Oklahoma Achievers
Oklahoma Achievers

• Norman Regional Health System earned three awards for its collaboration with Norman Public Schools. The system earned the Oklahoma State School Boards Association's Barbara Lynch Community Partner Award, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Champion of Children's Health Award and the International Association of School Business Officials Pinnacle Award. The awards are the result of a partnership between Norman Regional and the school system that allows the district to hire a nurse or health assistant for each school in the district.

• The Whittier Middle School Parent Teacher Association was awarded the National PTA Unit Achievement Award and the Excellence in Education Award. The association received the awards for its work in bringing Rachel's Challenge to Norman Public Schools. Rachel's Challenge is a school and community project that promotes tolerance and kindness.

• Russell Ray has been named "Best in Oklahoma” by the Oklahoma Foreign Language Teachers Association. Ray is a Spanish teacher at Norman High School.

• Jamie Johnson, library media specialist at McKinley Elementary School, was recognized as one of the nation's most innovative educators by the 2008 Unsung Heroes awards program sponsored by Internationale Nederlanden Groep, a Dutch financial institution. Johnson was one of 100 winners who received a $2,000 award to help fund an innovative idea and bring it to the classroom. Johnson's idea, "Kids are Poets ... They Just Don't Know It,” would provide creative methods to teach basic literacy skills to McKinley's kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Johnson will go on to compete with other winners for one of three awards that provide an additional $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000.

• Jennifer Pope, a debate coach at Norman North High School, was honored by the Oklahoma Speech Theatre and Communication Association during its annual conference Sept. 13 at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. Pope was named Outstanding Young High School Speech Coach for 2008. Pope is a 2001 graduate of Edmond Santa Fe High School. She earned her bachelor's degree and teacher certification from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2005 and her master's degree from UCO in 2008. She had been at Norman North since 2005.

• Adri-Anne Trammell of Norman was named national Project Manager of the Year by the National AMBUCS civic organization at the group's national convention in Rogers, Ark. The award is the one of the highest individual recognition awards. Nominated by Norman's Sooner Chapter of AMBUCS, Trammell was selected for her outstanding leadership and management of the chapter's ASK (AMBUCS Share4Life Komputers) project since its inception in 1998. The project provides computers to people with disabilities.

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