Tag Archives: Secondary Teachers

Craig Rowe named a finalist for CA State 2023 Teacher of the Year

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High school English teacher Craig Rowe of Truckee, California, has been named one of his state’s finalists for 2023 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Truckee High School

Many exceptional educators have been recognized for their work in the classroom this year. One of these is Craig Rowe, a high school English teacher from Placer County, California. He has been named one of nine finalists for California’s 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Craig teaches at Truckee High School in the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District. He also serves as the Model United Nations Advisor for his school. The honored educator says he is passionate about diversity students having an equal chance to attend the college of their dreams. To facilitate this, he formed La Fuerza Latina, a small college prep admissions program for his Truckee High students. The goal of the program is to raise the collegiate bar for students from multi-ethnic backgrounds, and to provide the kind of high-caliber admissions preparation paid consultants provide. In this way, Craig says, diversity students have the opportunity to compete at the highest level nationally, to earn scholarships, and to reach their potential.

Craig has his own childhood experiences to thank for his passion to help disadvantaged students. As a young man, he says, he never saw himself becoming a teacher. The son of a Hispanic mother and a White father, neither of whom attended college, Craig remembers school as a place fraught with racial tension and frequent fights. As a young man, he recalls fellow students speaking negatively about his ethnic heritage, which caused him a great deal of shame and anger. “This was before multiculturalism was a thing,” Craig remembers. “School was definitely not a respite.”

Despite his inauspicious performance in high school academics, Craig went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Washington. He earned his Master’s degree in Dramatic Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. And he completed the requirements for his Ph.D. in Performance Studies from University of California, Berkeley. While there, he garnered a Regents Fellowship. In addition, Craig worked in a Chicana writing program at Stanford University.

“I want every student to know that regardless of their social or ethnic status, if they are hard-working and diligent, they can compete at the very highest level nationally,” asserts Craig. “My intent is simply to supplement our outstanding counseling support system, so our students have equal advantages for being placed in highly competitive colleges and universities as well as earn scholarships,” he concludes.

VA math educator Lou Kokonis, at age 91, still teaching after six decades in the classroom!

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Here’s a Chalkboard Champion who is truly unparalleled: Lou Kokonis, a mathematics teacher at Alexandria City High School in Virginia. Lou, is 91 years old, and his career as an educator, which began in 1959, spans a total of 65 years!

In 2019, as Kokonis celebrated six decades of teaching, he was honored in through House Joint Resolution No. 727 of the Virginia General Assembly, which stated, “Louis Kokonis has imparted his passion for lifelong learning to his students, many of whom went on to become physicists, engineers, doctors and professors.”

Here’s a four-minute You Tube video aired by CBS Mornings last month which celebrates the career of this remarkable educator:

2023 National Teacher of the Year Rebecka Peterson earns congrats from First Lady Jill Biden

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The name of the 2023 National Teacher of the Year was announced last month, and her name is Rebecka Peterson! Congratulations, Rebecka! And we’re not the only ones to congratulate her. First Lady Jill Biden also sent the honored educator good wishes.

Rebecka teaches mathematics to sophomores, juniors, and seniors at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has just completed her 14th year in education and her 11th at Union High School.

To learn more about Rebecka and see the message from the First Lady, view this eight-minute YouTube video of her April 19, 20223, appearance on CBS Mornings:

Illinois educator Kimberly Radostits garners Teacher of the Year honors

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Kimberly Radostits, a Spanish teacher from Oregon, Illinois, has been selected her state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year and is one of five finalists for the 2023 National Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Oregon Community District 220

It is always my pleasure to highlight exemplary educators who have earned honors for their work in the classroom. Today, the spotlight falls on Kimberly Radostits, a Spanish teacher from Oregon, Illinois. She was selected 2022 Teacher of the Year for Illinois, and is one of five finalists selected for 2023 National Teacher of the Year honors.

Kimberly teaches Spanish to students in grades eight through twelve at Oregon Junior/Senior High School at Oregon Community Unit District 220. She has worked there for the past 15 years.

In addition to her Spanish curriculum, Kimberly serves as the faculty advisor for a freshmen mentoring program known as “Hawks Take Flight.” The goal of the program is to give students the skills and support they need to stay on track for graduation. The program, which flags missing work, absences, and a lack of school connectedness in junior high, allows the school to identify incoming freshmen who are in need of additional support. The numbers prove her program is successful. In 2007-2008, the average number of “F” grades a year for a class of 130 freshmen was 273. By 2019-2020, there were only 16 failing grades in the freshman class.

What inspired Kimberly to develop this program? “In 2011, I left freshmen orientation in tears after having an interaction with a boy who said that he hated school and there was nothing I could do to change that,” she recalls. “The four years I spent trying to prove him wrong have strongly impacted me as a person and an educator and solidified the beliefs I have about education,” she says.

In addition this mentoring program, Kimberly co-directs a New Teacher Academy that provides support and professional development to all new hires in her district. The purpose of this Academy is to promote a connection to the district and achieve teacher retention.

Kimberly’s selection as the Illinois 2022 Teacher of the Year is not the only honor this Chalkboard Champion has earned. In 2015, she was named an Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Emerging Leader.

Kimberly earned her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Literature from Northern Illinois University in 2007. She earned her a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Aurora University in 2014. She was designated a National Board Certified Teacher in 2011.

Delphine Ferminear Thomas: Educator and community activist

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Educator Delphine Thomas  was nominated for the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame in appreciation for her work in the classroom and her dedication to her community.  Photo Credit: The Wiregrass Farmer

Often dedicated educators work tirelessly to make things better in their community. An excellent example of this is Delphine Thomas, a secondary level teacher who was so beloved in her community that she was nominated for the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame.

Delphine Ferminear was born on Oct. 1, 1890, in Bay Minette, Alabama. As a young woman, she graduated in 1910 from Troy State Normal School in Troy, Alabama. Today, the institution is known as Troy University. In addition to this education, Delphine completed extra courses to improve her teaching practice at the University of Alabama in the summer of 1914.

Once she completed her education, Delphine accepted a position as a high school teacher in Pike County, a rural area located in southeast Alabama. In 1913, she was named the principal of a school in the more centrally-located Edgewater, a mining community in Jefferson County near Birmingham.

Throughout her career, Delphine became a vocal advocate to improve benefits for her colleagues. She authored a paper entitled “Homes for Rural Teachers” in 1915. That same year, she was elected the Vice President of the Alabama Educational Association.  To benefit the entire community, she advocated the abolition of poll taxes, and even published papers to advance that cause.

In 1916, Delphine married Albert Thomas, a professor of mechanical engineering at Alabama Polytechnic Institute. The pair were married on the campus of the Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. The union produced two children.

In 1919, Delphine was working as an assistant in the English Department of Auburn University, but by 1930, she had returned to the secondary classroom, teaching junior high school students at the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education in Fairhope, Alabama. The progressive school, founded by educational reformer Marietta Johnson, was profiled and praised by educator John Dewey in his book Schools of Tomorrow, published in 1913. The school emphasized learning in outdoor environments and offered crafts and folk dancing in addition to traditional academic subjects.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Delphine organized both the first Girl Scout troop and the first 4-H Club programs for girls in Auburn. She was also active in local politics, the Auburn Library Board, the Alabama Congress of Parents of Teachers, and the American Red Cross. From 1941 to 1953, Delphine served on the Alabama State Personnel Board.

For all of her work as an educator and as a community activist, Delphine Ferminear Thomas was nominated for the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame in 1977. Sadly, this remarkable Chalkboard Champion passed away in a Birmingham hospital on July 22, 1963, following a short illness. She was 72 years old.