Her Story
Linda Evanchyk has taught English and journalism at Choctawhatchee High School in Okaloosa County, Florida for about three decades and is the longest-tenured journalism teacher in her district. She advises the school newspaper, whose staff of ninth through twelfth graders puts out each issue under student editors and, as she puts it, “without prior review,” a freedom she pairs with a lesson in responsibility: “Once it is in print, it doesn’t go away.”
Her teaching style is interactive rather than “stand and deliver.” Experienced staffers teach newcomers, students judge each other’s work, and she watches for teachable moments. Her room is filled with student photos and awards, a complete set of Dr. Seuss, and mementos from the school’s 50th anniversary, which she coordinated in 2002. Her best days, she says, are the ones when she looks up and sees faces hidden behind the latest issue of the paper.
Her students have won thousands of individual and team honors, and a student on her staff was named Journalism Student of the Year in 15 of 20 years. Nearly half her staff qualifies each year for the National Journalism Honor Roll, and many take honors and International Baccalaureate courses.
Beyond the Classroom
Since 1995 her staff has run the Kid’s World mentoring program, producing newspapers for the district’s 18,000 elementary students and visiting their young pen pals. The students also created the Kids Vote and Teens Vote publications for the local elections office, one of which introduced a cartoon character now used statewide, and a publication and DVD on the 2010 Census. Students have presented at Columbia University in New York and national Journalism Education Association conferences.
Evanchyk helped win a stipend for newspaper advisers and honors credit for journalism students in her county, served as vice-president of the Florida Scholastic Press Association, wrote the district’s end-of-course exams for print journalism, and serves as her district’s state representative for National Board Certified Teachers. She mentors several teachers a year, writes for professional publications, and co-authored Those Who Teach Do More, a collection of teacher stories from public figures such as Walter Cronkite and Sandra Day O’Connor. A local public relations group has created an award in her name for excellence in journalism.
Philosophy Into Practice
Evanchyk quotes E.B. White, who woke “torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world,” and says that is how she feels every morning in her classroom. Her guiding belief is that “students won’t care about what you are teaching them until they know you care about them as individuals.”
She wants her students to leave her class as moral, responsible individuals who believe they can make a difference now, and she says that matters more to her than whether they can write the perfect editorial or take the perfect photo.
“Students won’t care about what you are teaching them until they know you care about them as individuals.”— Linda P. Evanchyk
In Her Own Words
“I find each day a challenge and reward.”— Linda P. Evanchyk
“I believe that students can make a difference in the world right now.”— Linda P. Evanchyk
“Students inspire each other as much as teachers inspire them.”— Linda P. Evanchyk
What Others Said
One of America’s truly great teachers of journalism.”— Don Gaetz, Florida Senator and parent of a former student
“She is the standard setter when it comes to scholastic journalism.”— Principal, Addie R. Lewis Middle School
“This is what Linda does best- she reaches out to provide experiences to her students that they would not otherwise have and that will last them a lifetime.”— Kaye McKinley, Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum, Okaloosa County
“She was my favorite teacher in high school.”— Jennifer K. Cypret, former student
“She’s a teacher of future journalists, writers, lawyers, doctors, accountants, and public servants.”— Pat Graff, NBCT, NTHF Inductee, Class of 2006