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Ohio Voices in Education | Igniting Ideas, Inspiring Change
Season 2 of The Conversation is here! This season we’ll be exploring themes that will keep you informed, excited, and engaged —with a new twist, several of our episodes will include a student’s perspective. Listen along this fall as we ignite ideas and inspire change.
Jonathan Juravich:
There are teachers that are part of that 11 or the finalists that end up having these incredible opportunities come to them throughout this process, or they have a sense of reflection that it leads them down a totally different path than they originally thought.
Rachel Daniels:
That was Jonathan Juravich, our teacher at Liberty Tree Elementary School and 2018's Ohio Teacher of the Year. He's joined by Angela Dicke, state Coordinator for the Ohio Teacher of the Year program at the State Board of Education. On this episode of the conversation, they'll discuss application information and the rewarding experiences that come from the Ohio Teacher of the Year program. Let's dive in.
John Hambrick:
Welcome back to the Conversation, Ohio Voices in Education, Igniting ideas, inspiring change. My name is John Hambrick and I'm here with my esteemed colleague, Rachel Daniels, and we have a great conversation ahead of you around Ohio Teacher of the Year. With us today, Jonathan Juravich, art teacher at Liberty Tree Elementary School with Olentangy local schools just outside of Columbus, Ohio. Jonathan was a 2018 Ohio Teacher of the Year and a finalist in the 2018 National Teacher of the Year. And alongside Jonathan and Angela Dicke. Angela is the state coordinator for the Ohio Teacher of the Year program with the State Board of Education. Welcome. Angela, I'm going to start with you, please. Can you share your insights into the Ohio Teacher of the Year program and its significance?
Angela Dicke:
Absolutely, thanks. So first of all, the Ohio Teacher of the Year program has been in existence since 1964. So it is the longest standing most prestigious teacher recognition program in the state. I'm very excited to work in this program with the state board. We have 11 teachers of the year as a cohort model. And from those 11 around the state, one is selected as the Ohio Teacher of the Year that represents our state with the National Teacher of the Year program. So that's a very brief overview of who we are and what we're about. But our mission is to elevate teacher voice, teacher recognition, and teacher leadership, as they are advocates for public education.
Rachel Daniels:
Well, thanks for that overview. Jonathan. I'm going to ask you to chime in and provide an overview of the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, as well as the Ohio Chapter. Specifically, can you add a little bit about its mission?
Jonathan Juravich:
Yeah, so the National Network of State Teachers of Year, called NNSTOY, is an organization. It's a group that brings together all of those people that have been recognized through their State Teacher of The Year programs. So in Massachusetts and Iowa and Washington DC, so all of the people that have been recognized through the program. So the teachers that Angela just mentioned for Ohio, those 11 state school board teachers of the year, as well as the one individual that's selected as Teacher of the Year, are all automatically members of this group. And what this group does is they do have an annual conference on teacher leadership that moves around throughout the country. But they also work in providing fellowship opportunities and they provide professional development. And those fellowships and those professional developments aren't just for people that have been recognized through this program. They oftentimes provide these resources out to lots of teachers.
The conference now, the national conference, is open to any teachers that are interested in teacher leadership. So a lot of the sessions are led by people that are teachers of the year or national teachers of the year. But then there are teachers that just want to work with these individuals that attend the conference as well. Couple years ago, we then, in the state of Ohio, worked to create our own chapter. There had been beginnings and starts and stops in making this happen. But we worked bringing together our own chapter. And what we do is we get together twice a year to have meetings. At one point, we have a big celebration where we bring everyone together that's ever been recognized in the program, and we have an evening event that recognizes the new teachers of the year and the new Ohio Teacher of the Year.
And then in the early summer, we have another event where we bring everyone together just to talk about what we need to do and what we want to do with this group. And so that's our Ohio chapter. And then throughout the year, we're continually sharing out resources and opportunities with our group. Now that National Network of State Teachers of the Year, the program or the national conference that they hold, is every summer and it is the National Teacher Leadership Conference. And it's through NNSTOY and anyone can look it up online. They can look that up and they have a website and they can seek out this opportunity. And it's a really amazing experience. So that is a lot of information for you. So it's a national program that we have our own Ohio chapter, and it's pretty incredible, just to have these relationships over years.
Rachel Daniels:
Well, Jonathan. One thing I like is this notion that you don't have to win the accolade to be part of the group and to learn from the group, essentially. So I appreciate that little nuance.
Jonathan Juravich:
Yeah. And it's this selection process. And it's not about one individual. Yeah, as Angela shared, one person is selected to represent teachers. But then there are teachers that are part of that 11 or the finalists that end up having these incredible opportunities come to them throughout this process. Or they have a sense of reflection that it leads them down a totally different path than they originally thought. So it's amazing, to just be able to ... Myself and I know Angela feels the same way, to play a small part in this entire adventure.
John Hambrick:
Jonathan, I sure am glad that you are here in Ohio and you also then represent fellow Ohio educators nationally. So rock on. And how cool is that, that you are one of our very own? So thank you so much for that. Angela, I'm going to come back to you. Can you share in the context of this initiative, how do partnerships contribute to the overall impact? And help a little clarity on what the key roles that they play.
Angela Dicke:
Sure. Great question. So partnerships are key in all of this. One of the biggest partners we have is basically our state board members. So they're in it to recognize teachers in their regions and then celebrate them again as a cohort when there are 11 selected. Some of them also help on our selection. Well, all of them are invited to help with the regional selection. Some of the appointed help with the state selection. And in other partnerships and key supporters are our associations, the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation for Teachers. We also have the Ohio Parent Teacher Association. We have the Ohio Association of Black School Educators. I'm going to forget somebody. We have higher ed representatives that support the Ohio Teacher of the Year program, and then we have some local places that help support what we're doing for when we need things like space or materials.
So the Columbus Museum of Art has been a great partner. We've had the Columbus Metropolitan Library be partners with us in offering space when we do our selections. And BIBIBOP has offered free food for some of our meetings through Jonathan and through the Ohio chapter of NNSTOY, which is an amazing thing, our day of professional learning. So our partners are people that support us in all aspects of this programming, which starts with recruiting nominations. Our area educational service centers are also big partners because they are our territory leads for our 11 regions, and they really put the call-out for nominations, they help with the selection, they facilitate that. And they bring forth the 11 of our cohort every year. So we couldn't do this ... They do the heavy lift, then I deal with 11 when I facilitate the state selection. But they deal with sometimes tens to hundreds, depending on the region how many nominations and how many applications.
So we're always looking for ways to engage more partners. And if I forgot somebody, Jonathan, chime in. But I look at our school districts as our partners too, because they're out there thinking about teachers to nominate. Our parents. We've had great nominations from parents. Our students. Those are the most amazing nominations when we get them from students. And just community members that know or have remembered a teacher that they've worked with and thought, "You know what? I'd really like to recognize them." So partnerships are key, and just recognizing teachers and giving them that sense of, "Yeah, good job. Well done." And we just want to say thank you. I appreciate that question because we're always looking for more bigger and better ways to engage our partners.
John Hambrick:
Again, shout out to all of the restaurateurs for helping to feed our educators and feed the brain.
Angela Dicke:
Absolutely.
John Hambrick:
Jonathan, I'm sorry. You're about to say something?
Jonathan Juravich:
Yeah, Angela mentioned this. We as our ... We call ourselves OHNNSTOY, our local state chapter. We have this day of professional learning in the fall where we bring together ... Again, anyone is invited that's been a part of this program over years. And we have this day of professional learning that's moved. We've held it at the library. The Columbus Museum of Art has been an incredible partner. Again, as she said, BIBIBOP providing food. But then a night right around that time, our evening event has been held at Mozart's for the past three years. And Mozart's, which is in the Clintonville community of Columbus, has been an incredible supporter with giving us space and providing delicious food at discounted prices and being able to honor teachers in a way that makes them feel special, because we need more of that. So it's just been incredible. So if there's any partners out there that want to connect with us further, please reach out because I've got ideas and I'm sure you do too.
Rachel Daniels:
Well, what I can say is right now I have a stream of images of teachers running through my mind who I feel like would be great candidates to be nominated. And I imagine that our listeners are thinking the very same thing. So Jonathan, no pressure, but I'm going to ask you to give us a call of action. For people who are interested, what avenues are available for listeners to actively participate or to get involved in supporting this cause or in nominations?
Jonathan Juravich:
Like I just said, if there are partners out there ... And Angela listed all of the different types of partners that we have. But if there's partners out there that want to support the program, that want to support the work of OHNNSTOY, to put our teacher voice and our leadership out into the community, there's so many ways. We could even bring teachers out to school districts to offer presentations and keynotes, and that is one way that we can do partnerships. But also, we need nominations. Nominating a teacher. You said all of these great images of teachers that you know in the state of Ohio, it takes one nomination. For me, my principal, one day when she was home, saw the email come through and she sent the nomination in. And my life has never been the same since in really wonderful ways. Okay. But-
Rachel Daniels:
You're clarifying that.
Jonathan Juravich:
Yeah. My life has never been the same since because of a partner, because of a principal taking the moment and the time to fill out the nomination materials. And they're not hard. And I'm sure Angela could tell us more about that.
Angela Dicke:
Yeah, if I could jump in. The nomination form is on the State Board of Education website of Ohio. Look for Ohio Teacher of the Year. You can actually just search in any of your search engines, Ohio Teacher of the Year nomination. It'll pull up. It's an online form. It's very brief. But everything that you need is listed there. And yes, submit. Absolutely. And do it before our time ends.
Rachel Daniels:
I feel certain that nominations will increase based on this podcast alone because you two are really good salespeople in pitching this worthwhile cause. So as we close, John and I want to offer a heartfelt thanks to Angela and Jonathan for sharing the story of the Ohio Teacher of the Year program. We encourage our listeners to consider nominating their favorite educator for this prestigious award. All of the resources mentioned will be linked in our podcast description, so check them out there. For John, this is Rachel. And until next time, stay curious and keep the conversation going.