Each year, the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) presents the Excellence in Teaching Award to a group of teachers who have demonstrated outstanding impact in the classroom. The recipients include Transitional Kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers who have been teaching for more than five years. This year, the ceremony was held on May 9th at the Sequoia Conference Center in Eureka. Two Arcata High teachers received the award, Geology and Physics teacher, Alyssa Kell, and AP Language and Creative Writing teacher, Susan Clark-Luera.
Susan Clark-Luera has been teaching English at Arcata High
School for 29 years and is the current chair of the English Department. She didn’t always know that she wanted to go into teaching, but she discovered her passion with the help of her parents, who were also educators.
“My greatest teachers were my parents,” said Clark-Luera. “They always said to do what you love and what you’re good at.”
She previously received the Excellence in Teaching Award at the beginning of her teaching career in 2003, when the event was much smaller.
Clark-Luera was nominated to receive the award by junior Gemma Caruso, who was in her freshman English class as well as her AP Language and Composition this year.
“She knows what she’s teaching,” said Caruso. “She can answer any questions, but she also really cares about her students, and I think that’s what makes her a really good teacher. She’s someone I know that if I ever had a problem on campus and needed some help or just needed someone to talk to, she would be there. I think its really important for all the kids on campus to have an adult they trust.”
Each recipient of the award had the opportunity to speak to their audience. The recipients delivered a wide array of stories, speeches, comedy, and poems. Clark-Luera decided to write a poem dedicated to her fellow teachers.
“Yeah, it’s nice to get recognition, but then you think of all the people who also deserve it,” said Clark-Luera. “So when they said that for us to take a little bit of time to think about what we want to say to an audience, I knew that I wanted to do something that honored all of my colleagues who also deserve an award.”
The event was a great success in recognizing the hard-working teachers of our community like Clark-Luera. Through her almost three decades of teaching at Arcata High School, Clark-Luera has gone above and beyond for her students inside the classroom as well as supporting them outside of the classroom. She is extremely knowledgeable about her subject, humble, and empathetic. Thank you Ms. Clark-Luera and all other teachers for everything that you do!
An inviting smile. A supporting figure. A calm presence. These are all ways to describe Arcata High School’s beloved physics and geology teacher, Alyssa Kell. She stands out as a great teacher and is beloved by all students who have had her for the last 23 years.
“Spending time talking to her, watching her teach the class, she’s definitely my favorite teacher, not to play favorites or anything,” senior Autumn Hudgens said. “When the nomination form came out, I was thinking, are there any teachers I wanted to nominate, and she just stood out, … she’s very supportive.”
Kell is especially noticed for her advocacy for young women in STEM. When we asked her what she would like to say to aspiring women in STEM: “I think just reminding them that even though you’re in a room with mostly men, you can do this too, and there’s actually room for you. You bring unique things to the table. I think that having women on the team just fills out the community vibe in any field. There is definitely a lot that women bring to the table. As men do as well.”
Teachers around the world work every year spending hundreds of hours with new students and having large impacts on their students’ lives. Many of them see it as their responsibility to make their class engaging and make students excited to come to class and learn.
“I get to have about 150 students every year. And I get to spend more hours per week with them a lot of times than their families do… So part of my goal isn’t just to teach them the material… but it’s to make the experience pleasant for the students and to give them as much as I can in this time… To try to make it as painless for them and hopefully give them tools to make their lives better.”
From Kell’s perspective, this award not only honors her for her great service, but also an appreciation for all of the teachers of Arcata High School.
“It’s not just about being that person. I do take it as an honor personally, but I also think it’s a broader thank you to teachers. So, it just made me feel proud to be a teacher.”
Mrs. Kell has touched the hearts of many students and is an exemplary model of what a teacher should be. She is kind, inviting, understanding, and extremely bright. She makes students excited to come to class and learn and is an undeniably positive figure in the Northern Humboldt community. Thank you Mrs. Kell.
