Tonight while cooking, I heard a few minutes of a NPR story on Stephen Ritz, a science teacher in the Bronx, who decided to “grow 100 bags of fresh fruits and vegetables a week — in the classroom.” The story captured Ritz infectious energy, as he merrily reports, “What we’re seeing is kids coming in here, getting excited about healthy food — about vegetables. About beans. Who knew beans could be so exciting, but they are!”

This past Saturday, I heard a poignant story about Tia Tsosie Begay, a fourth-grade teacher from Tucson, Arizona, who lives out the Navajo culture’s sense of teachers as “’wisdom keepers,’ entrusted with the young to help them grow and learn.”

And sometime last week, I heard the story of Sam Venable, a band director at Langston Hughes Academy, a middle school in New Orleans. As the reporter noted, “if you take the time to talk with any of the locals making this music, you’ll learn pretty quickly that somewhere in their history is a great teacher.” Sam Venable is one of these teachers.

NPR 50 great teachersThese stories are all part of NPR’s series: 50 Great Teachers.  Here’s how they introduced the series:

“This won’t be some kind of contest to name the best teachers in America. Or a ranking that says this teacher is better than that one. Instead we’ll use it to celebrate teachers past and present (mostly present), famous or not. We’ll be looking for personal stories about how a teacher can change the lives of students. Or just one student. At the same time, we’ll use this project as an opportunity to do some reporting on what makes a great teacher, and how teaching can and should be be taught. And, we’ll take a hard look at the big question of What, exactly, is great teaching?”

While I’ve caught a few of these stories, I’ve never really focused on them. Tonight, I went online to hear the whole story of Stephen Ritz and discovered many other inspiring stories about remarkable teachers.

Check them out, you’ll be glad you did.