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The Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce has recognized three outstanding area educators for their creativity in job readiness programs for their classrooms. A delegation presented each educator with a check for $500 to be dedicated to their innovative programs to help prepare students for careers.Community business leaders, education representatives, and Chamber staff visited classrooms at the School of Life Sciences and Inquiry at Asheville High, Enka Middle School and Madison High School, to surprise and recognize outstanding teachers in Asheville City, Buncombe and Madison County schools. The Innovative Educator program is an Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce Partners in Education initiative implemented with partners from Asheville City Schools, Buncombe County Schools, Madison County Schools and Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. Twenty-four educators have been recognized since 2005. The 2010 award winners include Kimberly Novak; is an Anatomy & Physiology, Earth & Environmental Science teacher at Madison High School. Ms. Novak has focused on exposing her students to careers in the medical field and computer technology. Hands-on opportunities have included field trips to "Bodyworks," a display at the Discovery Place in Charlotte, and bringing the DESTINY bus to Madison. The DESTINY bus is a 40-foot science laboratory on wheels created by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Novak also focuses on sustainability by studying alternative energy and spearheading the recycling program at Madison High School. Ms. Novak and her classes monitor the wind turbine installed in October 2009 by Progress Energy as part of her curriculum. Adam Bachmeyer is a Career and Technology Education teacher at Enka Middle. He has been with Enka Middle for three years. Mr. Bachmeyer teaches his students to think and work in a team, a skill necessary for many careers. He incorporates many hands-on-learning experiences in his curriculum making his classes interesting and relevant. Mr. Bachmeyer also provides students with an afterschool club, Technology Students Association. TSA is a club focused on flight distance, robotics, automotive design and fashion design. Cindy Byron is an Earth & Environmental Science and Chemistry teacher with the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville High School. Ms. Byron's work in grant writing has awarded her students two opportunities focused on sustainability. In 2008-2009 Ms. Byron wrote a grant and worked with the Asheville High Metals teacher to retrofit a conventional truck into an electric vehicle. The truck won two awards at the SMARTT Challenge (Students Making Advances in Renewable Transportation Technologies) sponsored by NC State and NC Solar. Ms. Byron's second grant was for the SILSA Sustainability Project. Students competed for portions of the grant to implement a sustainability project on Asheville High's campus. She obtained guest speakers and arranged fieldtrips to aid her students in their research for their projects. Participants included NOAA Climate Change, Canary Coalition, Asheville HUB, Appalachian Sustainability Agriculutre Project, Asheville City Schools Foundation, First Light Solar, Biowheels and Warren Wilson College. The Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce is an organization with more than 2,000 members representing 86,000 employees. Chamber members collaborate with community organizations and coalitions to support the community and each other with the mission of increasing the region�s livability by advancing its economic vitality. (Images provided by The Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.)
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