Janna Walker, Central Middle School
2009 Educator STAR Award winner
 Teaching a School Business Partnership class in the Anchorage School District provides teachers with a myriad of opportunities to make a difference in their schools and community. It takes a special person to make the most of these opportunities, and Janna Walker is one of those special teachers.
Ms. Walker has worked at Central Middle School as a social studies teacher, a counselor, and most recently as a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher. Even though she has her Master’s degree in counseling, she believes her best place is the classroom, where she can personally interact with more students each day.
Throughout much of her tenure at Central, Ms. Walker has taught the School Business Partnership Class. She knew it would be an enormous responsibility to accept the teaching assignment, as she inherited a vibrant program with seven established business partners. She not only enthusiastically accepted the position, but has since added three additional partners.
Ms. Walker’s willingness to juggle 10 business partners brings a lot of resources to the school, so her SBP class makes it a priority to give back to their partners. For example, the school holds an annual “Pennies for the Penniless” campaign on behalf of Kids’ Kitchen, and has raised over $35,000 for the organization through the years. The SBP class strings lights for ACVB’s City of Lights campaign each fall, and they have written newsletters for Hilton employees. The students are currently working on behalf of the ACVB’s annual “Big Wild Life” trivia contest, where seventh-grade students districtwide are quizzed about facts found in the official ACVB Anchorage Visitors guide. To facilitate this contest, the students are writing letters to businesses in the tourism industry to ask for prize donations, and Sophie Shafter from ACVB is helping them write media alerts. The students also write articles about all of their partners for the school’s monthly newsletter.
Ms. Walker says employability skills are an important component of her SBP class curriculum. “The most productive skills include filling out job applications, making resumes, and participating in mock job interviews. By allowing students to practice interviewing for jobs, they are much more confident when the real interviews happen,” says Walker.
The SBP class at Central is a very civically minded group. Under Janna Walker’s leadership, they have made scarves for the Pioneer Home, constructed dog houses for a Willow musher who rescues sled dogs, collected hygiene items for students in transitional housing situations, and sponsored a dance. Ms. Walker has transferred this giving spirit to her Family and Consumer Science classes as well: students in those classes decorated specialty cakes for a school fundraiser. In addition, Ms. Walker ran the bake sale at parent conferences, spoke at a Junior Achievement fundraising dinner, coordinated an auction of student-produced work at a school event, and selflessly donated countless hours of her summer to build the relationship with Benihana Restaurant.
Why does she do it all? Because she knows it makes a difference. “I am still in contact with many of my former students,” says Walker. “They often call or email to tell me about the jobs they’ve gotten and how thankful they were to have had the SBP class.”
What’s more, Walker believes the School Business Partnership program can have a positive impact on the ASD graduation rate. “This class is often the first time students consider what they can do with their skills. There is something for everyone in the class; all students can be successful, even those who aren’t the most gifted academically.”
Janna Walker is a most-deserving recipient of this year’s STAR educator award. Central principal Lisa Zelenkov may have put it best: “She’s a beautiful person with a huge heart and she deserves to be recognized for her efforts!” |
