Do you have a favorite Teacher?

Let us know.
Send us your teacher's name, school, grade. If you have a picture that would be great too.
Then tell us why he/she is your favorite teacher.

We will feature your teacher on our Lens.

Click here to send us and email. Title it - My Favorite Teacher.

Barbara Radding Morgan
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA: Born November 28, 1951, in Fresno, California. Married to Clay Morgan. They have two sons. Barbara plays flute and enjoys reading, hiking, swimming, skiing, and her family.

EDUCATION: Hoover High School, Fresno, California, 1969; B.A., Human Biology, with distinction, Stanford University, 1973; Teaching Credential, College of Notre Dame, Belmont, California, 1974.

ORGANIZATIONS: National Education Association; Idaho Education Association; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; National Science Teachers Association; International Reading Association; International Technology Education Association; Challenger Center for Space Science Education.

SPECIAL HONORS: Phi Beta Kappa, NASA Headquarters Special Service Award, NASA Public Service Group Achievement Award. Other awards include Idaho Fellowship Award, University of Idaho President's Medallion Award, International Technology Education Association Lawrence Prakken Professional Cooperation Award, Challenger Center for Space Science Education Challenger 7 Award, National Space Society Space Pioneer Award for Education, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Wright Brothers "Kitty Hawk Sands of Time" Education Award, Women in Aerospace Education Award, National PTA Honorary Lifetime Member, and USA Today Citizens of the Year.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Morgan was selected as the backup candidate for the NASA Teacher in Space Program on July 19, 1985. From September 1985 to January 1986, Morgan trained with Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. Following the Challenger accident, Morgan assumed the duties of Teacher in Space Designee. From March 1986 to July 1986, she worked with NASA, speaking to educational organizations throughout the country. In the fall of 1986, Morgan returned to Idaho to resume her teaching career. She taught second and third grades at McCall-Donnelly Elementary and continued to work with NASA's Education Division, Office of Human Resources and Education. Her duties as Teacher in Space Designee included public speaking, educational consulting, curriculum design, and serving on the National Science Foundation's Federal Task Force for Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering.

Selected by NASA as a mission specialist in January 1998, Morgan reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1998. Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, she was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch. She then served in the Astronaut Office CAPCOM Branch, working in Mission Control as prime communicator with on-orbit crews. She also served in the Robotics Branch of the Astronaut Office. Morgan has logged over 305 hours in space, completing her first space flight in 2007 as a mission specialiast on the crew of STS-118, an assembly mission to the International Space Station.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-118 (August 8-21, 2007) was the 119th space shuttle flight, the 22nd flight to the station, and the 20th flight for Endeavour. During the mission Endeavour's crew successfully added another truss segment, a new gyroscope and external spare parts platform to the International Space Station. A new system that enables docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend visits to the outpost was activated successfully. A total of four spacewalks (EVAs) were performed by three crew members. Endeavour carried some 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station and returned to Earth with some 4,000 pounds of hardware and no longer needed equipment. Traveling 5.3 million miles in space, the STS-118 mission was completed in 12 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes and 34 seconds.

Teachers in Space began as a government project. On August 27, 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced he was "directing NASA to begin a search in all of our elementary and secondary schools and to choose, as the first citizen passenger in the history of our space program, one of America's finest-a teacher." In that way, Reagan said, "All of America will be reminded of the crucial role that teachers and education play in the life of our nation. I can't think of a better lesson for our children and our country."

More than 11,000 teachers answered the call, each of them filling out a 25-page application that took 160 hours to complete. Finalists travelled to Washington DC, then to Houston for a battery of medical tests, briefings, and interviews. Finally, in July of 1985, NASA chose New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe to be the first Teacher in Space and Idaho teacher Barbara Morgan as her backup.

Christa McAuliffe was not destined to become the first teacher in space. On January 28, 1986, the Shuttle Challenger experienced the worst disaster in the nation's space history when a flaw in the Shuttle's solid rocket booster caused the vehicle to break up just 73 seconds into flight. The seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, perished.

Even after the Challenger accident, Reagan's visionary commitment never wavered. "We'll continue our quest in space," he declared. "There will be more Shuttle flights and more Shuttle crews and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and journeys continue."

VisitTeachers in Space to read more

Ruth Ann Gaines
2003 Inductee

East High School
Des Moines, Iowa
Total years as a classroom teacher: 32

"As a teacher I try to impact the total student, so that they perceive that real education is about life and how to live it." - Ruth Ann Gaines

Ruth Ann created Sisters For Success, a mentorship program for African American high school girls with the purpose of building self-esteem and foster academic success.

She also created the Leadership Council that leads the school and community in solving problems of diversity.

Ruth Ann implemented a class in Children's Theater where each spring her students perform a popular children's play for surrounding pre-school and elementary school students.

Ruth Ann created the extra-curriculum performing groupThe Voices of Change as a result of racial riots in her school in 1995. The students travel throughout the Midwest improvising scenes about cultural diversity and teen issues. This group has received numerous awards including President Clinton's 1997 Community Involvement Award and the 1997 Race Equity Award presented by the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.

"She has worked with students both in and outside the classroom to foster better human relations through the drama group she heads which performs all over the central Iowa area, showing high school students through skits and speeches how to better get along with each other." -- Linda Lane, Chief Operating Officer of Des Moines Public Schools

Click here for the rest of the story

Visit the National Teacher's Hall of Fame

Eric Heil was recently named the Alaska 2006 Health Educator of the Year. He teaches at Goldenview Middle School in the Anchorage School District. He is an enthusiastic and brilliant health educator and we are proud of him here in Anchorage.

Preconcieved notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.
Merry Browne

Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.
David Starr Jordan

We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us.
Virginia Satir

If you study to remember, you will forget, but, If you study to understand, you will remember.
Unknown

Education is a companion which no future can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate it and no nepotism can enslave.
Ropo Oguntimehin

Words are Power Tools, use them wisely.
Idaho Yak

Wisdom is supreme; therefore make a full effort to get wisdom. Esteem her and she will exalt your; embrace her and she will honor you.
Proverbs 4:7-8

UNESCO inaugurated World Teachers' Day on 5 October 1994 to celebrate and commemorate the signing of the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers on 5 October 1966. World Teachers' Day also highlighted the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel adopted in 1997.

Some countries or regions such as Taiwan also celebrate Teacher's Day as a national holiday, while others ignore it completely. In Brazil and Chile, it is celebrated on October 15, while in India it is celebrated on 5 September. In Brunei, it is celebrated on September 23. In Turkey it has been celebrated on 24 November since 1928. Northern Cyprus also celebrates this day. In Malaysia and in Colombia, it is celebrated on 16 May. Teachers' Day is a school holiday for students in primary and secondary schools and junior colleges/centralised institutes in Singapore celebrated on 1 September. India celebrates Teachers day on 5 September, in honour of a thinker and President Dr. Radhakrishnan.