Every Kid Counts Oklahoma is proud to honor Oklahoma’s innovative teachers, in partnership with Tulsa's News on 6 and OKC's News 9. We are honoring one teacher weekly in both areas, and then each month two of the previous eight weekly winners will be chosen to receive a $1,000 check from EKCO.
EKCO loves highlighting the many great things happening in classrooms all over the state, and we want to increase awareness of the accomplishments by Oklahoma’s teachers while also rewarding them with a direct gift for them or their classroom.
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Amber Davis Congratulations to Amber Davis. She is an Occupational Therapist for the Deer Creek School District. One of her students was struggling with dysgraphia and she recommended Snap Type, an app that assists students who struggle with their penmanship. She showed the family how to use the app and had it installed on a tablet so they could practice using it at home. |
Charbrice Evans Congratulations to Charbrice Evans a teacher at Pryor Middle School. She teaches video game design which includes a little bit of graphic design coding and engineering skills. |
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Shawntae Ballard Congratulations to Shawntae Ballard, a 5th grade teacher at Rogers Elementary in OKC. She is always researching ways to increase her student's learning through registering for opportunities for her students. She often writes grants to obtain the best equipment and hands-on experiences for students. |
Lori Martin Congratulations to Lori Martin, an 11th and 12 grade math teacher at Pryor High School. She uses a flip classroom format, which allows students to learn course work through videos and during class time, students can do their homework while asking her questions. |
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Garrod Nightingale Congratulations to Garrod Nightingale, a 7th grade math teacher at Anadarko Middle School. He uses innovations to help his students understand the concepts and objectives, such as purchasing groceries and dog food for unit rate, as well as using hula hoops for teaching the circumference of a circle. Mr. Nightingale is also a U.S. veteran. |
Darla Wright Congratulations to Darla Wright, a 7th-grade reading and language arts teacher at Ketchum Middle School. She always tries creative ways to get her students to enjoy reading and writing including using music. |
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Nancy Dobbins Congratulations to Nancy Dobbins, a 1st grade teacher at Springer Elementary. She works diligently to provide both in-school and out of school supports for increasing student achievement. Ms. Dobbins works hard to find creative solutions to challenges faced by the school and community. |
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Lily Richardson Congratulations to Lily Richardson, a 2nd grade teacher at Reagan Elementary in the Norman school district. Lily teaches STEM, language and much more through her cooking curriculum “Kids Can Cook.” She teaches her students practical skills they can use beyond the classroom. Every other Friday, she teaches her students a new cooking skill and a nutrition lesson, and then they actually cook and eat their recipes. |
Emily McKinney Congratulations to Emily McKinney, a 3rd grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary in Pryor. Emily uses lots of songs and music to teach kids about math. Emily also serves on the Lincoln Success Advisory Committee, which is planning an event with parents and students to walk them through state testing and answer any questions parents may have. |
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Angela McKenna Congratulations to Angela McKenna, a show choir teacher at Classen SAS at Northeast. Ms. Mckenna is working on a community outreach format for the choir program. That means the focus of the choir will shift from competition and performance to community service. |
Chase Tindle Congratulations to Chase Tindle, a 11th and 12th grade teacher at McAlester High School. Chase worked with another teacher to start an aeronautics program at the district where students can pursue their pilots license or becoming a certified aviation maintenance professional. |
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Bobbi Gore Congratulations to Bobbie Gore, a teacher at Le Monde International School in Norman. During Thanksgiving, she had her kids create their own "Macy's Day Parade" based on characters from books they read. The children used software to video the "balloon" in the parade and did a voiceover explaining the balloon in their immersion language of French or Spanish. |
Genevieve Dismukes Congratulations to Genevieve Dismukes, a 6th - 8th-grade teacher at Thoreau Demonstration Academy. Genevieve teaches art and is innovating by introducing her students to silk painting, stained glass, plaster sculpture, ceramics, and basket weaving. She has entered her students in multiple contests and is taking them on a trip next year to New York City. |
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KC Williams Congratulations to KC Williams, a teacher at Edmond Santa Fe High School. KC teaches government and criminal justice and encourages his students to challenge their thought processes through interactive engagement including with guest speakers. |
Cynthia O'Donnell Congratulations to Cynthia O'Donnell, a 9th-grade teacher at Union High School Freshman Academy. Cynthia oversees a group of students that develop school or community programs that they present to community leaders in the Tulsa area. |
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Christina Combs Congratulations to Christina Combs, a 4th and 5th grade science at Schwartz elementary in the Mid-Del school district. Ms. Combs is teacher of the year at Schwartz this year. She started an after-school club with students to help homeless people with bed mats recycled out of old plastic bags from the grocery stores called Compclub. |
Carey Brewer Congratulations to Cary Brewer, a 5th-grade science & PE teacher at Cleveland Intermediate School. Mr. Brewer became a certified archery instructor this summer to be able to teach his students proper archery techniques. Mr. Brewer has taken a group of students to two archery competitions this year. |
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Ruby Roberson Congratulations to Ruby Roberson, a Pre-K teacher at Esperanza Elementary in Oklahoma City. Ms. Roberson incorporated a software program in her class where animals come alive in 3D to help her class learn their letters. She says every letter has an animal sound and that the students love it. |
Amanda Leatherland Congrats Amanda Leatherland, a 2nd grade teacher at Darnaby Elementary School. Mrs. Leatherland helped launch their competitive robotics programs for their 2nd and 3rd grade students, called Little Bots. |
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Kirt Province Congratulations to Kirt Province, a teacher at Woodward High School. Mr. Province has started a school newspaper, where he has students write and interview teachers, students, coaches, counselors and more staff members in Woodward Public Schools. He has also contacted a local paper, Woodward News, to publish student's work once a week. Mr. Province has these students use their assignments for a real life experience. |
Amanda Teague Congrats to Amanda Teague, a Pre-K teacher at Lewis and Clark Elementary. Ms. Teague is implementing a curriculum in which she teaches kids about life skills with hands-on experience including: laundry, cooking, personal hygiene, health care and caring for pets. |
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Melia Wheeler Congratulations to Melia Wheeler, a teacher at Arnett Elementary. She buys tech apps so her kids can create podcasts, green screen videos, WeVideo for stop-motion video with Legos and countless other apps. For a persuasive writing lesson, she enlisted other teachers and administrators to dress as characters from a fairy tale and her class put them on trial, with each student representing a side and pleading their case. |
Addison Tipton Congratulations to Addison Tipton, a kindergarten through 3rd grade special-ed teacher at Central Elementary school in Coweta. She uses A curriculum called "star ducks cafe" which teaches her students about counting money, graphing, home-ec, and socialization. |