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Two local teachers garner accolades
By ROBERT CONNELLY
YOUNGSTOWN
Two Mahoning County teachers won prestigious awards recently — one by surprise and one after a lengthy application process.
Pandora Fecko, a Canfield High School social studies teacher, was nominated for the University of Chicago’s Outstanding Educator Award by a former student. But she didn’t know about it before some of the perks of the award began to arrive in her mailbox at school.
“I got a blanket. I didn’t even know what the blanket was for!” Fecko recalled. “I’ve been here 16 years, I never get gifts. Every now and then we get an apple appreciation; believe it or not, it sounds so cliche.”
After the blanket arrived, a letter detailing that she had been nominated by one of her former students, Will Brown, who now attends UC and for whom she had written recommendation letters for colleges.
“It was a collaborative sort of effort and we’ve always had a good relationship and he’s just a high achieving student that was shooting for some high-end schools that meet his needs. His intellectual ability was outstanding,” she said.
Michelle Best, a language-arts teacher at Austintown Middle School, was awarded the Ohio Department of Education Region 8 Teacher of the Year for the state. Best was nominated and worked through a selection process that included writing essays, submitting data of student progress, or formative assessments, and her resume. She was one of 11 finalists for teacher of the year.
“We’re constantly doing assessments along the way that may or may not be for a grade to monitor students’ progress,” she said of formative assessments. “The hard part about it is the push that the state is making for data — data is making it really hard ... In this data-driven world, that’s someone’s precious child that they are trusting with my care.”
Best said she has been nominated and received accolades before, but echoes Fecko’s thoughts on being humbled by them. “It was humbling to think that someone would value the impact that I’ve had. It’s shocking to me because it’s very second nature to me,” Best said.
“You just really never know which students you truly, truly impact,” Fecko said. “It’s an interesting dynamic and at the end of four years, every now and then you get an insight of who you impacted and how.”
However, Best believes her essay is what made her a regional winner and not a state winner. In it, she took strong stands on changes to education in Ohio, she said.
The language arts teacher said she stressed that her students are students, not just numbers or test scores on a piece of paper.
“It’s really hard being a teacher these days because of the politicians and ... because of the decisions they are making; they’re hurting the teachers who are the most passionate.”
As a result, Best said she isn’t sure whether she will seek the award again.