Nina Jolly just finished her 12th year of teaching kindergarten at Howell Elementary. Previously, she taught middle school science before taking a break to raise her two daughters.

Jolly enjoys the way the young students soak up information. 

“I think kindergartners are like... Read more

Craig Culbertson teaches fifth grade at Wright Elementary. This year marks his 13th teaching at the school. 

Culbertson is a Tucson native who started his career working in sales. He worked at a kiosk selling wireless phones, and later was a district sales manager. He says his students... Read more

Stacy Marr teaches third grade at Tanque Verde Elementary. She has been teaching there for ten years, and she also did her student teaching at TVES. 

Marr is a Tucson native who recalls loving the classroom when she was a third-grader. She says she was good in school and loved working... Read more

Lisa Johnson teaches a 5th/6th grade gifted class at Coyote Trail Elementary. She has been teaching for two decades.

Johnson was born in Phoenix and attended the UofA—she started out as a psychology major. She says her experience as a camp counselor led her to teaching.

“I really... Read more

Tricia Stewart teaches a 2nd/3rd grade multiage class at Coronado K–8 School. She is also the Ben’s Bells Kind Campus coordinator for the school.

“I was not a traditional college student,” explains Stewart. “I had to work full time and take classes at night to get my degree. It was hard... Read more

Jack Murphy teaches sixth grade at Centennial Elementary. He teaches math to all the sixth-graders in addition to teaching literature and reading for his homeroom class.

Murphy taught fifth grade for many years at Centennial before moving to sixth grade two years ago. He says his own... Read more

Tiffany Thompson teaches third grade at Agua Caliente Elementary. She says it was her own third-grade teacher who inspired her.

“I always thought that it would be neat to be a teacher when I was a kid,” says Thompson. She says her students might be surprised to learn that school was not... Read more

Sandra Noriega teaches fourth grade GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) at White Elementary. Noriega says it was her child’s GATE teacher—also at White Elementary—who motivated her to become a teacher.

When her own two children, now young adults, attended White, Noriega volunteered in... Read more

Kathleen Bowman teaches fifth grade at Manzanita Elementary. She teaches social studies and one of the math classes.

Student Sarah Rose nominated Bowman because she says her teacher “has ways that really help me and other kids” and “knows how to teach us in a way that we can really... Read more

Linda Anderson admits that she took awhile to start her teaching career. Although it was something she always aspired to, she ended up working at a bank for many years before she became a teacher.

Anderson says it was her friends at church who urged her to return to school and finish her... Read more