Yuma educator wins national teaching award

  Success sometimes requires going the extra mile, but for one dedicated Yuma teacher who thinks outside the box in quantum leaps, her approach has led to a statewide award.

  Jena Kugel, a teacher for Arizona Virtual Academy (AZVA), has just been named by the National Coalition for Public Options (NCPSO) as the first Arizona Pioneer of Teaching. NCPSO is a Washington, D.C.-based alliance that protects parental rights for the best public school options.

  NCPSO cited Kugel for advocating for gifted and special needs students by working with administrators so students may reach their full potential. Kugel was one of 112 teachers nominated for Pioneer of Teaching, and is now one of 12 state finalists selected by NCPSO for the national award as
part of National Public Charter Schools Week.

  "I was shocked. It was a great honor and very humbling," Kugel said. "The whole staff (of AZVA) was excited because there's a lot of charter and magnet schools in Arizona and for us to be nominated is awesome."

  AZVA is a Tucson-based charter school. There are 120 teachers for about 4,000 students in the state. Kugel teaches 72 kindergarten through eighth-grade students, with 55 in Yuma County.

  "It's a public school you do at home but you go at your own pace," Kugel said. "You could do it in your pajamas. Who wouldn't love that?"

  AZVA allows teachers and students the freedom to be as creative as they want, she said. One of those ways is with Elluminate, the company that provides the software for her interactive online classes.

  With Elluminate, both Kugel and a class of 30 or more students can be joined together with a link in a live classroom with far fewer disruptions than a bricks-and-mortar class.

  Kugel said most lessons at AZVA are completed in books and they do not spend all their time online. But the intent of online school is parental involvement where parents are expected to become academic coaches.

  Mary Francher is an actively involved parent with two children, Rachel and Al, who are enrolled at AZVA. Francher especially praised the Odyssey of the Mind club because it prompts the student to interact and provides hands-on-skills that teaches them to work as a team.

  Odyssey of the Mind is an out-of-the-box problem-solving concept where students collaborate on semester-long projects in one of five categories and then compete against other schools in the state.

  "Jena pushes herself more than the children," Francher said about Kugel. "She gives over 100 percent. She wants the kids to do their best and learn by her example."

  Francher's freshman daughter, Rachel, 15, said she likes AZVA because it not only offers more choices, but Kugel petitioned the principal on her behalf to have her take Advanced Placement U.S. history, usually open only to juniors and seniors. It also gave her the opportunity to skip Algebra 1 and language arts and composition classes by passing a competence exam.

  "I enjoy school a lot more than traditional school because of extra classes like anthropology," Rachel said. "I'm in student government now and next year I'll be in the chess and also creative writing and book clubs. I don't think I would have done that at a regular school."

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William Roller can be reached at
wroller@yumasun.com or 539-6858.