. In 2020, he was recognized by the American Federation of Teachers for his work in the Community Schools Movement. In 2016, he was recognized by the White House for the Initiative Advancing Educational Equity for Hispanics. In 2015, he won the United Way Inspirational Teacher award, having been nominated by a student and her mother.

Jason earned his Bachelor’s degree in English from Pomona College. He earned a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University, and a second Master’s degree in English from California State University at Los Angeles. He is working on his PhD in Education from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont.