Teacher of the Year (TOY)
COPPER RIVER SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATOR NAMED 2008 ALASKA TEACHER OF THE YEAR
Raymond J. Voley President George W. Bush congratulates Alaska's
2008
State Teacher of the Year, Raymond Voley,
in the Oval Office on Wednesday, April 30, 2008.
Mr. Voley is a teacher at Kenny Lake School in
Copper Center, AK. White House photo by
Joyce Boghosian.
Alaska’s 2008 Teacher of the Year is Raymond J. Voley, who teaches history and technology at Kenny Lake School in the Copper River School District.
Hal Spackman, Alaska Deputy Commissioner of Education & Early Development, announced the appointment of Voley in Anchorage today at the annual conference of the Association of Alaska School Boards. Voley’s term begins January 1, 2008.
“Raymond Voley represents the many Alaska teachers who inspire their students to reach for excellence, whether it’s performing Shakespeare or making a documentary,” Spackman said. “Bringing passion and knowledge to his task, Mr. Voley finds his students’ hidden talents and gives them a model of excellence to emulate.”
Deputy Commissioner Spackman also announced that Michael Mahoney, a science teacher at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, is the alternate Alaska Teacher of the Year. Mahoney would serve in the Alaska position if Voley is named National Teacher of the Year.
Voley is in his 15th year of teaching including eight in his current position. He holds bachelor of arts degrees from the University of Utah in political science and history and a master of arts in teaching from the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Before teaching at Kenny Lake, Voley taught special education in the Nenana correspondence program and 5th through 12th grade in Scammon Bay, a Yup’ik community.
“Teachers have always been my heroes,” Voley said in his application for Teacher of the Year. He cited a journalism teacher who held him to high standards, a drama teacher who helped him overcome shyness, and a history teacher who taught a course on the Holocaust.
“My greatest accomplishments center on those times I personally inspired students who had a poor history of connecting with adults,” Voley said. “I live for those ‘moments of grace,’ the times I feel as though I have helped change or inspire a life.”
Voley said his greatest accomplishment as an educator was the Kennecott Cadre project, in which he and nine students created a 90-minute documentary on the history of the Kennecott mine.
Michael Mahoney, the alternate Teacher of the Year, has taught science for nine years, all at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, a state-operated boarding school in Sitka. He holds a bachelor of science degree in biology from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and a master of arts in teaching degree from the University of Alaska Southeast.
Mahoney said he was influenced to become a teacher by his biology teacher in Kodiak who made students feel welcome and who made going to class a pleasure.
Alaska Education Commissioner Barbara Thompson will enter Voley as the Alaska candidate for the 2008 National Teacher of the Year. The national winner will be recognized at an event in Washington, D.C., in April. The Council of Chief State School Officers sponsors the national competition.
Additionally, the Smarter Kids Foundation will donate approximately $14,000 worth of equipment to Voley’s classroom.
A statewide selection committee appointed by Commissioner Thompson recommended Voley from a field of four finalists. Besides Voley and Mahoney, the other finalists were Shelly Heiserman, a fifth-grade teacher at Cottonwood Creek Elementary School in Mat-Su, and Dan Sparkman, an English teacher at King Career Center in Anchorage.
Members of the selection committee were: Bill Bjork, President of NEA-Alaska; Richard Carlson, President of Alaska Council of School Administrators; Mary Schrage, President-Elect of the Alaska PTA; Scott McAdams, President Elect of the Association of Alaska school boards; and Ina Bouker, 2007 Alaska Teacher of the Year.
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