Muskogee educator wins state Teacher of the Year

By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer

September 20, 2006 12:37 am

— OKLAHOMA CITY— For the second time in four years, a Muskogee Public Schools educator has been selected Oklahoma Teacher of the Year: 7th and 8th Grade Center Spanish teacher Linda Hasler-Reid.
A 12-year veteran with Muskogee Schools, Hasler-Reid could barely hold her enthusiasm after Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sandy Garrett announced her name as 2007 Teacher of the Year on Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Fair. She immediately praised the 11 other finalists with whom she shared the stage.
“I love teaching and could not imagine being satisfied doing anything else,” she said after being showered with awards. “I think Oklahoma is blessed with the best teachers in the nation.”
She also thanked a teacher she called her mentor, Sadler Arts Academy fourth-grade teacher Cindy Ball, who was Oklahoma Teacher of the Year 2004.
Hasler-Reid said the honor was “very humbling.”
“I think of teachers across the state or even in my building who are as good or better than I am,” she said. “It’s humbling because teaching is such a passion for me.”
Dr. Pam Bradley, 7th and 8th Grade Center principal, said she wasn’t surprised by the honor.
“We told her this was going to happen,” Bradley said at Tuesday’s ceremony. “But now my son, Archie, is going to miss one of his favorite teachers.”
Hasler-Reid must spend a year going to speaking engagements and workshops across Oklahoma. She also will represent the state at the national Teacher of the Year competition.
“The hardest thing for her will be leaving her classroom for a year,” said Ball, who attended the ceremony with other past Teachers of the Year. “She’s going to miss her students.”
Seventh-grader Lucy Barnett said she was happy for her Spanish teacher’s honor.
But she grimaced when she heard that Hasler-Reid would be gone for most of the year. Lucy was one of Ball’s students when she was Teacher of the Year.
Both Hasler-Reid and Ball “are hands-on people,” Lucy said. “”They’re not just someone who points to something and says you have to find this out for yourself.”
Eighth-grader Emma Wilbourn said Hasler-Reid makes learning “super fun.”
“She makes it hilarious,” she said. “She’ll start doing songs and stuff. She lets people make fools of themselves.”
At Tuesday’s ceremony, Hasler-Reid was showered with all sorts of awards including a laptop computer, $5,000 in cash from the Masonic Fraternity of Oklahoma, an original print from Oklahoma artist Greg Burns and a diamond lapel pin. She also gets to drive a new Toyota Prius for a year.
Ball said she put 40,000 miles on her prize car when she was Teacher of the Year.
Muskogee Schools Public Relations Director Cynthia Heupel said the school will hire a temporary replacement while Hasler-Reid is away. She said the State Department of Education will pay the replacement’s salary.
Hasler-Reid also received 36-hour graduate tuition waivers from the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Central Oklahoma and Northeastern State University.
A summa cum laude graduate of Northeastern State University, Hasler-Reid has taught Spanish, English and journalism for 12 years at Muskogee. She is National Board Certified in World Languages.
She and her husband, 7th and 8th Grade Center math teacher Michael Reid, spent summer 2005 on an expense-paid learning excavation at the Crow Creek Archaeological Center in Colorado and a language immersion program in Costa Rica this past summer.
Reid said he was surprised and overwhelmed at his wife’s honor.
“We didn’t really count on her winning,” he said. “But I think she deserved it.”
In the annual award contest, regional selection committees narrow a large field of candidates to 12. Then, a statewide committee of civic and business leaders and journalists selects the winning candidate based upon teaching portfolio, a videotape of the teacher working in the classroom, individual interviews and a round-table discussion of educational issues.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@ muskogeephoenix.com.

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