(New York City) Stacy Hoeflich, a fourth grade teacher from John Adams Elementary School in Alexandria, VA, and a 2009-2010 Teachinghistory.org Teacher Representative, is the 2011 National History Teacher of the Year.
The award, presented by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, HISTORY® (History Channel), and Preserve America, honors K-12 teachers for their use of primary documents in the classroom, the level of inspiration they provide their students and their career achievements in education. Ms. Hoeflich received the title and $10,000 award in a ceremony at the Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem that included two of her former students, along with James Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute; Libby O’Connell, senior vice-president and chief historian, HISTORY®; Clement Price, vice chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Teachinghistory.org’s Outreach Director Jennifer Rosenfeld attended the event representing Teachinghistory.org which sponsored Ms. Hoeflich’s nomination.
An accomplished educator, Ms. Hoeflich has taught elementary school for thirteen years. She has presented at local, state, and national education conferences on teaching history and historical thinking with primary sources.
As a Teacher Representative for Teachinghistory.org, Ms. Hoeflich provided feedback about the website in order to improve its use by educators. She also appears in two Best Practices videos about teaching with maps and teaching with political cartoons.
Dr. Kelly Schrum, Director of Teachinghistory.org, who nominated Ms. Hoeflich for the award, stated: “Hoeflich is devoted to the teaching and learning of history. After seeing the students in her classroom excitedly puzzle over a difficult map created almost four hundred years ago or analyze political cartoons from the last century, students leave her classroom with a lifelong interest in understanding the complexities of the past.”
According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute, Ms. Hoeflich was chosen “from a pool of winners from each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, US Territories, and Department of Defense schools.” Each state honoree receives a $1,000 award, a collection of classroom resources to be presented in his or her name to the school library, and the opportunity to attend a Gilder Lehrman Institute summer seminar.
In June, Ms. Hoeflich was named the 2011 Virginia Teacher of the Year. Last month, she learned she was one of five finalists for the national honor.
Teachinghistory.org, a project of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, is a leader in helping K–12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom. Funded through the U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement’s Teaching American History (TAH) program, Teachinghistory.org builds on and disseminates the valuable lessons learned by more than 1,000 TAH projects designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers’ knowledge and understanding of U.S. history.