Four teachers from Stuttgart, Nashville, Hot Springs and Siloam Springs are vying to be Arkansas' 2016 Teacher of the Year.
The four -- three of whom initially studied for careers in fields other than education -- were named Thursday from a pool of 15 previously announced semifinalists at an Arkansas Capitol ceremony.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key and Kim Davis of the Walton Family Foundation, which is a sponsoring organization of the awards program, were on hand to honor the finalists and semifinalists.
The finalists are:
• Meghan Ables, an 11th-grade English and literacy teacher at Stuttgart High.
• Brenda Galliher, an eighth-grade science teacher at Nashville Junior High.
• Stephanie Goodman, a sixth-grade math teacher at Hot Springs Intermediate School.
• Michael Rogers, a ninth-through-12th-grade agriculture teacher at Siloam Springs High School.
The Teacher of the Year winner will be named later this year.
While each semifinalist and finalist receives $1,000, the winner will be awarded an additional $14,000 and a year's sabbatical from the classroom, during which time the teacher will serve as an ex officio member of the Arkansas Board of Education and travel the state to speak to teachers and students. The winner also will compete for National Teacher of the Year honors.
The finalists' years of teaching experience range from eight to 18.
Galliher, an 11-year teacher, is the only one of the four who did not grow up in Arkansas. She earned a bachelor's degree in forestry from Purdue University and a master's degree in business administration from Indiana University.
She worked as an agri-forestry volunteer in the Peace Corps after college and then she worked as a stockbroker and in banking for a number of years. Her family moved to Arkansas as the result of a job transfer for her husband, a Weyerhaeuser employee.
"The Lord took me on a long, long path to education," Galliher said in an interview. "But he knew where I needed to be."
After her son started school, Galliher said she began doing some substitute teaching, which snowballed into earning teaching credentials through Arkansas' nontraditional teacher licensure program -- a program that the Nashville Junior High teacher praised.
"I am so thankful for it because not many states have a program to get people with good work experience into education," Galliher said. "It's a benefit. There are a lot of great teachers who have come from the business world."
Galliher, who took eighth- and ninth-graders to "swim with the manatees" in Florida this summer and will go to the Kennedy Space Center next year, said, "I work every day to let my students experience real science, not just learn about it."
Ables, a teacher for going on 13 years, earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Arkansas State University but now teaches in her hometown and at her alma mater as the result of going through the state's nontraditional teacher licensure program.
At Stuttgart High, she not only teaches English but also journalism. She re-established the school's monthly magazine, The Bird Banner, which is written by her students. She is also behind efforts to put into operation the new Ricebird Television studio at the school.
"She is always a positive influence, and she is always trying to grow and improve what she does," James O'Neal, director of student services for the Stuttgart School District, said about Ables. "She is constantly doing everything she can to motivate students."
Competition plays into that motivation.
Ables said she and her students like sports.
"I got 10 teachers to be team leaders and we drafted every student in the 11th grade to be on a team," Ables said. "They worked to earn points for reading or writing about something or mentoring other students. We took the winning team to see the Memphis Grizzlies team in Memphis."
Goodman, an eight-year teacher and native of Rison, earned a bachelor's degree in education from Henderson State University, and taught in Louisiana and Missouri before moving back to Arkansas. She started Math Night with dinner at Hot Springs Intermediate School.
"I order pizza and water. We just eat and after we eat, they have pencil and paper and we just work math, and that way they can go home and help their students," Goodman said.
Becky Rosburg, principal at Hot Springs Intermediate, called Goodman a "phenomenal teacher" who is beloved by her sixth-grade math students.
"She just has a way of introducing curriculum and really getting that content taught on a level that they understand and she makes it engaging and fun," Rosburg said. "They know deep down that she truly wants to be there for them. She will do anything for them. She comes in early and stays late. She is always working."
Rogers, a teacher for 19 years, is one of six men to be semifinalists for the Teacher of the Year honor and the sole male finalist. An agriculture teacher is rare among the finalists for the annual award.
He is a graduate of Springdale High and earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and then a master's in the art of teaching from the university, which is considered a nontraditional route to the earning credentials for teaching in the public schools.
Rogers was a leader in a multiyear effort to establish Siloam Springs' conversion charter school program and the start of a career academy. The district has raised nearly $1.5 million from agriculture and industry businesses to support the programs.
"His tireless work in developing a curriculum for an industrial maintenance program, fundraising through private donors and selling the program to the community and the region has been invaluable," Jason Jones, the school's principal, said of Rogers.
Rogers said the industrial maintenance program is about taking a raw product to a value-added product.
"It's agricultural and it's industrial," he said.
Rogers also said he is often the last person a student works for before getting a real job.
"On occasion I have to 'fire' my students. That doesn't mean they get to go home, but they know they are not meeting my expectations," he said. "I owe it to them to prepare them for success."
Ouida Newton, the 2015 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, introduced each semifinalist and finalist to the onlookers in the Old Supreme Court chambers at the Capitol, calling them representatives of teachers statewide.
She said teachers are managers, motivators, diagnosticians, politicians and financiers, and finally a gift to the world.
"Without them there would not be doctors, rocket scientists, computer geeks, businessmen or any other profession. These teachers are the ones who birthed the thinkers, the doers, and the experts in all the other fields."
Arkansas Education Board member Vicki Saviers of Little Rock thanked the semifinalists and finalists for their dedication and extraordinary commitment to their students.
"You are the best of the best," Saviers said.
Hutchinson said the annually selected state Teacher of the Year in the year the teacher would spend away from the classroom gives counsel to the state and helps shape policy in the state.
"We all want to make a difference in life," the governor said. "Teachers make a difference every day."
Metro on 09/18/2015