Her Story
Debra Howell comes from a family of teachers: eight relatives, including her younger brother Mike, work in public schools. For the past two decades she has run a multiage classroom at Monte Cristo Elementary School, where students stay with her for three years, as fourth, fifth and sixth graders. She and Mike team-teach, blending two classrooms and planning together for the full three years.
She moved to a multiage model in 1992 because one year with a child “is simply not enough,” and because she wanted to replace textbook-driven teaching with thematic units. Students become the youngest, middle and eldest children in a classroom family, learn from and re-teach one another, and start each September where they left off. Every year there is a class book or author, ending in a play: her students have performed Shakespeare, and have read The Odyssey at age nine. Each month they memorize a poem, and in science they run experiments and slug races.
Howell tracks state test data closely. After the team began splitting students into grade-level math for an extra hour a day, the share of her sixth graders passing the state math test rose from 36.8% to 52.2%, above both the district (42.5%) and the state (49.1%). Her former students are now student council presidents, honor roll members and community leaders.
Beyond the Classroom
Howell has taught her students deep respect for veterans. They lead Memorial Day and Veterans Day assemblies of student poetry and song, helped revive the town’s Veterans Day parade, and for five years have written to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. When one soldier described working with local schoolchildren, her students collected toys and school supplies to send to them. She was also chosen to carry the Olympic torch.
Howell earned National Board Certification in 2000 and now leads teachers statewide. She has facilitated National Board candidates, as an adjunct professor with state universities, for ten years and has worked with more than 200 teachers, led renewal trainings and keeps a state NBCT website. Her Lesson Study program has been presented at state and national conferences, and she has published on Lesson Study, teacher leadership and multiage education. She mentored Andrea Peterson from her first day of teaching; Peterson was named 2007 National Teacher of the Year.
Philosophy Into Practice
Howell calls herself a teacher who orchestrates the learning of many individuals, not the sole source of it. She wants her students to think for themselves, make wise decisions and become “their own best teacher.” She holds herself, her students, their parents and the community accountable for educating the whole child, and she keeps families close through weekly emails, potlucks and an open invitation to volunteer.
On the profession’s needs, she writes that keeping high-quality teachers must be a priority, and she says she has tried to “remain positive about the teaching profession, keep a good sense of humor about myself, and admit that I don’t always have the answers.”
“She is THE teacher I want for my children.”— Andrea Peterson, NBCT, 2007 National Teacher of the Year
In Her Own Words
“One academic school year with a child is simply not enough for me to have the impact I expect to have upon a student’s life.”— Debra Rose Howell
“They must learn that as they progress through school they become their own best teacher.”— Debra Rose Howell
What Others Said
“There is no other teacher more deserving than Debra Howell.”— Karen Koschak, Superintendent, Granite Falls School District
“Debra is the consummate professional, leading by example, rather than by word.”— Andrea Peterson, colleague
“One of the most inspirational, influential, and dedicated teachers I have ever had the privilege to work with.”— Kettler, former principal and colleague
“She believes strongly in the potential of each of her students.”— School board director and parent volunteer
“Mrs. Howell is a magnificent teacher.”— Former student