Earlier this month, Indiana parent Krysten Moon saw 2009 WW Teaching Fellow David Johnson on a local TV show. Here’s what she had to say:

I’m a mom on winter break in central Indiana, watching a [local] television program … with my teenagers.  It is a discussion by teachers of their goals, disappointments, hopes, but seems to keep dissolving into a list of complaints.  Here’s what’s wrong with legislators, here’s what’s wrong with parents, here’s what’s wrong with communities…

It was frustrating and depressing to watch.  By the time you get to a television program, don’t you chose the brightest and best thinkers you have, to best represent education?  But is was a sea of blah blah treat us like professionals, blah blah there’s no way to evaluate teachers, blah blah blah.  We were drowning in this sea!

However, there was a bright spot, a man who spoke with clarity about interesting new ideas about how to improve education.  That man was David Johnson of Wayne Township schools, who identified himself as a part of your program. (We saw his picture on the front page of your website.)

We were so impressed.

When David Johnson spoke of a need for customer satisfaction in education, we cheered!  When he spoke of using technology (texting, YouTube) as an ally, instead of an enemy, we paused the television and had a full-on discussion.  We thought it was sad when we felt the moderator was dismissing his creativity as if it were too much work.  We loved his ideas about working with teachers outside of his classroom.

We want to see more  teachers like David Johnson in our schools. If producing teachers like this man is what Woodrow Wilson Fellowship does, then we want to say this: bravo!

Mrs. Krysten Moon

Ashley, a top 2009 biology grad from the University of Indianapolis (YouTube), is now an eighth-grade science teacher at Goshen Middle School in Goshen, Indiana. Marsha, who had a 20-year career as a research chemist before deciding to teach, is at Fall Creek Academy teaching secondary-level science. She writes, “The students inspire me!”

Marsha and Ashley, both of whom did their master’s work as WW Fellows at the University of Indianapolis, were two of just three Indiana teachers selected from among hundreds of applicants nationally to take part in NSTA’s New Science Teacher Academy. The Academy–jointly sponsored by NSTA, The Dow Chemical Company, the Amgen Foundation, Astellas Pharma US, Inc., the American Honda Foundation, the Bayer USA Foundation, and Lockheed Martin–provides a year-long “professional development program designed to help promote quality science teaching, enhance teacher confidence and classroom excellence and improve teacher content knowledge.”

Congratulations, Marsha and Ashley–two great examples of the quality of the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows!