U of A Graduates Take Top Teaching Honors in Northwest Arkansas

Julie Griggs receives teacher of the year honors from Jack Loyd, principal of Bentonville High School.

Kara Holland, center, is congratulated by Superintendent Harold Jeffcoat, left, and Principal Eddie Tipton.

Laurie Jennings, second from right, is congratulated by Assistant Principal Nichole Davis, from left, Principal Danny Brackett and Assistant Principal Margaret Robinson, all of Har-Ber High School in Springdale.

Christhian Saavedra receives balloons with his award during a school assembly.

Andrew Young, center, is pictured with members of his yearbook staff at Woodland Junior High School in Fayetteville.

Jason Ivester

Christhian Saavedra receives balloons with his award during a school assembly.

Several University of Arkansas graduates received teaching honors as the school year wrapped up in the spring. They teach in a variety of fields from art, English and marketing to coaching soccer and serving as yearbook adviser.

Some earned bachelor's degrees in content areas in the J. William College of Arts and Sciences and then a Master of Arts in Teaching from the College of Education and Health Professions. One earned her degrees elsewhere but participated in U of A professional development programs that influenced her teaching.

Julie Griggs, teacher of the year for Bentonville High School, earned a bachelor's degree in English from the U of A in 1996 and spent several years working in the corporate world before she decided to try teaching. She earned her M.A.T. in 2011 and has since taught English to ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders at Bentonville High School, along with critical reading. This year, she completed the three-year ARTeacher Fellowship program offered by the College of Education and Health Professions that focuses on integrating the arts into other subjects. It helped her develop new strategies for creativity in her classroom.

Griggs said she thinks fellow teachers nominated and voted for her as Teacher of the Year largely because she collaborates with others, sharing ideas. One strategy for working with struggling readers has been to build on the topic of empathy, she said.

"A lot of times struggling readers don't like to read," Griggs said. "I shared an article about how reading helps us develop empathy and compassion and about using reading as a connection between people. We're building on that.

"I attribute so much of my growth to (the ARTeacher Fellowship program)," she continued. "It's an opportunity be around really positive teachers who challenge themselves to grow."

Kara Holland, teacher of the year at Van Buren High School, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics from the U of A in 2010 and obtained her teaching license through a four-year licensure program. She said the award recognizes teachers who are involved in the community beyond their classrooms.

Holland sponsors the art club at the high school and facilitated several charity events and art activities last year, including painting murals in the library and at the school tennis courts. She has led the organization of a dinner called Empty Bowls for the past nine years. Students make ceramic bowls and serve soup to guests at the event that raises money for an organization that feeds schoolchildren.

"Teaching allows me to share something I get really excited about, art-making," she said. "It opens young people's eyes to a new experience, especially teens who tend to leave art behind in elementary school."

Holland was also chosen by the school's administrators as secondary teacher of the year and served as grand marshal of the commencement ceremony. Some of her students have gone on to become artists; one is studying art at University of the Ozarks and another at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Laurie Jennings is this year's teacher of the year at Har-Ber High School in Springdale. She earned an undergraduate degree in advertising and public relations from the U of A followed by the M.A.T. in 2009. She taught English at George Junior High School in Springdale before moving to Springdale High School and now Har-Ber, where she has taught marketing, management and entrepreneurship for three years.

She advises the school's DECA club, a national organization for marketing students. Students can submit nominations for the teaching award.

"I have a lot of close personal relationships with my students through the organization," Jennings said. "We spend so much time together outside school traveling and practicing for competition."

She has taken students to contests in Nashville, Tennessee, Anaheim, California, and Atlanta, Georgia.

Her internship experience at George Junior High during the M.A.T. was like a job interview, Jennings said. Teachers and administrators saw her in action, and she was able to fit easily into the school after being hired. The teacher who served as yearbook sponsor when she did a placement at Springdale High was her mentor teacher and then Jennings took on the yearbook role when she was hired there.

Christhian Saavedra, teacher of the year at Kirksey Middle School in Rogers, has been teaching there since he earned his M.A.T. in secondary education in 2013 and his bachelor's degree in Spanish the year before. He teaches Spanish through sixth hour at Kirksey, and then he leaves to coach boys' soccer at Heritage High School.

He was born in California but his mother took him to El Salvador a few months later, where he stayed until he moved back to the United States to live with his father at age 13.

"I am a reminder of what can happen when teachers invest in a kid," Saavedra said. "I didn't speak a word of English. By celebrating my success, we are celebrating the work so many teachers put into me and my career. They helped me be confident and get a scholarship."

Saavedra sees students every day who remind him of himself.

"If you just look at them on the surface they seem like a hard person and have an 'I don't care' attitude," he said. "I was once that kid and I use that perspective to dig deeper. I don't take things personal when they don't want to work, but I tell them they don't have to be a walking billboard of their problems. They can rise above their problems. At that age, they don't understand themselves."

The M.A.T. program emphasized that teachers need to be leaders and advocates for their students, Saavedra said, being sure that graduates understand how to be a voice for students.

Andrew Young, who earned an M.A.T. in 2013, was named teacher of the year at Woodland Junior High School in Fayetteville and then for the entire Fayetteville district. He also received the Arkansas Scholastic Press Association award for yearbook adviser of the year.

Young started teaching eighth-grade English and pre-AP English after graduating. He also has a bachelor's degree in English and political science from the U of A.

"When I took over the yearbook, it was a really great program," he said. "I attended a publisher's meeting for advisers and saw other books that were winning national awards. My students are just as talented."

He made some changes so that the yearbook used more journalistic techniques as a whole, offering training in photography and design to students.

"Now, we're winning national awards, and we get great rankings every year," Young said. "One of our points of pride is our photography. We have had two photos named finalists for picture of the year. It's about letting students do their thing. Like language or sports, the more you do, the better you get. They are excited to show me when they get a good picture."