* Michelle Henry, health specialist and physical education teacher at Liberty Middle School, has been named the National K-12 Health Teacher of the Year by the American Association for Health Education. Liberty Middle School is a Fairfax County public school.

The award recognizes health educators who enrich the depth and scope of health-related activities in the classroom and are committed to the advancement of health promotion at the school, district, regional, and national levels.

Henry, who last year received the 2011 Virginia Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Association (VAHPERD) K-12 Health Education Teacher of the Year award, has worked at Liberty for seven years and has been a teacher since 1976. Henry’s students examine some of the most pressing health issues for the middle school population, including fitness, nutrition, self-esteem, bullying, peer pressure, and drug and alcohol awareness.

As a health advocate for faculty wellness, Henry has developed and implemented a comprehensive wellness program that includes weight loss challenges, walking and running events, relaxation treatments, nutrition consultations, weight room and aerobic exercise trainings, flu shot clinics, and screenings for osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes. In 2010, she received special recognition as the lead advocate to implement a school-wide wellness program that led Liberty to win a Fairfax County Public Schools Golden Apple wellness award, the highest honor for a school demonstrating excellence in wellness for students and staff members. (view press release)

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* Edmund Lau, math teacher at Oakton High, and Wendy Vu, a teacher at Robinson who serves as an International Baccalaureate coordinator, are each receiving a 2012 Inspirational Teacher Award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Lau was nominated by Peter Lee, an undergraduate at MIT, who took Lau’s class in 2006. Vu was nominated by MIT graduate student Jenine Kotob, who graduated from Robinson in 2005 and is now pursuing a master of science in architecture at MIT.

The MIT Inspirational Teacher Award recognizes outstanding secondary school teachers who inspire in their students a love of learning, encourage them to pursue excellence, and give them the skills and enthusiasm they need to make a positive difference in the world.  

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* Lauren Schweitzer, grades 1-3 teacher at Groveton, recently received a $600 grant from www.donorschoose.org to fund a leveled classroom library for her first grade students. Schweitzer’s classroom library was previously made up of discarded library books, many of which were too difficult for her students, especially her beginning English learners, to read.

She wrote a proposal that included a description of the school, the demographics in her classroom, and the importance of providing the students with books that they were able to read and were interesting to them. The grant enabled her to stock her library with 10 different books on each reading level. 

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