Excerpt from Oklahoma State Department of Education
BROKEN ARROW (Jan. 23, 2019) — Oklahoma’s 2018 Teacher of the Year is a step closer to claiming the profession’s highest honor. In a news conference this morning at Broken Arrow High School, Gov. Kevin Stitt and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister announced that Donna Gradel of Broken Arrow High School has been named one of four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year award.
“Donna’s teaching philosophy is that every student has potential no matter his or her start. Her heart captures perfectly the power of education itself – to see the best in a student and to cultivate that potential so the student can overcome all odds and become a job creator, a future U.S. president or city mayor, a community leader, a professional educator or a scientist,” Stitt said during the announcement.
Since July, Gradel has been traveling the state on a 77-country tour as the state’s ambassador of teaching. The goal of her “Year of the Teacher” campaign is to recruit, retain and celebrate Oklahoma teachers. Gradel is the second Oklahoma teacher since 2016 to be named a National Teacher of the Year Finalist.
An environmental science teacher, Gradel is known for challenging her students to find solutions to real-world problems. She and her students created the Aqua for Tharaka campaign, which provided clean water and protein for impoverished orphans in a remote region of Kenya. Gradel’s students designed aquaponic systems for the project, and after months of research and data collection, teacher and students traveled to Africa to complete the system.
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