Vicki Stroud Gonterman, International Studies Specialist at Gibbs Magnet School of International Studies and Foreign Languages, was named Arkansas History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Preserve America. Arkansas Commissioner of Education Dr. Tom Kimbrell presented the award to Ms. Gonterman during a ceremony at the Arkansas Department of Education on September 29.
“Ms. Gonterman continues to be a student of history as well as a teacher of it, which no doubt is one reason she is able to deliver such exciting lessons to the students at Gibbs,” Dr. Kimbrell said.
Vicki Gonterman has been teaching for 29 years and has been at Gibbs Magnet since its inception in 1987. She teaches the cultures studied by each of the classes and works with teachers to incorporate those lessons into other subject areas. She worked with a handful of Gibbs teachers and other scholars to create a two-year curriculum concerning the life and history of their school’s namesake, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs.
Along with the framed certificate, Gonterman received a $1,000 honorarium at the awards ceremony, and the Media Center at Gibbs will receive a core archive of history books and materials from the Gilder Lehrman Institute.
Now in its sixth year, the History Teacher of the Year award is designed to promote and celebrate the teaching of American history in classrooms across the United States. The award honors one exceptional teacher from each state and U.S. Territory. Only elementary school teachers were eligible for nomination this year.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, founded in 1994, promotes the study and love of American history. It serves teachers, students, scholars and the general public.