Favorite Teacher Awards

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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

Nancy Berry
2000 Inductee

Nancy Berry dreamed of being a teacher from the time she was a little girl. She overcame much hardship as a child and credits teachers with helping her.

Superintendent Steven Kain in 1997 asked Nancy to accept the Columbia Elementary principal position even though she did not have her administrative certification. She accepted the job and obtained certification within a year. She keeps active in the classroom by teaching reading, creative writing, and science.

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

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Edward Everett

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.