Rachel Sara Moreno -- 1990 Arizona Teacher of the Year
Moreno is a Spanish teacher at Flowing Wells High School, which enrolls 1,500 students, in Tucson, Arizona. In her Spanish courses she strives to convey a great deal more than language, including basic lessons about living, social heritage, music, humor,and even food. She has also helped to develop and operate an annual cultural exchange between her school and a vocational technical school in Sonora, Mexico, in which students have the opportunity to experience each other's lives and become immersed in a new culture. She has taught virtually every age group in a variety of subjects, from preschool to home economics to her present assignment in Spanish. Last year she received the King Juan Carlos Fellowship for the Quincentennial of Spain and traveled to Europe along with 300 other participants to celebrate and create a stronger cultural understanding among all people. She earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Arizona.
Janis T. Gabay -- 1990 California Teacher of the Year
Gabay teaches English in grades 10 and 12 at Junipero Serra High School, which enrolls 1,800 students, in San Diego, California. As a teacher of writing and literature, she considers "the entire range of human experience" her province. Some of her most successful instructional methods are those in which learning takes place beyond the classroom. She helped establish a project with The San Diego Union in which student writers are published and paid as reviewers of children's and young adult books. In another project, she encourages students to use community sources to create character sketches, stories, and poetry for the campus magazine for which she is the advisor. She also helped initiate a Writer's Forum at her school which is a way for interested teachers to address across-the-curriculum concerns about writing. Gabay earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at San Diego State University.
Billy "Bill" Dean Nave, Jr. -- 1990 Maine Teacher of the Year
Nave teaches in the River Valley Alternative School, which enrolls 100 students, in Winthrop, Maine. While a pre-med student at Columbia University, he did volunteer work with ghetto youth and decided to work with disadvantaged youth as a career. He taught for four years in New York City, before moving to Maine where he taught freshman science. In Maine he created an alternative, self-contained classroom for at-risk freshman, and later helped to create and establish the River Valley Alternative School, which is widely recognized as a model dropout prevention program in the state. His philosophy is that the "cornerstone of good teaching, as of any human relationship, is a belief in the intrinsic value and worth of each individual student." A typical learning experience for his students might be a quick trip into the community to repair a roof or work on the winter's wood supply for an elderly couple. Nave earned his Bachelor's degree at Columbia and a Master's at City College of New York.
Maria McAlister Pyles -- 1990 South Carolina Teacher of the Year
Pyles is a social studies teacher at Greenwood High School, which enrolls 1,762 students, in Greenwood, South Carolina. One of her greatest concerns is how we can learn to live together in a multi-ethnic, multicultural, pluralistic society, and she believes that teaching enables her to bring together children with different backgrounds and opposing ideologies to work through difficult circumstances and situations. In her American Government classes she encourages her students to provide a high level of analysis and interpretation in researching controversial Supreme Court cases and determining the significance of the cases. Last year she established a Youth in Government club and introduced its members to the art of skillful debate and the intricate tasks of lawmaking. After this preparation, she accompanied her students to a youth program at the South Carolina state legislature. In teaching history, she uses local resources, artifacts found in the home, community mapping, and oral histories in what has become a model teaching program. Pyles was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to travel and study in Egypt and Israel in 1984. She received her bachelor's degree from Benedict College and a Master's from Southern University.
