Six months into her post as National Teacher of the Year, Rebecca Mieliwocki has traveled throughout California, to 11 states, and to Russia, China, Singapore and Japan.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” the Burbank Unified teacher said. “It’s been six months of traveling the world and the country meeting people, and speaking to people on an inspirational level.”
Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio and Indiana await her next — and possibly Australia — as she makes more than 200 speaking engagements before the end of her term.
While in China and Singapore, Mieliwocki — a seventh-grade English teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School — saw what she had heard to be true: educators teaching to the test and schools without art, drama, dance, music or sports.
“Just very bare bones core academics,” Mieliwocki said. “All they wanted to know was how we do what we do. It was a very happy moment to know we have something to be quite proud of and to keep at it.”