JRCoE Graduates Honored on 20 Under 2 List
The Teaching & Leading Initiative of Oklahoma honored 20 of the top novice teachers in the state in the second annual 20 Under 2 list, a list of promising new Oklahoma teachers for the 2019-20 academic year. The honorees included Eric Wayne Parker II, a 2018 graduate of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education in social studies education, and Sarah Sheldon, a 2018 graduate in early childhood education. This list celebrates emerging teacher leaders, high performers and novice educators who make Oklahoma’s future look bright.
Across the state, principals, veteran teachers and district leaders submitted their top novice teachers for consideration. Each nomination from principals and colleagues was reviewed and scored by a panel of education professionals. Each honoree was selected for outstanding classroom culture, academic results and contributions to Oklahoma’s public schools.
For the 2019-20 academic year, Parker was a ninth-grade teacher at Northwest Classen High School. Parker said he teaches because, “I had a desire to make change in the lives of students who look like me and come from the places that I come from. I wanted to be the teacher I dreamed of having as a student. The second reason was because I felt it was truly what would make me happy, and that has been true. I feel like I was able to find my true calling in life.
“I want my students to have happiness and freedom. I want students to be able to be their authentic selves without any fear. I want them to learn so they can find freedom. Freedom to make their own choices and live the life they want to live. A lot of them come from uncertainty and I hope I can help them in some way on their journey through life.”
Milton Owens, the previous department chair at Northwest Classen High School, praised Parker’s dedication to his students. “Eric is an outstanding educator with an innovative approach to reaching and bringing equity to students who have traditionally been left to fall through the cracks.”
This fall, Parker moved down the street to teach eighth grade U.S. History at Taft Middle School.
Sheldon teaches kindergarten and first grade at Positive Tomorrows in Oklahoma City. At Positive Tomorrows, an elementary school for children experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma City, providing a sense of stability and respite to their charges is a priority. So many of the approximately 100 students at the nonprofit school live in chaos daily, often bouncing from one place to another. As the only private school in America devoted solely to educating homeless children, Positive Tomorrows is on a mission to partner with homeless families and make school one less thing the kids need to worry about.
Unfortunately, these students are facing even more instability due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It broke my heart when I had to stop them from hugging me,” Sheldon said. “They’re such little snugglers. Now we do ‘air hugs,’ where they hug themselves and I hug myself. They understand we have to do things like this to keep ‘yucky germs’ away and, when somebody forgets, they remind each other.”
Positive Tomorrows offers much more than elementary education. The children receive complimentary health checkups and dental care through community partner agencies and are served meals on-site at their colorful, airy new school building.
Standtogether.org contributed to this story