A 2023 California Teacher of the Year was introduced to Wheel of Fortune fans this week when she asked to temporarily substitute for program hostess Vanna White. Vanna was unable to report for work because she tested positive for Covid, so the award-winning teacher, Bridgette Donald-Blue, was asked to fill in. The choice was appropriate, since the show was celebrating Teachers Week that day.

“When I got the call to be a part of ‘Wheel of Fortune’ for Teachers Week, I was tremendously excited,” Bridgette recalled. “It was a great opportunity to champion the cause of education, the work that teachers do every day,” she continued. Bridgette has been an educator for three decades. She teaches Math Intervention at grades K-3 at Coliseum Street Elementary in South Los Angeles.

Bridgette describes her teaching style as reflective. “I’m constantly looking at data, at how students are understanding a lesson, then seeing where it can be tweaked or changed,” she explains. “I always think I could have done something a little better. If I give a lesson to 30 kids and 17 kids are right there and ready to go, that means that I’ve got 13 that are not quite getting it—and that’s absolutely not acceptable,” she declares. “So I always try to figure out, what can I do? To help make sure every student is learning, I end up including lots of different modalities,” she continues. “So if I’m teaching a particular topic one day, it might be taught via a lot of listening strategies. Another day it might be taught through a lot of speaking strategies. I’m trying to ensure that all my kids can enter in and understand the subject matter, no matter what their learning style is,” she says.

Mathematics teacher Michael Houston has been named the 2023 Minnesota State Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Minnesota Public Radio

There are many people today who are calling for curriculum that meets real-world needs. Minnesota teacher Michael Houston has developed an instructional program that responds to this call. And he has been rewarded for his effort. Michael has been named the 2023 Minnesota State Teacher of the Year.

Michael teaches mathematics at Harding High School in the Saint Paul Public Schools system. In a career that spans 19 years at Harding, Michael has devoted 18 of them to the school’s football program, ten of them as Head Coat. He also serves as the Mathematics Department Chair, he is a learning team facilitator, and he is active in the local teachers’ union. And as if all that were not enough, he also works as an adjunct professor at Concordia, teaching math classes to prospective elementary teachers.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Michael was raised in a single-parent household. He struggled in school, but when he earned his Bachelor’s degree from Concordia University, St. Paul, he was the first in his family to graduate from college. Michael also earned a Master’s degree from Hamline University.

Michael works diligently to develop curriculum that is relevant and responsive. “I did a lot of reflection about my teaching practices and what I can do, especially when we come back to the classroom, about trying to engage students and mathematics. Especially when they try to apply it outside the classroom,” explains Michael. In response, he developed lessons on personal finance, taxes, 401K’s, pensions, and Social Security.

“The generation now is really heavy on the use of technology,” observes Michael. “So I try to include investigations in which they can use their device,” he continues. “We were learning about exponential functions, and we were learning about investing, and there’s a nice little app, a little game that students were able to engage with and learn how to pick stock and invest and see the growth of that over time,” he concludes.

This is the second year that Michael has been nominated for the Teachers of the Year Award. He was named a finalist in 2017.