Latest news with #PennsylvaniaTeacheroftheYear
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Local teachers named finalists for Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year
(WHTM) – Several local teachers are among the finalists for Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. The Department of Education says 12 educators are in the running to win the 2026 honor. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now The winner will be announced in December 2025 and will represent the state at local and national functions. The 12 finalists are: Whitney Bellomo, Dallastown Area School District, York County Nicole Birkbeck, Council Rock School District, Bucks County Katherine Blandino-Nienhuls, Pittsburgh Public School District, Allegheny County Renee Decker, Central York School District, York County Madeline Loring, Jefferson-Morgan School District, Jefferson County Jenna Love, Elizabethtown Area School District, Lancaster County Jennifer Nesser, Laurel Highlands School District, Fayette County Ashley Oldham, Big Spring School District, Cumberland County Andrea Rutledge, Hempfield School District, Lancaster County Rachel Sebastian, Governor Mifflin School District, Berks County Rebecca Showalter, Mount Lebanon School District, Allegheny County Elizabeth Troxell, Penns Valley Area School District, Centre County 'Ask anyone if they remember the teacher who inspired them most, and nearly everyone will immediately smile and name an educator from their past,' said Acting Secretary of Education Dr. Carrie Rowe. 'Excellent educators make a lifelong impact on the learners they serve each day in classrooms across the Commonwealth, and these 12 finalists demonstrate the qualities needed in a great teacher—supportive, engaged, and passionate about the learners in their care.' Pennsylvania's 2024 Teacher of the Year, Ashlie Crosson, was named the National Teacher of the Year. The Mifflin County School District teacher is the first-ever Pennsylvanian to receive the national honor. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Teacher of the Year Asks Rural Students to Tackle Big Global Topics With Empathy
Ashlie Crosson has always loved the classroom. Growing up in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, as one of seven kids of divorced parents, 'I found school to be this place of stability, while some other parts of my life were in transition and in changes,' Crosson told The 74 in a recent interview. 'I was a pretty natural student most of the time,' she added, 'but it was mostly because I had incredible teachers who invested in their students so far beyond what is expected of the job.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter She said she can remember all the way back to a kindergarten teacher who wrote her letters over the summer because she'd be her teacher again in first grade. 'I think I looked at that and said, 'This is an incredibly rewarding way to spend a life.'' It became a 14-year career that rewarded Crosson back — and on the national stage. The AP English teacher and high school journalism advisor was named the 2025 National Teacher of the Year April 29 by the Council of Chief State School Officers. The award, which follows her earning the Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year title, allows Crosson to spend the next year traveling across the country as an ambassador to fellow educators. Ashlie Crosson is interviewed on CBS Mornings on April 29 after being unveiled as the winner of the 2025 National Teacher of the Year. (CBS Mornings) She'll step away from her hometown high school five years after she went back there to answer 'this higher calling to return to the place that made me into a successful adult and into somebody who had found joy and happiness in their adult life.' Crosson, a first-generation college graduate, was selected from a pool of 56 local winners who were narrowed down to three other finalists: American Samoa's Mikaela Saelua, an English language teacher who is the first finalist from the seven islands in the program's history; Washington, D.C.'s Jazzmyne Townsend, an elementary school special education teacher and children's book author; and Colorado's Janet Renee Damon, a high school history teacher at a transfer school who runs a school-based podcast program focused on mental health disparities. Related Fostering Culture & Belonging: Reflections from Teacher of the Year Finalists 'Ashlie is an authentic, self-reflective leader who uses her experiences to help elevate her students into successful careers and life after high school,' the National Teacher of the Year Selection Committee said in a statement. 'She is also a strong and passionate representative for educators, using her voice to help people understand the weight of the teaching profession and the gravity of what teachers do.' Crosson said she grounds the bulk of her classroom work in real-world connections and projects, which allow her students to explore English from a careers-based perspective, while also building understanding and empathy for people of diverse backgrounds across the world. This is perhaps most apparent in her 10th-grade elective course called Survival Stories, which she began designing as a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms fellow. In it, she wants her students to consider sweeping questions like, 'What problems are we trying to solve and in what ways do we need to communicate across borders?' To keep the course accessible and age appropriate, all the material —from non-fiction texts and memoirs, to podcasts and films — come from the voices of teens and adolescents. This allows her students, Crosson said, to have, 'really authentic and approachable conversations about things that can feel really big and really unapproachable.' Mifflin County, Pennsylvania (Mifflin County PA Official Website) In today's political climate, traversing some of these charged topics in rural Mifflin — an almost exclusively white town of just over 46,000, where almost 80% of the vote went to President Donald Trump in 2024 — might seem daunting. Crosson's approach is to begin with texts that take place as far from central Philadelphia as possible, so that by the time students reach stories from their own community — some of which they may have otherwise met with preconceived notions — they are able to analyze them with more nuance, greater empathy and a stronger text-based knowledge. 'We are all here, going through our own human experience,' Crosson said. She wants her students to ask, ' 'How do I relate to these people? How do I better understand these people?' Because at the end of the day, my students also want to be better understood. So there's a reciprocity there.' When her students come to her with challenging political questions — for example about Trump's recent executive orders looking to eradicate any focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in schools — she encourages them to return to the facts, asking, 'What are the actual details?' Related The Education Department Asked for Reports of DEI. It Might Get Something Else 'I'm able to keep my opinions out of things because I'm also first asking my students to put their opinions on pause,' she said, 'so that we have a chance to become more informed about things and have a better, more well-rounded understanding of what's going on before we start trying to figure out our feelings about it.' In addition to Survival Stories, Crosson teaches AP language and composition and 10th-grade English, while also running the school's journalism elective. At the newspaper and district magazine, called the Pawprint, she functions more as a boss and editor than teacher, she said, a position she cherishes, especially since a number of the high schoolers end up going into journalism. 'If students are basically getting simulations of future careers, I love that. And I love facilitating that.' Related Best Stories by USC Student Journalists of 2024 Crosson's classroom is covered with colorful student artwork from floor to ceiling and one corner hosts the 'One Word Board,'where students place the word that will most motivate and inspire them throughout the year. In a video for CBS Mornings, her students were asked to choose five words to describe Crosson: joyful, funny, caring, energetic (but not too much), passionate and dedicated were among their picks. One student said she sees Crosson as 'a safe space.' Another said that whenever she spots students struggling, 'She'll try to make you better as a student and [in] doing that you also learn lessons in how to take help and help others. So I think it makes students better people.' Along with her teaching responsibilities, Crosson serves as the communications chair for her union's negotiating team, assists with the school's Positive Behavior Interventions and Support programming, leads the district's international student trips and co-hosts 'The PL Playbook,' a podcast dedicated to teachers' professional learning. When asked her favorite book to teach, Crosson laughed and said, 'I honestly think that every book becomes my favorite book.' 'There are some books that I've taught for 10 years,' she continued 'and so now there's so many different colored pens [on the pages]. The book is the timeline of my teaching career. And there's something really beautiful about that.'
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Black History Month: Haverford High School teacher named Pa Teacher of the Year
The Brief A Montgomery County native has been named Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. Leon Smith has been a teacher at Haverford High School for more than two decades and he is an educator who is dedicated to his craft. HAVERTOWN, Pa. - A Delaware County educator has been named 2025 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. As the award recipient, Leon Smith will represent the Commonwealth in the National Teacher of the Year competition. He will also continue to work with legislators to craft policies that improve student success and diversity. What we know During Black History Month, Pennsylvania's 2025 Teacher of the Year, Leon Smith, reflects on his impact and what this recognition means. "I knew Black excellence, but I knew they weren't seeing it," said Smith. "And I was frustrated by that, so when I decided I wanted to be a teacher, it was really kind of important to me to be the teacher I never had." Smith has been a teacher at Haverford High School for 22 years, inspired by his parents who were also educators. He teaches 9th grade honors, AP Social Studies, and African American Studies. What they're saying "You have to look back in order to move forward, and I think that's really what Black history is to me, to really learn from the ancestors." Outside of the classroom, he coaches boys basketball and runs the African American Cultural Enrichment Club. He also created programs to encourage more students, especially of color, to become educators. "This is a role that other people that look like me can do. But I also think it really shatters a lot of stereotypes, especially for Black men in society."
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UPJ civics summit gathers Pa. teachers for education, collaboration
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Educational strategies, civil discourse and critical thinking skills were key topics for teachers who gathered Thursday at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown's second American Civic Education and Literacy Initiative teacher summit. 'This is one of the most exciting things going on in civics education in the state of Pennsylvania,' said David Keller Trevaskis, the Pennsylvania Bar Association's director of pro bono services. The former educator has a background in teaching civics and represented the state lawyers' organization at the conference. He was among the teachers and presenters who braved the elements to take part in about a dozen sessions and hear from keynote speaker Leon Smith, despite an overnight storm that encased the area in ice and delayed the summit's start by two hours. PHOTO GALLERY | American Civics Education Initiative Teacher Summit | University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Smith, who teaches at Haverford Senior High School in Delaware County, is the 2025 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. He spoke about how civics and social studies can empower and create a more knowledgeable citizenry; the importance of productive discussions; discrepancies in the number of Black educators and administrators since the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling; and how society is inundated with news. 'It is essential as citizens we possess skills that allow us to be critical consumers of information,' Smith told the crowd. Civics and social studies can do that, he said, adding that he believes educators and education have the power to change the world. Smith said his goals at the summit were to learn strategies he could take back to his coworkers and to explore lessons that could make teaching more meaningful. Topics of Thursday's sessions included learning more about the National Constitution Center's educational framework; finding time for social studies; introducing history-based mock trials to the classroom; and investigating national issues through project-based learning, among others. The sessions were offered by representatives from The Rendell Center for Civics and Civic Engagement, the Bill of Rights Institute, Generation Citizen, the National Constitution Center, Classrooms without Borders, Pitt-Johnstown, Fair Districts PA and the Committee of Seventy. Mark Conlon, a Pitt-Johnstown professor, event organizer and ACE director, said the goal of the workshops was to provide teachers with a specialized space in which they could collaborate – especially in an age when this type of professional development may be limited. 'I kind of live for seeing everyone mingle and making those connections,' he said. Conlon added that it's important for teachers to remember that 'no matter the upheaval outside in the political realm, we can get together and focus on what the real job is, and that's training the next generation of citizens.' 'I think the whole point of today is we want to be in the know – to refine our practice,' Forest Hills High School teacher Benjamin Grove said. Thursday was the U.S. government teacher's first trip to the summit. Grove said he was intrigued by the collaborative element of the event and believed it would 'help us become better educators.' Pitt-Johnstown student Joseph Ruble considered the summit a chance for educators to explore diversity, he said. The secondary education major is pursuing a track in social studies and currently student-teaching in the Greater Johnstown School District. Teachers and students will convene again at Pitt- Johnstown from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 3 for the second Democracy Bowl – a follow-up to the summit. This event will encourage students to explore civics and social studies education in an environment full of historical lessons, conversation and friendly competition. For more information about the Democracy Bowl, contact Conlon at mac699@
