It's been a tough year in education for everyone.
Bizarre schedules, little in-class time for millionsand so many Zoom rooms.
Education reporters in the USA TODAY Networkhad a front seat tothe highs and lows of an extraordinary year of schooling. Those challenges took a toll on many: 43% of teachers who quit cited stress – both before and during COVID-19 – as the chief reason fortheir departure, according to a RAND Corp. survey.
The industry could be on the verge of an infusion of cash and new blood.In his American Families Plan,President Joe Bidenproposes up to $9 billion in federal money to train more people for the profession.
For Teacher Appreciation Week, we're highlighting the educators who stuck with us over the past year because oftheir tenacity or charm or dogged determinationto help students or communities.
Theprofessor piecing together stories of people in unmarked graves atClemson University
For months, Rhondda Thomas, a historian at Clemson University in South Carolina,has worked to identify and tell the stories of 604 people buried in unmarked graves at Woodland Cemetery, the on-campus graveyard.
The goal is to honor those buried among the white faculty and alumni at Woodland, including enslaved Africans, sharecroppers, convict laborers and domestic workerswho lived and worked in Clemson up until the cemetery was formally dedicated in the 1920s.
"Those graves have been there for a long time, so we didn't discover them," Thomas said. "They were recovered."
The university used ground-penetrating radar to determine the location of 604 graves, discoveries announced in October 2020.
Thomas formed a community outreach panel to identify the inhabitants andconnect their modern descendants with the stories buried in the clay.
"I don't see the cemetery project as the game changer. It's just something that we need to do," Thomas said.
Full story:Clemson University seeks to identify people buried in unmarked graves
– Zoe Nicholson, GreenvilleNews
The teacher who madea'Hamilton' star a drama club member
Sure, Bon Jovi can Zoom with kindergarteners– but King George impressedstudents at an Ohio high school thanks to a creative ask from teacher Katie Arber.
Arber, Milford High School'stheater teacher, convinced Jonathan Groff, the Tony-nominated actor who played King George in the hit musical"Hamilton," to Zoom with her class and talk about his career.
Six months earlier, Arber had posted a photo to Facebook wearing a "Hamilton" face mask, suggesting that Groff Zoom with her students. Afriend with aconnection to Groff responded.Arber got her advanced acting class students to make a video invitation for the actor.
Groff started on Broadway in 2006 in "Spring Awakening," then appeared asJesse St. James in "Glee," King George in "Hamilton" and as the voices of Kristoff in the "Frozen" movies. Hewas projected on the big screen in Milford's auditoriumin Februaryfor about 30 students in person and20 watching remotely.
Groff then accepted Arber's invite to be an honorarymember of the drama club.
Full story:Jonathan Groff, of 'Hamilton' fame, talks to Milford High School students
– Madeline Mitchell, Cincinnati Enquirer
The boomer professor and music buff who learned to rap on Zoom
Remember March 2020, when nobody knew how to videoconference?
Mark Naison, 73, a professor at Fordham University in New York, has taught a history of music class for decades, butin the early days of the pandemic, hedidn't know how to show music videos as he always had in class.
What he could figure out was how to film himself and play that on Zoom.Topreserve theraucous spirit of the course, and to keep students' spirits up,he filmed himself rapping. His material included odes to social distancing, hand-washing and self-quarantining.
He wasnot the fastest rapper, but his rhymes mostly worked, and his students appreciated the lengths he went to for a laugh.
"I think that’s what we kind of all need right now with everything going on,” said Imani Del Valle, a senior at the university at the time.
Full story:Online college classes include rapping professor
– Chris Quintana, USA TODAY
The Minnesota teacher who engaged studentsabout theChauvin trial
Kara Cisco teaches at St. Louis Park High School, near Minneapolis. It's acity where George Floyd, a Black man, lived and died and where last year's wave of Black Lives Matter protests erupted in response to his death.
Students of color make up about half the school’s population. As a civics teacher, Cisco tries to incorporate current events into her class without traumatizing students, many of whom have had experiences with racism.
During the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white man and former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder in Floyd's death,Cisco's classdiscussed thepolicies dictating when a Minneapolisofficer can – and should – use force on a suspect.
They identified words and phrases that stuck outfrom the coverage –injustice, murder, democracy. They scrutinized the nuances of policing policies and their role in Floyd's death.
One student argued that, regardless of his actions or the drugs found in his system, Floyd was murdered.Another concluded Chauvin's actions violated policies because "he wasn't in any danger."
Full story:Derek Chauvin's trial was a teachable moment. Here's how classes discussed it.
– Alia Wong, USA TODAY
Thephysics teacher who sought strength from her students
USA TODAY interviewed more than 30 students and teachers around the country for a Q&A-style piece about what they'd learned during the pandemic.
Joellen Persad, a young physics teacher at Madison Park High School in Boston, stood out for her energyand for trying to connect to her students emotionally during the pandemic.
“The biggest source of strength is my students," she said. "At one point, I went through a hard time, and I was actively thinking, ‘OK, be happy, like, be happy. Don't bring your sadness into the classroom.’ And I come into the classroom, and I think I'm trying a little too hard to not be sad because one of my students was like, ‘You're a little off. Are you OK?’”
Persad said the more shecan share with her students the better.
"They truly have healed me and contribute to my healing all of the time," she said, "because I want to be my best self so that I can pour myselfinto them as much as possible.”
Full story:A year after COVID-19 shut schools, students and teachers say what they've learned
– Alia Wong, USA TODAY
A health teacher who mentors teachers, coaches two sports, runsthe gym and inspires students,colleagues
Some teachers loved the new concept of working from home.Stephanie Davy, a teacher in Albuquerque Public Schools, was not one of them.
WhenAlbuquerque reopened for all students to return to full-time instructionApril 5, Davy was thrilled – even if it meant a return to 12-hour days. We followed Davy from sunrise to sunsetas she coached other teachers, counseled her health class, trained future teachers in a dual-credit class, then coached the cheer team and oversaw basketball games.
It was a reminder of the importance of in-person energy and encouragement that teachers – and theother caring adults they work with – provide to students. Davy has seen children arrive in her classroomwho haven't been present online all year.
Full story:A New Mexico school sent all kids backin one day. Here's how it went
– Erin Richards, USA TODAY
The substitute teacher who helped seniors turn F gradesinto A's and B's
Patrice Pullen was building a real estate business in Orlando, Florida, when leaders from Lake Nona High School called her. They had a crisis:Scores of studentswere getting F's during distance learning – many of them seniors whose failing grades threatened to put graduation out of reach.
The percentage of students with failing grades skyrocketed in many communities this year.
Last fall, Lake Nonainvited the at-risk seniors back to campus as part of a cohort that would learn onlinetogether at schoolunder adedicated teacher. The school tapped Pullen as a cohort leader. She's a substitute teacher and a mother of current and former Lake Nona students.
After weeks together in a portable trailer classroom, Pullen'sstudents turned their F's into A's and B's. She made sure they logged in. She championed them. She gave them a shoulder to lean on.
"When you unlock a heart, you transform a life," she said.
– Alia Wong, USA TODAY
Full story:Scores of students getF's: How schools addressit
TheFlorida teacher with a nonprofit theater to nurture young Black actors
Rhonda Wilson is a pillar of the Gainesville, Florida, community as a Blackthespianand middle school teacher. Through her nonprofit Star Center Theatre, sheoffersa hub for hundreds of children and adult studentsto have a place on stage.
In the ’90s, Wilson came to Gainesville to studycommunity resource economics at the University of Florida. One summer, she helpeda summer program stagea production of “Oliver." Shethen quit her job to start the Star Center in 2000.
Wilson teaches at Kanapaha Middle School.
"This is a new face of what art's going tolook like:all kinds of people, not just older white men,and it's a good thing," she said."That's kind of where I think myrole is in life, to encourage people and open up doors or share opportunities with them.”
Full story:Middle school teacher inspires arts with Star Center
– Danielle Ivanov, The Gainesville Sun
The former who became a CEO of an online tutoring company
Amanda DoAmaral, a former high school history teacher, spent 2018holed up at her mom's house livestreamingonline tutorials for a few thousand students around the country taking advanced placement classes.
Today, DoAmaral, 30, is founder and CEO ofa fledgling tech company in Milwaukeewith 15 employeesserving more than 100,000 students a week.
As the coronaviruspandemic upended education and sentmillions of students scrambling online for any available resources, many of them– 1 million in April and May, 2020– landed on Fiveable.me, the AP tutoring and social media platform DoAmaral said could reshapeonlinelearning.
Fiveable offerslive instruction and videos for replay,study guides, practice exams, feedback on essays, office hours and live events, some led by students. Most of the content is free, and costs on the rest are kept low, so all students can participate.
Full story:Former teacher's online tutoring companydraws $3.5M in investments
– Annysa Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
