2024-2025 Armstrong Teacher Educators

Melissa Adelsperger

High School
Language Arts
Randolph Eastern

Melissa Adelsperger has been a classroom teacher in the same school corporation, Randolph Eastern in Union City, for her entire 35-year career. She retired in May 2024 but remains involved with Randolph Eastern in a role with the Union City Educational Foundation beginning in June 2024. As a teacher, she is best described as dedicated, student-centered, creative, and passionate about fostering a positive learning environment. Throughout her 35-year career, she has consistently prioritized the needs of her students, striving to create engaging and inclusive classrooms where every individual feels valued and supported. She prioritizes connecting with her students on a personal level before diving into content, and believes that buildibng strong relationships with her students fosters trust, engagement, and ultimately, academic success. Understanding their backgrounds, interests, and challenges allows her to tailor her teaching approach to meet their individual needs effectively. She truly wants to know her students and enjoy being a part of their daily lives as their teacher. "If they know I care, they’ll tend to care more about what we’re learning."

Kelly Agnew

4th Grade
All Subjects
Muncie Community Schools

The tug to find ways to bridge the gap between where students are coming from to where they can be is what has driven Kelly Agnew’s passion in teaching throughout the last 20 years. One of her most desired goals and challenges as a teacher is to help her most at-risk students break away from generational cycles of poverty, apathy, and trauma. She understands that not all kids learn in the same way or have the same support systems. She meets each individual child where they are and helps them to know they are unique, special and capable of achieving great things. This is not only evident in her students’ gains throughout the year on formative and summative assessments, but most importantly, in their positive affect and enthusiasm that are contagious in her classroom. Kelly has served on many district level committees and will be in the role of a NIET master teacher with Muncie Community Schools in the fall.

Amanda Beck

High School
German
Tippecanoe School Corporation

Amanda Beck has taught German for 17 years at William Henry Harrison High School in West Lafayette. As a firm believer that language skills and intercultural understanding are critical in a global society, she advocates for all students to have access to high-quality language instruction. Amanda places high value on building strong connections in her classroom and enjoys crafting creative lessons that heavily feature play and interpersonal interaction. For her, it is a joy to watch learners grow both as communicators and as people. Outside the classroom, Amanda is involved with the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association and the American Association of Teachers of German Indiana Chapter. She is also her building's World Language Department Chair and sponsors German Club, German Quiz Bowl, the Senior Class and a German American Partnership Program exchange with the Karl Friedrich Gymnasium in Mannheim, Germany.

Emily Bettis

Kindergarten
All Subjects
Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corporation

Emily Bettis has been teaching kindergarten at RBBCSC for 16 years. For the last five years she has collaborated with a small team of colleagues to implement a transitional kindergarten program for young five-year-olds. The program is rich in hands-on learning that includes oral language development, literacy immersion, number sense, collaborative experiences, project based learning and STEAM activities. Her goal each year is to create a community in her classroom where students feel safe, loved and excited about coming to school each day. Emily's school is passionate about teaching their students lifelines such as kindness, respect, honesty, awareness, and cooperation. These lifelines aid students in becoming lifelong learners who do the right thing and treat people right.

Elizabeth Burton

High School
English
Hammond Academy of Science and Technology

Elizabeth Burton has been a teacher for 16 years. While working on her Master’s degree, she taught Composition for the Department of English and Philosophy at Purdue University. She was also an administrative assistant and a writing tutor in the Writing Center where she piloted and presented several workshops. After graduating, Elizabeth started teaching at Hammond Academy of Science of Technology at its inception and is still there 14 years later. She teaches English 12, dual credit Advanced Composition, dual credit Advanced Literature, Film Literature, and Debate. She has continued to take graduate courses through IU, worked on the PARCC Grant assessing college readiness, and is determined to make sure her seniors are prepared for the next step of their education.

Dacia Campbell

6th Grade
Language Arts
Eastern Greene

Dacia Campbell has been a teacher for the past ten years, mostly as an Eastern Greene Thunderbird. Seven of these years have been in 6th grade language arts. Dacia teaches with a philosophy of humanizing herself to her students, rather than giving the appearance of being flawless, using this as a strategy to model and teach coping, life skills, and realism. Presenting herself as a human to students helps build long-lasting relationships with students, gain their trust, and determine what they truly need to be successful as people discovering themselves in this world, let alone as students. Dacia believes in focusing on the whole student to help them gain skills they will need throughout their lives rather than just the skills they need within the walls of her classroom to meet standards.

Michael Gilliam

Grades 5-8
STEM/Curriculum Innovation
East Washington Middle School

Michael Gilliam is about to start his 15th year of teaching at East Washington School Corporation. During his time there, he has served roles in Special Education (4 years), ELA (4 years), Computer Science (2 years), and STEM Innovation (4 years). Michael was one of those “struggling” teachers not too many years ago, and was considering getting out of the profession. He began looking at innovating his style and approach to teaching and the rest has been history. He now finds passion and joy in working with both students and educators in transforming their approaches to the teaching and learning process, in hopes of moving the needle on the current state of the profession by putting an emphasis on ENGAGEMENT in the classroom. Michael has spent the last several years serving on different committees and teams within his building and the state. He partnered with ROI as a member of their STEM Fellows Program, and spent last year as a member of the IDOE and Five-Star Technologies STEM Cadre Program. Michael has also become popular in the Education Speaking/Presenting world. He has led presentations at Indiana STEM Conference, IAG Conference (High Ability), Indiana Summer of Learning, and has partnered with different districts around the state offering PD and STEM collaborations.

Deborah Kletch

Grade 7
Science
Hamilton Southeastern Schools

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.” This quote from Bill Beattie has inspired Deborah Kletch’s 30 years of science teaching with a goal of inspiring students to search for deeper understanding using information provided to form their own opinions. Deborah works with students both in and out of the classroom, serving as faculty advisor for the National Junior Honor Society, Fall Play Director and Outdoor Classroom Chairperson. She believes that students learn best by doing and strives to provide as opportunities to engage in real science.

Kristin McGuire

Kindergarten
Dual Language Immersion - English Instruction
Washington Community Schools

Kristin McGuire is the kindergarten English instruction teacher for the dual language immersion program at Washington Primary. She earned an associates degree in business administration and bachelor's degree in organizational management, spending ten years as an office manager prior to obtaining her master's in elementary education. Coaching has played a role in her life for over twenty years, with the past ten being devoted to varsity track and field. Over the past 14 years, Kristin has taught kindergarten, first grade, and been a Title 1 teacher. To find best practices in connecting with all students, she obtained a TESOL certification. Kristin is a treasure hunter, focusing on the individual treasures in all students while fostering a fun, engaging, and positive environment. Key components to the successful flow of the classroom are utilizing visuals and catchy call backs, allowing high motivation and constant engagement. Students thrive by feeling safe in her class family, focusing on student-led collaboration and being comfortable making mistakes and taking risks.

Amy Stevens

Grades K-5
STEM
Tri Elementary/South Henry School Corporation

Amy Stevens is the Technology Integration Specialist and PLTW Launch Teacher for grades K-5 at Tri Elementary. This is her 19th year as an Indiana elementary educator. Over the years, Amy and her teammates have taken districts from a single cart of devices to 1:1, as well as from paper packets to meaningful virtual instruction. She has led her students, staff and other IN educators through various learning ed-ventures. As an Apple Teacher, an Apple Learning Coach and an Apple Distinguished Educator, her passion is to spark creativity while encouraging students to grow as problem solvers and teachers to grow their ideas of "best practices in the classroom" while ensuring that all learners know that she is their biggest fan.

Sharita Ware

Postsecondary
First-Year Engineering Program
School of Engineering Education
Purdue University

Sharita Ware, 2022 Indiana Teacher of the Year and Purdue College of Education’s 2023 Distinguished Alumni, spent more than 12 years teaching and coaching Engineering and Technology Education and FIRST Lego League robotics to middle school students in the Tippecanoe School Corporation. Ware challenged her students with real-world, problem-based design scenarios that helped them contribute to global technology and integrated STEM. Standardized curriculum and testing have bound both teacher and student into a box of meeting state standards. Because of this, Mrs. Ware thinks it is more important than ever to bring creativity and 21st-century skills into the classroom as a foundation for learning to engage all students. Ware’s shifted focus to the post-secondary level has not changed her foundational beliefs for educating students, and hopes to continue being a strong support in building tomorrow’s innovative creative leaders.

Shaun Wines

High School
Chemistry/Physics
Clinton Prairie High School

Shaun Wines is a dedicated veteran with 33 years of experience in the science department at Clinton Prairie High School. He has taught a variety of courses including ICP, Physical Science, Chemistry I, Physics, and AP Chemistry across many grade levels. He has developed a unique teaching style and philosophy, continuously adapting to the needs of his students by staying current with research and trends. Shaun’s students consistently report feeling safe, heard, and challenged in his classroom while having fun along the way. Shaun’s extensive experience and commitment has established him as a respected servant leader. He initiated the school’s AP program and served as Science Department Head, local union President, and as a member of numerous other committees.