'Teachable Moments' elevates the voices of our best educators
8/23/2011
On Sunday, The Florida Times-Union, in partnership with our friends at The Community Foundation in Jacksonville and WJCT, launched "Teachable Moments." This excellent series is a project of The Philanthropic Initiative of The Community Foundation in Jacksonville and highlights successful public school educators in Northeast Florida-specifically Florida Blue EDDY Awards Teacher of the Year finalists.
Fittingly, they started with Youmone Berrien, teacher at First Coast High School and the 2011 Duval County Teacher of the Year.
Here at JPEF, we're proud to say that in 2010 we made the Teacher of the Year a standing position on our board of directors. Zachary Champagne (2010 Teacher of the Year) and Youmone Berrien have been incredible ambassadors for the education profession at a time when teachers have been feeling under siege.
In the first story of the series, Berrien shares her successes and creative techniques to connect with students, including using hip-hop music to introduce students to poetry and starting Ladies First, a campus sisterhood service organization.
Want to hear the voices of these teachers? Check out the WJCT radio interviews with the featured teachers by visiting wjctondemand.org.
We're looking forward to seeing and hearing the voices of our city's best teachers elevated in our local media!
-- Deirdre Conner