Texas middle school teacher Caitlin Baumgarten has earned a 2023 Julius Glickman Education Leadership Award. Photo Credit: Caitlin Baumgarten
I am always eager to share the story of an outstanding teacher who has earned recognition for their work as a professional educator. One of these is Caitlin Baumgarten, a teacher from Texas who has garnered a 2023 Julius Glickman Education Leadership Award, an honor which recognizes exceptional leadership in the field of education.
Caitlin teaches Social Studies to sixth—eighth graders at A&M Consolidated Middle School in College Station. “I believe in teaching from the heart; in treating students with respect and dignity; in finding new, creative and engaging ways to spark a fire of interest in my students,” declares Caitlin. “In order to be a successful teacher, and to provide the best educational experience for all of my students, each moment in my classroom should be a positive experience for each student,” she asserts.
In addition to creating an engaging classroom environment and bringing history to life for her students, Caitlin enjoys helping other social studies teachers reach their students in new, exciting ways through her podcast, History Teachers Club.
“We history teachers love to say that our lessons ‘make history come alive’ but I have never quite seen that actually happen so much as it does in Caitlin’s classroom,” remarks colleague Daniel Lewer. “Her effort to make history truly come alive go beyond the room transformations and costumes. It fundamentally rests in the engaging lesson and rich content that her students have to wrestle with in her classroom,” he continues.
Caitlin earned her Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in English/Language Arts and Social Studies from Texas A&M University in 2016. She also earned a minor in Political Science. She earned her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Grand Canyon University in 2021.
Humanities Texas, which bestows the Julius Glickman Education Leadership Award, presents annual statewide awards to Texas classroom teachers who have made exemplary contributions in teaching, curriculum development and extracurricular programming.
