Teacher and assistant football coach George Anderson named Iowa’s 2020 State Teacher of the Year.

Today we shine a spotlight on educator George Anderson, a teacher and coach from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. George has just been named his state’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.

The honored educator teaches at John F. Kennedy High School, where he has worked for 13 years. There he teaches history and also serves as the assistant football coach. He is also a member of his school’s leadership team.

George was raised in the Murrells Inlet area of Garden City, South Carolina. He graduated from Socastee High School. As a young man, he served his country in the US Marine Corps. While in the military, he was an infantry scout for the Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. When he received his discharge in 1999, he moved to Iowa and took a job as a construction framer. While working in this job, he worked his way through college. In 2006, he graduated with a Master’s degree in Social Science Education from the University of lowa.

“As a teacher, I like active rooms, students moving around and discussing the material with other students,” George says. “I like to see students engage with the material of history in a way that isn’t just fact recollection or sequencing events. I want student-centered dynamics in the classroom,” he continues. “I do not want to be the center of attention,” he confesses.

To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this article published in The Gazette.